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Research Data Management: Data access statement

WHAT IS A DATA ACCESS STATEMENT?

Data access statements, also known as data availability statements, are included in publications to describe where the data associated with the paper is available, and under what conditions the data can be accessed. They are required by many funders and scientific journals as well as the UKRI Common Principles on Research Data.

DATA ACCESS STATEMENT: PRINCIPLES

These general principles apply when providing a data access statement:

  • if data are held in a data repository, the name of the data repository they are stored in should be provided, as well as any unique persistent identifier (e.g. the DOI) or accession number for the dataset;
  • if there are legal, ethical or commercial reasons why some or all data cannot be made openly available, any restrictions should be specified in the data access statement;
  • if data have been provided in full in the article or as supplementary information, this should be stated;
  • a direction to contact the author for access to data would not normally be considered an acceptable data access statement.

EXAMPLES OF DATA ACCESS STATEMENTS

"All data created during this research is openly available from (Name of repository) at (insert DOI here)."

"All data supporting this study is provided as supplementary information accompanying this paper."

"All data is provided in full in the results section of this paper."

“Data supporting this study are available from (Name of repository) at (insert DOI here).

Access to the data is subject to approval and a data sharing agreement due to (Give reasons why access to the data is restricted).”

"Due to the (commercially, politically, ethically) sensitive nature of the research, no interviewees consented to their data being retained or shared. Additional details relating to other aspects of the data are available from the (Name of repository) at (insert DOI here)."

“Data supporting this study cannot be made available due to (Give reasons why the data cannot be shared).”

“No new data were generated or analysed during this study.”

WHERE SHOULD I PUT THE DATA ACCESS STATEMENT IN MY PAPER?

Some journals provide a “data access” or “data availability” section. If no such section exists, you can place your statement in the acknowledgements section.