Open access and data sharing in cancer stem cells research

Understanding and targeting cancer stem cells (CSC) are areas of active research in oncology and further dissemination of scientific results is urgently needed to accelerate the comprehension of their involvement in tumor heterogeneity, resistance to conventional therapies and metastasis. In the context of open science, open access and data sharing, the aim of this study is to assess the current practices of cancer researchers in terms of publications and dissemination of research data.

A bibliometric study was conducted based on a bibliographic search using the Web of Science, and CSC articles with at least one Spanish affiliation were retrieved. A comparative study of the openness criteria of the journals was carried out, as well as an analysis of the associated data attached to the articles as supplementary material or deposited in repositories.

708 documents from 282 journals were retrieved. 303 articles contained associated research data, mostly published in Q1 journals, demonstrating a correlation between impact journals and their commitment to quality improvement. Supplementary material was the preferred method of data sharing, being pdf the most used file type. Only 69 articles mentioned datasets deposited in repositories, mainly from genomic nature. The main cancers studied were digestive and gastrointestinal, neurological, breast, hematological and respiratory, which coincided with the tumor types with the highest incidence and mortality, and in which the presence of CSC has been described.

Researchers and publishers have become more aware of open science practices, but there is still a need for data quality according to the FAIR principles.