Exploration of Options for Publishing Databases and Supplementary Material in Society Journals.

As scientific information becomes increasingly more abundant, there is increasing interest among members of our societies to share databases. These databases have great value, for example, in providing long-term perspectives of various scientific problems and for use by modelers to extend the information beyond the exact time and location from which the data were originally extracted. In addition, more journals are requiring authors to reduce the length of their papers and provide supporting information as supplementary material. However, publishing databases and supplementary materials often raises questions concerning (1) what types of data sets or supplementary material should be published, (2) what format should be used, (3) where should this information be archived, (4) what level of peer review is necessary, (5) who owns the dataset, (6) can datasets be updated, (7) how accessible should this type of information be, and (8) what are the costs involved? This presentation by the Editors-in-Chief of each society will provide an overview of potential answers to these questions and provide time for audience feedback.