Quality and completeness scores for curated and non-curated datasets

These data contain aggregated survey responses assessing the quality and completeness of metadata for datasets deposited in public repositories and for the same datasets after professional curation.Responses were provided by 10 professional editors representing life, social and physical sciences. Each were randomly assigned four datasets to assess, half (20) of which had been curated according to the standards of Springer Nature's Research Data Support service and half (20) which had not.Curated datasets were shared privately with research participants. The versions that did not receive curation via Springer Nature's Research Data Support are openly accessible.Single-blind testing was employed; the researchers were not made aware which datasets had been curated and which had not, and it was ensured that no participant assessed the same dataset before and after curation. Responses were collected via an online survey. The relevant question and scoring is provided below:Rate the overall quality and completeness of the metadata for the dataset (with regards to finding and accessing and citing the data, not reusing the data)1 = not complete, 5 = very complete