Research Data and Availability

AHRIE (Applied Health Research, Innovation & Education) promotes the responsible management, preservation, transparency, and availability of data supporting scholarly publications. The journal adopts the principle that data should be as open as possible and as protected as necessary.

Access to data supports verification of results, research reproducibility, scientific collaboration, and the generation of new knowledge. Openness must never compromise privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, participant safety, intellectual property, or ethical, legal, institutional, or contractual restrictions.

What are research data?

Research data include materials used or generated to obtain, analyze, and validate study findings. Depending on the nature of the work, they may include:

• quantitative or qualitative datasets;

• records, measurements, questionnaires, and instrument results;

• transcripts, codes, and analytical categories;

• images, photographs, audiovisual files, and laboratory results;

• protocols, analysis plans, and data dictionaries;

• computer code, algorithms, models, and analytical scripts;

• supplementary materials required to interpret or reproduce the study.

Mandatory Data Availability Statement

All research articles and manuscripts that generate or analyze data must include a Data Availability Statement.

The statement must indicate:

• whether the data are available;

• which data may be accessed;

• where they have been deposited;

• the link, DOI, or other persistent identifier;

• the conditions and procedure for access;

• the reasons for any restrictions;

• the period of availability, when applicable;

• the availability of related documents such as protocols, analysis plans, code, or data dictionaries.

The statement must be accurate and reflect the actual status of the data at the time of publication. Promises of availability that authors cannot fulfil will not be accepted.

Statement templates

1. Data available in a public repository:

“The data supporting the findings of this study are available in [repository name] at [DOI or permanent link], subject to the access conditions and license specified by the repository.”

2. Data available upon reasonable request:

“The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and subject to applicable ethical, legal, and institutional requirements.”

3. Restricted-access data:

“The data are not publicly available because of restrictions concerning participant privacy and confidentiality. Access requests may be submitted to [responsible person or institution] and will be assessed in accordance with applicable ethics approvals and regulations.”

4. Third-party data:

“The data analyzed in this study were obtained from [source or organization] and are subject to third-party restrictions. Access must be requested directly from [source, repository, or organization] in accordance with its conditions of use.”

5. Data included in the article:

“All relevant data supporting the findings are included in the article and its supplementary files.”

6. Manuscript that generated or analyzed no data:

“This work generated or analyzed no new research data. Data availability is therefore not applicable.”

Repository deposition

Whenever ethically and legally possible, AHRIE recommends depositing data in a trusted disciplinary, institutional, or general repository.

Authors should select repositories that:

• provide persistent identifiers, preferably DOIs;

• preserve data and metadata;

• support licenses and conditions for reuse;

• provide open, restricted, or request-based access mechanisms;

• maintain version and provenance information;

• comply with appropriate security and data-protection standards.

Personal links, temporary file-transfer services, or storage spaces without preservation guarantees are not suitable solutions for permanent deposition.

FAIR principles

Whenever possible, AHRIE recommends that data and metadata follow the FAIR principles by being:

• findable;

• accessible under clearly defined conditions;

• interoperable;

• reusable.

FAIR does not mean that all data must be completely open. Data may comply with these principles while remaining subject to justified access controls.

Sensitive data and human participants

Data relating to individuals must be managed in accordance with:

• the informed consent provided;

• ethics committee approval;

• personal-data protection legislation;

• confidentiality commitments;

• applicable institutional and contractual policies.

Before sharing data, authors must apply appropriate anonymization or de-identification procedures. Removing names alone may be insufficient when other variables could enable identification.

Identifiable individual data, medical records, images, or other sensitive information must not be made public without an ethical and legal basis and, when required, specific consent for disclosure.

When complete anonymization is not possible or a risk of re-identification exists, the data must remain protected and controlled-access mechanisms must be used.

Clinical trials

Manuscripts reporting clinical-trial results must include a statement specifying:

• whether de-identified individual participant data will be shared;

• which data will be available;

• whether additional documents such as the protocol, statistical analysis plan, or consent form will be shared;

• when the materials will become available and for how long;

• who will be granted access;

• for which types of analysis;

• through which procedure or platform access will be provided.

The data-sharing plan must be consistent with the trial’s public registration. Any changes must be explained and updated when appropriate.

Code, software, and analytical materials

When findings depend on code, scripts, algorithms, computational models, or software developed for the study, authors should provide access whenever possible or explain the restrictions.

Materials should include sufficient information about versions, dependencies, parameters, conditions of use, and procedures needed to interpret or reproduce the analyses.

Data during editorial review

AHRIE may request the data, code, ethics documentation, or original materials needed to evaluate the integrity and validity of a manuscript.

Such a request does not mean that the data must be made public. The editorial team and reviewers must preserve confidentiality and use the materials solely for the authorized evaluation.

An unjustified refusal to provide essential materials needed to verify the results may affect the editorial decision.

Ownership, credit, and reuse

Sharing data does not mean waiving legitimate ownership, credit, or authorship. Datasets must be appropriately cited and reused in accordance with their license, consent, and access conditions.

Anyone reusing data must:

• cite the dataset and original publication;

• comply with licenses and restrictions;

• refrain from attempting to re-identify participants;

• obtain any additional authorization required;

• not attribute responsibility for subsequent interpretations or analyses to the original authors.

Data preservation

Authors and their institutions must retain essential data and documentation for the period required by legislation, institutional rules, the ethics committee, funders, or disciplinary practice.

Files must remain organized, protected, backed up, and linked to the published version of the study.

Changes after publication

If a link ceases to function, the dataset’s location changes, or an error in the statement is identified, authors must notify AHRIE.

The journal may update the statement, publish a correction, or take other action when data unavailability or data-related concerns affect the interpretation or reliability of the article.

Non-compliance

When concerns arise regarding data integrity, availability, or ethical use, AHRIE may request explanations and additional documentation.

Fabrication, falsification, manipulation, unjustified concealment, or unauthorized use of data will be examined under the journal’s publication ethics policies.