Supplemental Material 2: Email templates for requesting data

Initial email. When this email generated a Ôdelivery failedÕ report we searched online for an alternative email for the corresponding author.

Dear Dr X (corresponding author),

We are part of a group based at the University of British Columbia that is conducting a meta-analysis of population differentiation studies. We are currently working our way through some recent papers that used STRUCTURE for this purpose, and weÕd therefore be pleased if you could send us the STRUCTURE input file used in your PLoS One/BMC Ev. Biol. paper (XXX et al; eXXXXX).

Many thanks for your help Ð please donÕt hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Sincerely,Ê

Sebastien Renaut
Thor Veen
Rose Andrew
Brook Moyers
Diana Rennison
Kimberly Gilbert
Sam Yeaman
Jean-Sebastien Moore
Dan Bock
Nolan Kane
Michelle Franklin


Follow-up email sent one week later if no response to our initial email was received:

Dear XYZ,

We tried contact you last week- we are gathering recent datasets which have used the program STRUCTURE from several journals including BMC Evol. Biol. / PlosONE. The obtained datasets will be re-analyzed according to the details provided in the original article, and the repeatability of the results will be assessed. We wish to make general recommendations to the community regarding optimal formats for data sharing and guidelines on how to appropriately report details of a STRUCTURE analysis. Our analysis will not identify individual studies specifically, but will instead focus on overall patterns and trends.

Please note that it is PLoS ONE/BMC Evol Biol editorial policy that authors make their datasets available for academic research (http://www.plosone.org/static/policies.action#sharingÊ/Êhttp://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcevolbiol/about).

Thank you for your help and interest in our study.

Sebastien Renaut
Thor Veen
Rose Andrew
Brook Moyers
Diana Rennison
Kimberly Gilbert
Sam Yeaman
Jean-Sebastien Moore
Dan Bock
Nolan Kane
Michelle Franklin


Response to requests for more information:

Dear XYZ,
We are gathering recent datasets that used the program STRUCTUREÊfrom several journals including BMC Evol. Biol. / PlosONE. The obtained datasets will be re-analyzed according to the details provided in the original article, and the repeatability of the results will be assessed.ÊWe wish to make general recommendations to the community regarding optimal formats for data sharing and guidelines on how to appropriately report details of a STRUCTURE analysis. Note that our analysis will not identify individual studies specifically, but will instead focus on overall patterns and trends.

Thank you for your help and interest in our study.

Sincerely,Ê

Sebastien Renaut
Thor Veen
Rose Andrew
Brook Moyers
Diana Rennison
Kimberly Gilbert
Sam Yeaman
Jean-Sebastien Moore
Dan Bock
Nolan Kane
Michelle Franklin


Second follow-up email sent two weeks after our initial email if no response was received; this email ccÕd either the senior author or the first author, depending on the identity of the corresponding author.

Dear XYZ,

We're trying to contact the authors of your recent paper in PLoS One / BMC Evolutionary Biology. We are gathering recent datasets that used the program STRUCTURE from a number of journals. The obtained datasets will be re-analyzed according to the details provided in the original article, and the repeatability of the results will be assessed. We wish to make general recommendations to the community regarding optimal formats for data sharing and guidelines on how to appropriately report details of a STRUCTURE analysis. Our analysis will not identify individual studies specifically, but will instead focus on overall patterns and trends.

Please note that it is PLoS ONE/BMC Evol Biol editorial policy that authors make their datasets available for academic research (http://www.plosone.org/static/policies.action#sharing / http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcevolbiol/about).

Thank you for your help and interest in our study.

Sebastien Renaut
Thor Veen
Rose Andrew
Brook Moyers
Diana Rennison
Kimberly Gilbert
Sam Yeaman
Jean-Sebastien Moore
Dan Bock
Nolan Kane
Michelle Franklin