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 underutilized. 

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, along with 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 has many benefits, such as 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 promote the research data’s discoverability and potential reuse 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 tells the reader how, where, and under what conditions the data associated with your research can be accessed and reused. You can find more information on our data policy here.  
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: Extended data are additional materials that support the key claims made 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 
– Data license – HRB Open Research requires authors to apply CC0 Public Domain Dedication, CC-BY 4.0 license or equivalent to your data.  

Data Notes on HRB Open Research 

Data availability statements are vital to Data Notes on HRB Open Research. Below, we highlight a Data Note published on the platform and provide examples of their accompanying data availability statements. 

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

The Cork and Kerry Diabetes and Heart Disease Study was established to investigate the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease among middle-aged adults in Ireland. The Mitchelstown cohort was recruited from a single large primary care centre between 2010–2011. A rescreen of this cohort was conducted in 2015. 

By making this data available in a structured and analyzable format, the authors provide a clear description of what data exists and how it was collected, for example, changes in measurement protocols between baseline (2010-2011) and rescreen (2015-2017), as well as the addition of new research domains and updated participant characteristics and response rates.  

The format offers transparency and accessibility, inviting new collaborations with explicit contact information and comprehensive variable lists and coding manuals available on request.  

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, there are some restrictions on the data which mean it cannot be fully shared. The authors have clearly defined the reasons and where appropriate, the actions taken to share it to its fullest, including anonymization of identifiable data. This controlled access model prioritizes participant protection while maintaining research utility through managed collaborations, reflecting responsible data stewardship practices for sensitive health information from a small, identifiable population. 

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

And if you’re ready to join the thousands of HRB-funded researchers already publishing their work with HRB Open Research, submit your research for publication today.