Journals and Supplementary Data

Supplementary materials provide further information, explanation, or details that complement an article. These materials can include tables, figures, multimedia, and data. There is a growing interest in supplying these materials with an author’s work as possible storage is created for them. This paper discusses supplementary data as it applies to journals. It provides some examples of publishers’ policies regarding supplementary materials and what issues may surface with such policies. Changes in these policies are also discussed to portray the ways in which publishers are adapting to this growing interest in supplementary data. Data citation and storage, such as archiving in public repositories, is also explained.