Incentivising best practice in research data sharing: Can we increase use and perception of value of data repositories with new solutions integrated in the publishing process?

We aim to have significantly increased the availability of research data associated with peer-reviewed publications in a Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) manner.  By pioneering the seamless integration of a data sharing tool into the scholarly publishing workflow and removing barriers, including cost, to researchers receiving data curation support, in the pathogens community, we aim to increase data repository use by at least 10%. We will also determine if prominent visual cues (links) on publications are an incentive for researchers to share research data in repositories without support from an integrated tool, and determine the ability of these visual cues to support data discoverability and reuse, in multiple communities. The outcomes will enable PLOS, and other scholarly publishers, to make evidence-based decisions about the costs and benefits of increasing sharing of research data in compliance with the FAIR data principles. This will enable Public Library of Science (PLOS) to determine suitability of rolling out these solutions more widely among its journals, which could potentially increase the availability of FAIR data more substantially. We will also understand the attitudes and experiences of researchers in the target community with these two data sharing solutions; determine if these attitudes change after implementation of the solutions, and potentially identify new opportunities to support data sharing and reuse that can be explored in future research or initiatives. The reported outcomes and any accompanying data, such as from user surveys, will be openly available to support decision making by funding agencies, publishers, researchers, institutions and infrastructure providers.