Original datasets can be published in data journals. These are thereby different to classic specialist research journals in which the research data on which the article is founded are rarely published but sometimes stored as supplementary material. The aim is to inform the research community about their existence and reusability.
Data journals thereby promote both the reuse of research data and its recognition as a research achievement. With data journals, the transparency of research methods and results should be improved, good data management practices supported and long-term access to datasets made available. The data are archived in journal-internal or external repositories. Data descriptions and the research article can also be published.

A complete data description and explanation of the collection is the central point of focus, rather than interpreting the data. Data journals are purely online media and access to them ranges from closed to Open Access. Some data journals go even further and use interactive Open Peer Review procedures for quality assurance.
In general, a data paper contains the following elements:

• Access to the dataset itself as attached files or a permanent link to a repository.
• A detailed description (metadata) of the dataset (production context, authors, attached rights, etc.).

At the moment we are not aware of a comprehensive overview of data journals or search possibilities. You can find some data journals or rubrics in established specialist journals, in which datasets are introduced, here:

• data journals at forschungsdaten.org
• data journals of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• data journals at Western Michigan University Libraries