Los datos pueden ser más importantes que las publicaciones: hay que hacerlos valer

Research data are considered the raw material for acquiring scientific knowledge for articles and decision-making process. There is a believe that once research finished and papers are published, data loss value and can be disposal or keep in forgotten corners, invisibles and inaccessible for any other scientist. This is a shallow view that ignores the reality that data is one of the most valuable results in science, with additional values that raise them to even more important place than papers. But for getting this value a series of steps and procedures should be followed from matrix structure or file ordering, documentation with proper metadata, selection and assignment of licenses and digital identification or their publication as data papers. In current review, some of these practices are discussed to reinforce ecological research data values, due to the generalized ignorance on current available infrastructure and method to secure their available, retrieval, and use for all time. To do that, I answer the basic questions of why? why for? how? where? and when? I ended by making a call for a vision change from current focus on data. A new emerging vision includes more efforts directed to Data organization and documentation for data sharing, along with the papers.