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Data in Brief article template Version 10 (August 2021)

Before you complete this template, a few important points to note:

 There are two ways to submit a data article to Data in Brief:

o Directly to the journal: If you choose this route, you can skip the supporting
article instructions on the following page and move directly to the data article
template on page 3.

o Alongside a research article that you are submitting to a separate Elsevier

journal: Please read the supporting article instructions on page 2 before you
complete this template.

 Whichever submission option you choose, it’s important to double check that your
manuscript meets the data article criteria on our webpage: What Data are Suitable for
Data in Brief.

 The format of a data article is different from that of a traditional research article. To help
you write yours, we have created a template on page 3. We will only consider data
articles submitted using this template.

 It is mandatory to publicly share the research data referred to in your Data in Brief
article (you will find information on our data sharing criteria in the template).

 Please consult the Data in Brief Guide for Authors when preparing your manuscript; it
highlights mandatory requirements and is packed with useful advice. We have also
developed a step-by-step video guide to help you complete this template accurately and
increase your chances of acceptance.

Still have questions?

 Visit our FAQ page

 Email our Scientific Editors at dib-me@[Link]

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Supporting article instructions
Data articles support original research. They improve research integrity and reproducibility by
making the data available and discoverable and reduce unwanted duplication of research. A
supporting data article can be submitted to the same journal as your original research article.
Alternatively, a supporting article can be submitted directly to Data in Brief following acceptance
of your original research.

I want to submit my supporting data article at the same time as my original research
article: You can find out whether your chosen Elsevier journal offers submission of supporting
data articles by viewing its Guide for Authors. In addition, any revision letter/email you receive
from a participating journal will contain an offer to submit a data article to Data in Brief.

Submission is completed in two steps:

1. Zip your completed data article, and all other files relevant to your Data in Brief
submission (including any supplementary data files), into a single .zip file.
2. Upload this .zip file as a “Data in Brief”-labelled item to the editorial system of the journal
you are submitting your original research to.

The .zip file is automatically transferred to Data in Brief when your research article is accepted
for publication in the other journal. And if your Data in Brief article is also published, the two will
link to each other on ScienceDirect.

I want to submit my supporting data article following acceptance of my original research

article: In this case, you can submit directly to Data in Brief’s submission system. Please note
that the article template asks for the details of your accepted manuscript so that we can link
your original research article with your supporting data article.

Please use the article template to write your data article: Regardless of when you choose to
submit your supporting article, please use the article template on page 3.

 Step 1 – Write
Fill in the template provided on page 3. The template shows you exactly what reviewers
are looking for in your data article.
 Step 2 – Share
Make your data accessible by including it in the article and by posting it to one of the
repositories we support, such as Mendeley Data.
 Step 3 – Submit
Submit directly to Data in Brief or together with your original research article.

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Data article template
Please fill in the template below. As you complete each section, it is important to carefully read
the associated instructions, which you will find in italicised text.

Please delete this line and everything above it before submitting your article. In addition,
we ask you to delete the instructions, including those featured in the Article Information
and Specifications table.
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Article information

Article title
The article title must include the word ‘data’ or ‘dataset’. Please avoid acronyms and
abbreviations where possible. Where your data article supports an original research article, the
title should differ from the title used in your research paper.

Authors
List all authors. Please mark the corresponding author with (*).

Affiliations
Please include the full address of each author institution.

Corresponding author’s email address and Twitter handle

Institutional email address preferred.
If you have a Twitter handle, please add it here ‘twitter: @....’

Keywords
Include 4-8 keywords (or phrases) to help others discover your article online. Avoid repeating
words used in your title.

Abstract
The abstract should describe the data collection process, the analysis performed, the data, and
their reuse potential. It should not provide conclusions or interpretive insights. Minimum length
100 words / maximum length 500 words. If your article is being submitted via another Elsevier
journal as a co-submission, please cite that research article in the abstract.

Tip: Do not use words such as ‘study’, ‘results’ and ‘conclusions’ – a data article should only
describe your data.

Specifications table

Every section of this table is mandatory. Please enter information in the right-hand column and
remove all the instructions in grey, italicised text.

Subject Please select a Subject Area from the list available at: DIB categories.

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 Specific Briefly describe the specific subject area. Max 150 characters.
subject area
Type of data We want to understand the type(s) of data this article describes. Delete any
description from the list that does not apply. If your data type is not featured,
please manually add it.

Table
Image
Chart
Graph
Figure

How the data State how the data were acquired: e.g., via microscope, SEM, NMR, mass
were acquired spectrometry, etc. If it was via a survey, you must submit a copy of that
survey as supplementary material. If the survey is not written in English,
please provide an English-language translation.

Please also provide information on the instruments used to acquire your

data (e.g., hardware, software, program), including any relevant make and
model details. Also, provide a brief description of the methods or protocols
used for collecting data.

Data format List your data format(s). Please submit all primary raw data alongside your
data article or provide a link to a repository where it is hosted. Delete any
descriptions from the list that do not apply. If your data format is not
featured, please manually add it.

Raw
Analyzed
Filtered

Description of Provide a brief description of the conditions that were used for data
data collection collection. Describe the factors/samples under study that were used to
generate data points and inclusion/exclusion criteria (if necessary). You may
also describe how the data were normalised. Max 400 characters.
Data source Provide the information requested below. If any of the bullet points do not
location apply, please delete them:

 Institution:
 City/Town/Region:
 Country:
 Latitude and longitude (and GPS coordinates, if possible) for
collected samples/data:

If you are describing secondary data, this is where you list the raw data
sources used.

