At the end of April 2023, the American Journal of Natural Products announced in its editorial that it will require authors to make NMR data public and fairly available as raw data starting in June 2023. The journal specifies that the repository must follow FAIR principles. In addition, the journal recommends four repositories where NMR data can be meaningfully stored.
The journal does not specify which repository the data must be stored in. Nor does it make any broader specifications. Thus, it seems to be important to the journal to give authors as much freedom as possible in choosing repositories. However, the fact that at least the raw data on which a published article is based must be made available FAIR is a clear step towards more FAIRness in scientific discourse.
Trend towards FAIR data
Even though the Journal of Natural Products’ decision is not yet part of the mainstream, a tendency can be identified that has already been scientifically studied. There is a clear trend among publishers toward requirements for FAIRer data publication in scientific publishing.
We are particularly pleased that nmrXiv.org, a repository developed and operated by NFDI4Chem together with the University of Jena and NMRium, is recommended.
Image Attribution: SangyaPundir, CC BY-SA 4.0.
