Article type spotlight: Data Notes

Research impact isn’t measured solely by research findings — the data behind your research holds tremendous value. Data Notes provide HRB-funded researchers with a dedicated publication format to showcase datasets that might otherwise remain underutilised.

By documenting your dataset in a structured, peer-reviewed format, you create new opportunities for scientific discovery beyond your original research questions. This approach turns raw information into a discoverable, citable resource that extends your research impact.

In the following blog post, we outline why you should consider publishing a Data Note, what you should include, and an example published on HRB Open Research.

Why should I publish a Data Note?

In addition to depositing your research data in a data repository, you can publish a Data Note — a short, peer-reviewed article describing how and why you created a dataset and where it can be found. Publishing a Data Note offers several benefits, including making your data discoverable, usable, and reproducible.

Data Notes include information on the dataset rationale, protocol, validation details, and a link to the dataset, having made it available in a publicly accessible data repository. Information about any limitations of the dataset and information on how to access the dataset will be given in a data availability statement that accompanies the Data Note. They don’t include analyses or conclusions, but they promote the discoverability and potential reuse of the research data by providing a detailed description. Data Notes credit data producers with citable, peer-reviewed publications and support new research collaborations across disciplines.

How to prepare a data availability statement

A data availability statement is required when submitting a Data Note. It tells the reader how, where, and under what conditions the data associated with your research can be accessed and reused.

Your data availability statement should refer to all data associated with your article and details of any software you used to process results. Your data availability statement could include up to four sections, depending on the types of data use. If any of the following categories apply to the data included in your Data Note, you must include them in your statement.

Source data: This is data you have not collected as part of your study but used for analysis. Source data includes data that you have obtained from a third party.

Extended data: Additional materials that support the key claims in your Article but are not required to follow the study design and analysis. Examples of extended data include questionnaires and supporting images or tables. You should upload extended data to an online repository.

Underlying data: Underlying data is collected or produced as part of your study. You should upload any underlying data to a suitable online repository.

Reporting guidelines: Where mandatory reporting guidelines apply, you should upload a copy of the relevant guidelines to an online repository.

We recommend uploading all data (except third-party data) to an approved online repository as a single dataset, which you can then cite throughout your article and in the data availability statement. If you have multiple data deposits, you will need to list them all as individual datasets.

For repository-hosted data, your data availability statement should also include the following:
– Repository name
– Title of the dataset
– DOI
– List of all data items (including the full file name and a description of its contents)
– Appropriate data license

Data Notes on HRB Open Research

Data availability statements are vital to Data Notes on HRB Open Research. Below, we highlight an example of a Data Note published on the Platform and provide insight into the accompanying data availability statement.

Cohort profile update: The Cork and Kerry Diabetes and Heart Disease Study.

The Cork and Kerry Diabetes and Heart Disease Study aims to investigate the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease among middle-aged adults in Ireland, with a rescreen conducted in 2015 that included new measures on cognition, frailty, and gut microbiome analysis. This Data Not outlines the data collected from of rescreen. revealing a high prevalence of hypertension and highlighted the association between gut microbiota diversity and metabolic health, as well as concerns regarding potentially inappropriate prescribing among older adults.

Read the full Data Note here.

Data availability statement for Cohort profile update: The Cork and Kerry Diabetes and Heart Disease Study.

Looking at the data availability statement for the above Data Note, we can see that there are some restrictions on the data, which means it cannot be fully shared. The authors also outline where the data is stored, the resources available to others while ensuring participant confidentiality, and who to contact for access.

If you want to learn more about Data Notes, view our Data Notes guidelines.