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Data sharing policy

We are fully supportive of academic data sharing and support the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets) principles. In the humanities and social sciences data sharing can support transparency of research methods, allow others to build on published work, and provide credit to the data creator in the form of citations. We acknowledge that data cannot always be shared due to reasons of confidentiality, consent or legality especially when working with sensitive data or vulnerable populations.

Where appropriate we encourage all authors to include a data availability statement to accompany their article. When using data in your article, the author(s) take(s) responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the analysis. Your statement should either:

  1.  provide a link to all the data and/or materials, or
  2. explain that data and materials will be shared if the manuscript is accepted for publication, or
  3. explain why data and/or materials cannot be shared.

 

All our journals encourage authors to share their data and materials via a public repository. When you submit a manuscript to the journal, you will have the opportunity to enter a Data Availability Statement. If your article is based on data (either qualitative or quantitative) you can include details of their availability within the Data Availability Statement.

The journal Evidence & Policy expects that authors share their data and materials via a public repository. Sharing data and materials, or providing an adequate explanation why they cannot be shared, is a condition of publication for articles in this journal.  For all our other journals, we support data sharing but do not mandate it.

What do we mean by data?

In this policy, "data" refers to the actual qualitative or quantitative data upon which a study's claims are based. It includes evidence, sources, interviews and survey responses. In some cases data cannot be shared because doing so would violate ethical or legal requirements. In such cases, it is acceptable not to share data, however the data availability statement should explain why they cannot be shared.

What are materials?

In this policy, "materials" refers to the materials used to collect the data (e.g. surveys, interview guides) and the materials used to analyse the data (e.g. computer code, qualitative codebooks). Generally materials are not subject to ethical or legal restrictions and therefore can usually be shared. In the case that materials cannot be shared, the data availability statement should explain why they cannot be shared.

How to write your data availability statement

When including data in your paper we expect the authors to take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the analysis.

Your data availability statement should inlude:

  • information on what data is available and where the data can be found, including
  • persistent identifiers where available (e.g. DOIs, Accession Numbers),
  • common names or identifiers for repositories and/or institutions (e.g. ROR Research Organisation Registry or Ringgold name), and
  • details of licensing restrictions and access requirements (e.g. registration required).

 

These are some examples of appropriate data availability statements:

  • “Data and materials supporting this study are available in <REPOSITORY NAME WITH URL LINK> at <DOI LINK(S) TO DATA AND MATERIALS> reference number [ref number]. Registration required for access. ”
  • “Data supporting the findings of this study are available in <REPOSITORY NAME WITH URL LINK> at <DOI LINK TO DATA>, reference number [ref number]. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: <LIST RESOURCES AND URLs>"
  • “Data and materials will be shared via a public repository <REPOSITORY NAME WITH URL LINK> pending acceptance."
  • “Data cannot be shared to preserve respondents' confidentiality, however materials are available at <LINK TO MATERIALS AT PUBLIC REPOSITORY>"
  • “Data supporting the findings will be available in <REPOSITORY NAME WITH URL LINK> at <URL / DOI LINK TO DATA> following an embargo from the date of publication to allow for commercialisation of research findings.”
  • “Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.”
  • “Data sharing is not available due to confidentiality agreements with organisations involved in this study” (this could be because for example HM Prison and Probation Service do not allow interview data to be publicly shared).“Data sharing is not available due to [authors to provide reason]. If you would like more information about the nature of the data, please contact the corresponding author” (this allows scholars to request more information even if the data itself cannot be shared)

 

These are some examples of inappropriate data availability statements:

  • "Data and materials are not shared." This statement is inappropriate because it does not explain why data cannot be shared.
  • "Data and materials are available at <AUTHOR'S WEBSITE>." This statement is inappropriate because data and materials must be shared on an independent repository.
  • "Data and materials will be shared following an embargo." This statement is inappropriate because data and materials must be shared no later than the time of acceptance for publication.
  • "Data and materials cannot be shared to preserve respondents confidentiality." This statement is inappropriate because, although data may not be sharable due to confidentiality, the non-confidential research materials used to collect and/or analyze the data usually can be shared."

 

Information on repositories and data sharing

Choosing a repository Many disciplines will have recommended or commonly used repositories so we suggest asking colleagues, your subject librarian or department head for their recommendations.

You can also use fairsharing.org or re3data.org which are global registries of research data repositories to find appropriate academic discipline repositories. On re3data.org you can identify repositories providing persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs) by looking for the blue icon or filtering your search by PID (persistent identifier).

Some commonly used repositories are:

 

Formatting your data Using a recommended format for your data can help other researchers to use it. For suggestions please click here.

Sharing data with reviewers during peer review You can share your data anonymously with reviewers while your article is in peer review. For an example please click here.

If you have questions about the journal’s sharing expectations or the data availability statement, please contact the editorial office before finalising your submission. You can find a brief guide to sharing data and materials using the Open Science Framework repository at https://osf.io/9mu7r.