Data Sharing & Availability Policy

The Yemeni Journal of Life Sciences promotes responsible data sharing, transparency, reproducibility, and appropriate access to research data.

The journal recognizes that the availability of research data can improve transparency, reproducibility, verification, and the advancement of scientific knowledge.

At the same time, data sharing must respect ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, institutional, and other legitimate restrictions.

1. General Principles

Authors are encouraged to make the data underlying their published findings available whenever reasonably possible and ethically appropriate.

Data sharing should:

• Support verification and reproducibility of published findings.
• Respect participant privacy and confidentiality.
• Comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements.
• Respect intellectual property and legitimate ownership rights.
• Avoid disclosure of sensitive or personally identifiable information.
• Follow applicable institutional and disciplinary requirements.

The journal does not require authors to make data publicly available when doing so would violate ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, or other legitimate restrictions.

2. Data Availability Statement

Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement where appropriate.

The statement should clearly indicate whether the data supporting the findings are:

• Publicly available.
• Available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
• Available from a recognized repository.
• Restricted because of ethical, privacy, legal, or other legitimate considerations.
• Not applicable because the article does not involve research data.

Examples include:

Data Availability: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

or:

Data Availability: The data supporting the findings of this study are available in [repository name] at [persistent identifier].

or:

Data Availability: The data are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Authors should ensure that Data Availability Statements accurately reflect the actual availability and accessibility of the underlying data.

3. Types of Research Data

Research data may include, where applicable:

• Raw experimental data.
• Processed datasets.
• Statistical datasets.
• Survey data.
• Laboratory measurements.
• Images and figures.
• Genomic or molecular data.
• Microbiological data.
• Environmental data.
• Supplementary datasets.
• Computational or analytical outputs.
• Other information necessary to understand or reproduce the reported findings.

4. Data Repositories

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit research data in reliable and recognized repositories relevant to their discipline.

Authors should preferably use repositories that provide:

• Persistent identifiers.
• Appropriate metadata.
• Long-term preservation.
• Access controls where necessary.
• Clear licensing or reuse information.

Where a suitable disciplinary repository is unavailable, authors may consider an appropriate general-purpose research data repository.

5. Sensitive and Confidential Data

The journal recognizes that some research data cannot be made publicly available because of:

• Participant privacy.
• Confidentiality.
• Ethical restrictions.
• Legal requirements.
• National regulations.
• Institutional restrictions.
• Commercial confidentiality.
• Intellectual property considerations.
• Security or biosafety concerns.

In such cases, authors should provide an appropriate explanation in the Data Availability Statement.

Where possible, authors should consider controlled or restricted access mechanisms rather than unrestricted public release.

6. Human Participant Data

Data involving human participants require particular attention to privacy and confidentiality.

Authors must not publicly release personally identifiable information or other sensitive information when doing so would violate participant consent, ethical approval, applicable law, or legitimate confidentiality requirements.

Where data sharing was anticipated during the consent process, authors should ensure that the proposed sharing is consistent with the consent provided by participants and the requirements of the relevant ethics committee.

7. De-identification and Anonymization

Where human participant data are shared, authors should use appropriate measures to reduce the risk of identification.

Depending on the nature of the dataset, this may include:

• Removal of direct identifiers.
• Removal or generalization of indirect identifiers.
• Aggregation of sensitive information.
• Controlled access.
• Other appropriate data-protection measures.

Authors should recognize that complete anonymization may not always be technically or practically possible.

8. Genetic and Genomic Data

Authors publishing genetic, genomic, or other potentially identifiable biological data should comply with applicable ethical, privacy, and data-protection requirements.

Where appropriate, data should be deposited in suitable repositories that provide appropriate access controls.

Authors must ensure that data sharing does not conflict with participant consent, ethical approval, or applicable regulations.

9. Clinical and Sensitive Research Data

Clinical datasets and other sensitive research data should be shared only when appropriate safeguards are in place.

Authors should consider:

• Participant confidentiality.
• Consent requirements.
• Ethics committee requirements.
• Applicable laws and regulations.
• Data-use agreements.
• Controlled access procedures.

The journal does not require public disclosure of sensitive data where such disclosure would create an unreasonable risk to participants or violate legitimate restrictions.

10. Data Supporting Published Results

Authors should retain sufficient research data and supporting records to substantiate the findings reported in their manuscripts.

Where appropriate, authors may be asked to provide relevant supporting data during peer review or post-publication investigation.

Requests for data will be assessed in light of:

• Ethical considerations.
• Privacy and confidentiality.
• Intellectual property.
• Legal requirements.
• Institutional policies.
• Legitimate restrictions on data sharing.

11. Data Sharing During Peer Review

Reviewers may request clarification concerning data supporting the manuscript's findings.

