The Dataverse Network, based at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences (IQSS), has undertaken a collaborative grant-funded project to provide Dataverse integration within OJS. Although OJS allows for the publication of supplementary files alongside articles, it previously had no special provision for the review, publication, or presentation of common research data formats, and any journal which does not specifically request its authors to upload data files alongside published articles would lack for facilitation.

The product of this collaboration comes in the form of an OJS 2.4.x plugin, which demonstrates exemplary use of the workflow hooks within OJS and the data exposed by the Dataverse platform to provide a cohesive user experience which harmonizes data between both platforms. This integration allows journals to facilitate data sharing and archiving, allowing authors to be able to deposit their research data at the same time as their article. This streamlines the data submission process and provides an indexed, permanent identifier for published data.

In keeping with OJS’ focus on a robust scholarly workflow, Dataverse integration allows for consistent editorial policies to be applied to the submission and exposure of supplemental data; for example, data may or may not be subject to peer review, and in some cases it may be desirable to publish and provide an identifier to a dataset even when its corresponding article is rejected. It also allows embargoes of content as appropriate.

This work coincides with the increased use of Dataverse and other data repository platforms, as more researchers, funding bodies, and universities advocate for the continued availability of original research data to facilitate sound, reproducible research -- from the perspective of intellectual property or meta-analysis. The work has been undertaken jointly by IQSS and PKP, with the former providing design direction in consultation with their community, and the latter providing technical expertise and development time. This will be our first major milestone for a functional version of the software; we continue to actively solicit feedback and testing expertise from interested members of the community.

OJS Journal integration with the Dataverse Network will be available for any OJS journal that wishes to implement easy data sharing and archiving, and enhance their published articles with links to data.