Biodiversity Data Sharing: Will Peer-Reviewed Data Papers Work?

The authors discuss the public sharing of biodiversity and ecology research data, focusing on a report by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) which called for public domain publishing of peer-reviewed biodiversity data papers. They address several issues raised by the GBIF proposal, including the interest of professional and citizen science researchers in sharing data, the availability of peer reviewers for data papers and related research papers, and costs of data publication.