ResearchDataWiki

MeSH ID: n/a

Description:
A non-destructive analytical technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials. XRF analyzers determine the chemistry of a sample by measuring the fluorescent (or secondary) X-ray emitted from a sample when it is excited by a primary X-ray source. Each of the elements present in a sample produces a set of characteristic fluorescent X-rays (“a fingerprint”) that is unique for that specific element.

Best practice for sharing this type of data:
Outputs may be organized as Tabular data listing the concentration of each chemical component of the sample. Tabular data should be saved as a .txt or .csv file. The first row(s) should contain information about the dataset, such as the data file name, author, today's date, when the data within the file were last modified, and companion file names. Please also state which symbol has been used to denote missing data (NA is preferred). Column headings should describe the content of each column and contain only numbers, letters, and underscores - no spaces or special characters. Lowercase letters are preferred. Row names should be consistent with those used in the article and in other related datasets.

Most suitable repositories:
Data may be added to repositories such as Biological Magnetic Resonance Databank, CaltechDATA, Carbohydrate Structure Database, EPA Comptox Chemicals Dashboard, Metabolights, MolMeDB: Molecules on Membranes Database, PANGAEA, nmrshiftdb2, and Protein Data Bank in Europe.

Best practice for indicating re-use of existing data:
For public datasets please provide a DOI or other stable identified for the dataset itself *and* include a citation for the dataset in the reference list. Be sure to indicate exactly which data has been re-used, particularly when multiple versions of the dataset exist. In many cases, this is best achieved by sharing the code used to extract the part of the data that you analyzed. In some cases it may be best to share the exact dataset(s) you analyzed as well.

For access-controlled data authors should provide a link to instructions for obtaining access (e.g. here is the information page for ADNI (Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative): http://adni.loni.usc.edu/data-samples/access-data/).

When re-using a private dataset from a previous study please contact the data owners to discuss how the data can be made public.