Figure 1.

The life cycle of scientific data. Phase 0 refers to the planning: from the problem definition, scientists will generate a hypothesis and will develop the proper design of experiments and a data management plan. Phase 1: scientists will search in data repositories and in literature for answers to their questions and, if this is not enough, will produce the specific data set. Then, they will use specific metadata to structure/describe the data. Thereafter, this structured data can be processed. Phase 2 refers to the (re-)use, share, preservation, and data reusability. After processing, the scientists will ask specific questions concerning the data and will analyze it accordingly. They can also choose a repository to store the data. Then, they can share and/or publish the data in order to preserve it and allow others to reuse it (or reuse it themselves in the future). This allows for multiple analyses of the same data set.