DATA SHARING POLICY

This policy explains how authors make their data and materials available, and how they protect the people who take part in their research, such as informants, community members, and respondents. The journal values openness, and it balances openness with the protection of participants.

Policy at a Glance

Question	Answer
Basis of the Policy	Data and materials are shared upon reasonable request.
Data Availability Statement	Required for every research article.
Where the Statement Goes	In the Acknowledgments section.
Deposit in a Repository	Not required, but encouraged when it is ethically appropriate.
Sharing Data From Participants	Only when it is ethical, when participants cannot be identified, and when their consent allows it.
Peer Review of Data	Data are not peer reviewed. Authors are responsible for the soundness of their data.

1. Policy Basis

Topic	Description
Agreement of Authors	By submitting a manuscript, authors agree to share the supporting data and materials with other researchers upon reasonable request.
What Is Reasonable	Authors decide whether a request is reasonable. They consider the purpose of the request and the protection of participants.
Requests From Editors	This limit does not apply to editors. Authors must provide data to the editors during review, and after publication when an integrity concern is examined. See the Allegations of Misconduct procedure.
Keeping Data	Authors should keep their data for a reasonable period after publication.

2. Data Availability Statement

Every research article must include a Data Availability Statement. The article template has no separate section for it, so the statement is written in the Acknowledgments section, together with the statement of funding and the statement of competing interests (see Conflicts of Interest).

The Statement Must Say	Description
1. Availability	Whether the supporting data and materials are available.
2. Where and How	Where and how they can be obtained, for example in a repository with a persistent identifier, in supplementary files, or from the corresponding author.
3. Reason for Not Sharing	If the data cannot be shared, the reason, for example the protection of participants, the conditions of consent, or restrictions of an institution or a community.

Examples of statements

Available on request:
The anonymized data set that supports the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Deposited in a repository:
The data set and the research instruments are available in [name of the repository] at [DOI or persistent link].

Not available:
The interview recordings and transcripts cannot be shared, because the participants did not consent to the release of material from which they could be identified. The interview guide is provided as a supplementary file.

Included in the article:
All data that support the findings of this study are presented in the article.

3. Citing Data

Topic	Description
Which Data Sets	Authors must cite every data set that they use or refer to. This includes data sets that they created and deposited, and data from external sources.
Where to Cite	Data citations are placed in the list of references, in the format that is described in the Manuscript Preparation guidelines. A DOI or a persistent link is included when one exists.
External Sources	For external sources, such as national statistics, official records, archives, or existing databases, name the source and describe the conditions of access.

4. Ethical Limits and Protection of Participants

Data are shared only when this is ethically appropriate. Sharing is not required when it would violate the protection of participants, or when it raises ethical, privacy, or security concerns. The consent of participants must be respected. When participants are minors, the permission of their parents or guardians, and of the institution concerned, must cover the use and the sharing of the data.

4.1 Handling by Type of Data

Type of Data	How It Is Handled
Survey Responses and Questionnaires	Share in anonymized form. Remove names, identification numbers, contact details, and other direct identifiers. Check that small groups or combinations of attributes, such as village, community, age, occupation, or ethnic group, do not identify any person.
Interviews, Focus Groups, and Field Recordings	Usually not shared in full. Share anonymized excerpts, the coding scheme, or the interview guide. Share audio, video, or photographic records only with the clear consent of the participants.
Fieldnotes and Observation Records	Usually not shared in full, because they may contain identifying or sensitive details. Share anonymized excerpts, or a description of how the notes were coded.
Research Instruments	Questionnaires, interview guides, observation sheets, and coding manuals are encouraged as supplementary material, if the authors hold the right to publish them. See the section on third party material on the Licensing page.
Analysis Scripts and Software	Sharing is encouraged, so that others can check and repeat the analyses.
Data About Communities and Places	Share only when the people and places cannot be identified, or when they have agreed to be named. Material about sacred or culturally sensitive places, or about traditional knowledge, is shared only with the permission of the community concerned.

Confidentiality and AI tools. Data from participants must be kept confidential (see Publication Ethics). Authors must not upload the personal data of participants to generative AI tools (see Generative AI Policies).

5. Repositories and Licenses

The journal encourages authors to deposit data that can be shared in a trusted repository that assigns a persistent identifier, such as a DOI. Deposit is not required.

Examples of Repositories	Link
Zenodo	zenodo.org
Open Science Framework	osf.io
Figshare	figshare.com
Mendeley Data	data.mendeley.com
Institutional Repository	The repository of the university or the institution of the author.

Topic	Description
License of Deposited Data	Deposited data should carry a clear license, so that the terms of reuse are known.
License of the Journal	The CC BY 4.0 license of the journal covers the published article only. It does not cover data sets that are held separately. See Licensing.

6. Information at Submission

Topic	Description
Associated Data Set	State whether a data set is associated with the manuscript.
Identifier	If it is, provide a DOI, a preregistered DOI, a hyperlink, or another persistent identifier.
Where to Write It	Write this information in the comments to the editor in the submission form, and in the Data Availability Statement of the manuscript.
Preregistered DOI	Authors who give a preregistered DOI must provide the reviewer URL of their deposit when reviewers ask for it.
Supplementary Files	Upload supplementary files together with the manuscript.

7. Review and Responsibility

Topic	Description
No Formal Review of Data	Data sets are not formally peer reviewed. Authors are responsible for the soundness of their data, and an error in the data is the responsibility of those who produced it.
Requests by Reviewers	Reviewers may ask for the data or the materials that they need to evaluate the manuscript.
Errors After Publication	A significant error in the data that is found after publication is handled under the Correction and Retraction policy.
False Statements	A false Data Availability Statement, or the withholding of data without a legitimate reason when editors ask for it, may be handled under the Allegations of Misconduct procedure.

Related Pages and Enquiries

Page	Link
Manuscript Preparation	View the Manuscript Preparation page
Publication Ethics	View the Publication Ethics policy
Plagiarism and Research Integrity	View the Plagiarism and Research Integrity Policy
Licensing	View the Licensing page
Open Access Policy	View the Open Access Policy