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 Data All data referred to in your data article must be made publicly available
accessibility prior to publication.

 If you have raw data linked to charts, graphs or figures in your

manuscript, you can either share them with the data article (e.g., as
a supplementary file) or host them on a trusted data repository.
 If you are describing secondary data (data that has already been
collected through primary sources and made readily available for
researchers to use for their own research), you are required to
provide a list of the primary data sources used and make the full
secondary dataset publicly available, either with the data article (e.g.,
as a supplementary file) or via a trusted data repository.

Although we allow supplementary files, we recommend that you deposit

your data in a trusted data repository (>70% of Data in Brief authors now do
this). View our supported data repositories on [Link]. If you are
unsure about which repository to choose, we suggest Mendeley Data.

Please indicate here where your data are hosted. If you submitted them
‘With the article’ then leave that text in place below and remove the three
rows requesting public repository information. If your data are in a public
repository, then delete ‘With the article’ and complete the three public
repository rows.

With the article

Repository name:
Data identification number:
Direct URL to data: e.g., [Link] – the URL should be
working at the time of submission.

For data that require access controls for ethical reasons (e.g., patient data),
please describe how readers can request access. You must also provide a
link to any Data Use Agreement (DUA) with the proprietor of the data or
upload a copy as a supplementary file.

Instructions for accessing these data:

Important: if your data do have access controls, you must provide a
mechanism that allows our Editors and reviewers to access the data without
compromising their anonymity. Please include these instructions with your
submission. Contact the Scientific Editors (DIB-ME@[Link]) if you have
any questions.

Related If your data article supports an original research article, please cite the
research associated research article here. You should only list one article.
article
For a published article:
J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific
article, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2010) 51–59.

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 [Link]

For an article which has been accepted and is in press:

J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific
article, J. Sci. Commun. In Press.

If your data article is not related to a research article, please delete this
entire ‘Related research article’ row.

Value of the data

Provide up to 6 bullet points explaining why these data are of value to the scientific community.
At a minimum you must answer the first 3 bullet point questions below (then those questions
should be deleted). Please keep your points brief – ideally, each one should be no longer than
400 characters. Avoid any conclusions or inferences.
 Why are these data useful?
 Who can benefit from these data?
 How can these data be used/reused for further insights and/or development of
experiments?

Data description
Individually describe the data files that appear in this article (not the article it supports) e.g.,
figure 1, figure 2, table 1, dataset, raw data, supplementary data, etc. Please ensure you refer
to every file separately and provide a clear description for each one (do not just list them).
Legends should be included for tables, figures and graphs. No insights, interpretations,
background, or conclusions should appear in this section.

Tip: Do not forget to describe any supplementary data files.

Experimental design, materials and methods

Provide a complete description of the experimental design and methods used to acquire these
data. Include any programs or code files used for data filtering or analysis. It is important that
this section is as comprehensive as possible. If this is a co-submission, this section should
contain more detail than the corresponding section of your accompanying research article, and
it should be written in original text (i.e. do not copy it). There is no character limit; however, no
insights, interpretations, or background should be included.

Tip: Do not describe your data (figures, tables, etc.) here – you should have already done that
in the Data description section above.

Ethics statements

Data in Brief’s Guide for Authors contains detailed information on the ethical guidelines that all
authors must comply with. In addition, we ask you to complete the relevant statement(s) below.
Please delete those which are not relevant for your data.

If your work involved human subjects, please include a statement here confirming that the
relevant informed consent was obtained from those subjects and include the Ethical committee
and the protocol number.

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If your work involved animal experiments, please include a statement here confirming that
those experiments complied with the ARRIVE guidelines and were carried out in accordance
with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines; EU Directive
2010/63/EU for animal experiments; or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and
use of laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978). Note, the sex of the
animals must be indicated, and, where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the
results of the study.

If your work involved data collected from social media platforms, please include a
statement here confirming that a) informed consent was obtained from participants or that
participant data has been fully anonymized, and b) the platform(s)’ data redistribution policies
were complied with.

CRediT author statement

CRediT is an initiative that enables authors to share an accurate and detailed description of
their diverse contributions to a published work.

Example of a CRediT author statement:

Zhang San: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software Priya Singh: Data curation, Writing-
Original draft preparation. Wang Wu: Visualization, Investigation. Jan Jansen: Supervision.
Ajay Kumar: Software, Validation.: Sun Qi: Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

Please add a CRediT author statement for your data article here, using the categories listed on
this webpage.

Acknowledgments
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an
acknowledgments section.

In addition, please list any funding sources in this section. List funding sources in this standard
way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx,
yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United
States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa].

It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions of the program or type of grants and awards.
When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other
research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public,
commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Declaration of interests
Please tick the appropriate statement below and declare any financial interests/personal
relationships which may affect your work in the box below.

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☐ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be
considered as potential competing interests:

Please declare any financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as

potential competing interests here.

References
References are limited to a maximum of 20 and excessive self-citation is not allowed. Please
cite any article you have referred to while collecting or analysing data and preparing your
manuscript. If your data article supports an original research article which is published or
in press, please cite the associated article here; ideally, it should be the first citation.

Please review the References section in the Guide for Authors for a comprehensive guide to
Data in Brief reference style and then list your references below, numbering each one as you
go.

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Reminder: Before you submit, please delete all the

instructional text in italicised text, wherever it appears –
including here. Thank you!

And finally, we welcome your feedback on how we can

improve this template. Click here to provide anonymous
feedback via a very short survey.