Should you publish your data or shouldn't you? And if so, which part of it? Sometimes this question is rather straightforward to answer. For example, due to research funders' demands. Or because you strongly believe it is not up to you to withhold any latent knowledge hidden in your data from future researchers.

Even so, not all data are created equal and data publishing does involve an investment of time and money. Some datasets have a more obvious reuse potential than others. By following the arguments below (Tjalsma and Rombouts, 2011) you can see for yourself whether (part of) your dataset is an obvious candidate for data publication.

If your data are not 'good to go' at this point but do have re-use potential, do not worry. Most of the time it is not too late to document your data properly and address other issues like gaining consent for sharing retrospectively (see 'Informed Consent').