The Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences (RDJ) is a peer-reviewed journal, which is designed to comprehensively document and publish deposited datasets and to facilitate their online exploration.

RDJ is e-only and open access, and is the first and yet only Data Journal for the Social Sciences and the Humanities. The publication language is English.

RDJ contains data papers: scholarly publications of medium length (with a maximum of 2500 words) containing a description of a dataset and putting the data in a research context. Social science researchers who produce, archive and reuse research data are welcome to publish a data paper. As the journal is e-only and constantly being updated, papers can be submitted any time.

Peter Doorn (DANS): “The Research Data Journal will give researchers more credit for publishing data sets and provides an additional way to cite them via peer-reviewed articles.”

Louise Corti (UKDS): “RDJ contributes to transparency of research, accelerates dissemination and fosters reuse of scholarly data.”

How it works

Before publication a data paper is assessed by peer reviewers and data specialists. They will give feedback to the author and indicate the necessary improvements for acceptance. DANS is founder of RDJ and is responsible for the Editorial Board for the Humanities Section. For the Social Sciences Section, the Editorial Board is coordinated by the UK Data Service. For sub-fields specific Editorial Boards will be set up.

Data papers receive a persistent identifier (DOI). The author, usually also the data depositor, will receive publication credits. Datasets that underpin the submitted data papers should be formally published in a trusted digital archive or repository.

Have a glance at the papers here.

RDJ is published by Brill in collaboration with DANS.

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