Scientific rigour of published data: dealing with concerns

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7896759

Concerns are raised about the scientific rigour of a dataset, after publication. The flowchart offers data publishers, such as a journal or a data repository, a step by step guide on how to handle this process.

This flowchart has been developed by the FORCE11 and COPE Research Data Publishing Working Group.

Key points

Concerns may relate to errors or gaps in the dataset as a result of:

• Unintentional data errors
• Partially available datasets
• Data fabrication

Related resources

• Scientific rigour of unpublished data: dealing with concerns COPE flowchart
• Authorship and contributorship of unpublished data: dealing with concerns COPE flowchart 
• Authorship and contributorship of published data: dealing with concerns COPE flowchart 
• Legal and regulatory restrictions of unpublished data: dealing with concerns COPE flowchart
• Legal and regulatory restrictions of published data: dealing with concerns COPE flowchart
• Concerns about risk in unpublished data COPE flowchart
• Concerns about risk in published data COPE flowchart
• Recommendations for the handling of ethical concerns relating to the publication of research data Joint FORCE11 & COPE Research Data Publishing Ethics Working Group recommendations
• Policy template text for data publishers, journals and data repositories Joint FORCE11 & COPE Research Data Publishing Ethics Working Group templates