Microplastics Research Data: Evaluating the Current State of Findability and Accessibility and Recommendations for Improving Data Sharing
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Date
2022-12-16
Authors
Jenkins, Tia
Persaud, Bhaleka
Cowger, Win
Szigeti, Kathy
Roche, Dominique
Clary, Erin
Slowinski, Stephanie
Lei, Benjamin
Abeynayaka, Amila
Nyadjro, Ebenezer
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
With concerns about microplastic pollution increasing, actionable research is needed to inform funding priorities, environmental policy, and mitigation strategies. It is therefore crucial that the corresponding research data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). To investigate the findability and accessibility of microplastics data and data management practices within the community, we analyzed a stratified random sample of peer-reviewed microplastics articles, as well as microplastics datasets in online data repositories. Of the subset of 785 microplastics articles extracted from the 6608 articles indexed in the Web of Science, only 28.5% had a data sharing statement. The statements further revealed that, most often, data were provided in the supplementary material (38.8%) with only 13.8% of the statements directing the reader to data stored in a digital repository. Notwithstanding the 6608 microplastics articles in the Web of Science, only 279 datasets were found across ten different repositories. While the annual number of datasets shared in repositories has increased with time, this growth is still lagging behind that of the number of publications. Furthermore, of the datasets identified, 20.4% required additional approval to access the data. Moreover, many datasets lacked adequate metadata: 15.4% of the datasets did not report a sampling location and 18.2% did not report the type of environmental media or matrix of the microplastic particles. These results highlight the significant efforts that are needed to improve the long-term availability and accessibility of microplastics data. We offer five recommendations based on the insights of this study to strengthen data sharing and data management practices within the microplastics research community.
Description
Conference slides given at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting on December 16, 2022 by Stephanie Slowinski on behalf of all co-authors. Slides were shared in the session: H56D - Plastics in the Hydrosphere: From Source to Sink V Oral.
Conference abstract link: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm22/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1151357
Conference presentation based on "Current State of Microplastic Pollution Research Data: Trends in availability and sources of open data" published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.912107
Keywords
microplastics, data availability, FAIR data principles, bibliometric assessment, GWF AOSM 2023