6.5.3 OpenICPSR, a self-publishing platform for reproducibility materials (ICPSR, USA)

Context

The ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) is one of the oldest and largest social science data archives, with the history of running over 60 years. ICPSR is an international consortium of more than 810 academic institutions and research organizations, and is a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (United States of America).

One of the resources that shows the long-term and established attention to the link between data and textual publication is the ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature, which references the data in ICPSR data holdings. The listing of referenced articles on the landing page highlights the extent of data reuse. The catalogue, in addition to the fully curated collection, contains the references to the reproducibility materials that are deposited in the self-publishing platform OpenICPSR.

Features of OpenICPSR

Below are the complementary functions of OpenICPSR that suit the needs of authors who wish to publish an article’s supplementary data and analysis material:

  • a wide variety of object types, including code can be accepted;
  • the self-deposit repository entry can contain metadata only without any other digital object attached;
  • granular metadata descriptions that enables them to cite and describe each individual file;
  • low barriers to entry with respect to formats of data, quality and completeness of data and other digital material;
  • metadata and related readme files descriptions are responsibility of data depositor, it is possible to deposit the zip files that preserve the integrity of directories, file names and the analysis code;
  • the system allows for obtaining citation content in advance, so that it can be included in the published article references;
  • no delay for reviewing the content, no non-disclosure reviews, immediate publication possible;
  • flexible options to select among licence and access regimes, including controlled access to sensitive and restricted use data; and
  • the workflow enables the journal editors to review the submission.

From the perspective of the data curation, the following considerations and challenges are worth noting:

  • minimal curation efforts which result in different quality of the published data and related material, including metadata;
  • the author or data archivist can request the deposit to be included in the enhanced curated long-term digital preservation repository system;
  • the flexibility in volume of data, size, and number of files and their types can exceed the system constraints; and
  • timely releases in overcoming curation cues. 

Journal-specific considerations

One of the most notable examples of OpenICPSR collaboration with the journals is the hosting of the data sharing service for the American Economic Association (AEA) journals. The repository service policies are adaptable to the needs and requirements of a particular journal or hosting institutional repository. In case of AEA, the standard ICPSR self-deposit curation regime is enacted. In addition to this, AEA established its own Data and Code Availability Policy and related instructions. Detailed instructions are available in the  AEA Data Editor's step-by-step guide , with elaboration about how to prepare the replication package including the readme file containing the directory file structure allowing direct code execution. It elaborates on different scenarios such as when the confidential data cannot be published but replication script can still be verified. 

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