In a significant step forward for Open Science in the field of high-energy physics (HEP), CERN and its partners have launched a new beta feature on the INSPIRE platform that enables researchers to directly discover, access, and cite scientific datasets. This development represents an important advancement in making research outputs beyond traditional publications more discoverable and citable.

Advancing Open Science Principles

The new data collection feature aligns perfectly with core Open Science principles by promoting transparency, reproducibility, and proper attribution for all research outputs. By making datasets directly searchable and linking them to publications that cite them, INSPIRE is helping to establish datasets as first-class research objects that deserve recognition in their own right.

Research data is a fundamental output of the scientific process, often representing years of work and significant investments. By making these datasets more discoverable and encouraging proper citation practices, INSPIRE is helping researchers receive appropriate credit for all aspects of their scientific contributions.

Breaking Down Research Silos

One of the key challenges in Open Science is the fragmentation of research outputs across different platforms and repositories. The integration of HEPData content into INSPIRE represents an important step in connecting these previously siloed resources, creating a more cohesive research ecosystem.

The platform’s approach of linking datasets to publications, authors, and institutions helps to create a comprehensive view of the research landscape. This interconnectivity enables researchers to discover related works more easily and to better understand the full impact of research data.

Building a Citation Culture for Datasets

Citation practices for non-traditional research outputs like datasets have lagged behind those established for journal articles and books. INSPIRE’s new feature explicitly shows citation counts for datasets, helping to normalize the practice of citing datasets separately from their associated publications.

This approach encourages researchers to properly acknowledge the data they use, providing appropriate credit to data creators and enabling better tracking of data reuse throughout the scientific community.

Future Expansion

While currently focused on datasets from HEPData in this beta release, the INSPIRE team plans to expand the collection to include additional data sources and software repositories in the future. This gradual expansion will help establish best practices for different types of research outputs while maintaining high-quality metadata and connections.

About INSPIRE

INSPIRE is a trusted community hub that helps researchers share and find accurate scholarly information in high-energy physics. It serves as a one-stop information platform for the HEP community, comprising 8 interlinked databases on literature, conferences, institutions, journals, researchers, experiments, jobs, and now data.

Run in collaboration by CERN, DESY, Fermilab, IHEP, IN2P3, and SLAC, INSPIRE has been serving the scientific community for almost 50 years. Previously known as SPIRES, it was the first website outside Europe and the first database on the web. Close interaction with the user community and with arXiv, ADS, HEPData, ORCID, PDG, and publishers is the backbone of INSPIRE’s evolution.

The new data collection feature represents a natural evolution of INSPIRE’s mission to support the HEP community with comprehensive, interconnected scholarly information resources that advance Open Science practices in the field.

You can read more about the functionalities of the feauture on the INSPIRE blog or try it out directly on the INSPIRE website.