Where necessary and appropriate, editors may request supporting datasets, methodological records, original images, or other relevant materials to assess the validity and integrity of the research.

Any data or confidential material provided during peer review must be treated as confidential.

12. Data Availability and Reproducibility

Authors should provide sufficient methodological and analytical information to enable readers and researchers to understand and, where reasonably possible, reproduce the reported work.

Depending on the research type, this may include:

• Study protocols.
• Experimental procedures.
• Statistical methods.
• Analytical methods.
• Software or code.
• Relevant datasets.
• Research materials.
• Supplementary information.

The journal recognizes that complete reproducibility may not always be possible for every study type.

13. Code and Computational Materials

For research involving substantial computational analysis, authors are encouraged to make relevant code, scripts, workflows, or computational materials available where appropriate.

When shared, computational materials should include sufficient documentation to facilitate understanding and reuse.

Authors should identify relevant software, versions, packages, and analytical procedures where these are important to reproducing the research.

14. Materials Availability

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to provide information about the availability of important research materials necessary to reproduce the reported work.

This may include:

• Biological materials.
• Laboratory reagents.
• Reference strains.
• Analytical standards.
• Experimental protocols.
• Specialized software.
• Other essential research resources.

Availability may be subject to legitimate safety, legal, institutional, intellectual property, or logistical restrictions.

15. Data From Third Parties

When research uses data obtained from third parties, authors must ensure that their use of the data complies with the applicable terms, permissions, licenses, ethical approvals, and confidentiality requirements.

Authors should clearly identify data that were obtained from external sources where relevant.

Authors should not publicly redistribute third-party data when redistribution is prohibited.

16. Data From Public Sources

When research uses publicly available datasets, authors should identify the source and provide sufficient information to allow readers to locate the original data where reasonably possible.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that their use and reporting of publicly available data are accurate and ethically appropriate.

17. Data Access Requests

Where data are available upon reasonable request, authors should provide an appropriate mechanism for legitimate access requests.

Authors should respond to reasonable requests in good faith, subject to:

• Privacy restrictions.
• Ethical restrictions.
• Legal requirements.
• Intellectual property.
• Confidentiality.
• Institutional policies.
• Other legitimate limitations.

The journal may request clarification when a published Data Availability Statement does not accurately reflect the actual accessibility of the data.

18. Data Retention

Authors are encouraged to retain research data and supporting documentation for an appropriate period consistent with:

• Institutional requirements.
• Funding requirements.
• Ethical approval conditions.
• Applicable regulations.
• Disciplinary standards.

The journal may request supporting information when necessary to investigate questions concerning research integrity.

19. Data Integrity and Manipulation

Research data must be accurately collected, processed, analyzed, and reported.

Authors must not:

• Fabricate datasets.
• Falsify observations.
• Selectively manipulate data in a misleading manner.
• Delete relevant data without appropriate justification.
• Misrepresent data availability.
• Provide fabricated or misleading datasets during peer review or an investigation.

Concerns concerning data integrity may be investigated under the journal's Research Misconduct Policy.

20. Exceptions to Data Sharing

The journal recognizes legitimate reasons why research data may not be publicly available.

Examples include:

• Protection of human participants.
• Confidentiality.
• Legal restrictions.
• Ethical restrictions.
• National or institutional regulations.
• Intellectual property protection.
• Commercial confidentiality.
• Biosafety or biosecurity concerns.
• Restrictions imposed by third-party data providers.

Authors should clearly explain the relevant restriction in the Data Availability Statement where appropriate.

21. Editorial Assessment of Data Availability

Editors may assess whether a manuscript provides an appropriate and sufficiently transparent Data Availability Statement.

Where necessary, editors may request clarification before or during peer review.

A lack of publicly available data will not automatically result in rejection when legitimate restrictions apply.

However, inaccurate or misleading statements regarding data availability may constitute a publication ethics concern.

22. Post-Publication Data Concerns

Concerns regarding the availability, integrity, or reliability of data underlying a published article may be raised after publication.

The journal may request:

• Original datasets.
• Supporting documentation.
• Laboratory records.
• Original images.
• Analytical files.
• Statistical outputs.
• Other relevant evidence.

Where concerns materially affect the reliability of the published article, the journal may take appropriate action under its Retraction & Correction Policy and Research Misconduct Policy.

23. Data Sharing and Participant Consent

Authors must ensure that data-sharing practices are consistent with the consent obtained from research participants and the requirements of the relevant ethics committee.

Where consent does not permit public data sharing, authors should not make identifiable or sensitive data publicly available.

Where appropriate, controlled-access mechanisms may be used.

24. Data Licensing and Reuse

Where research data are made publicly available, authors are encouraged to provide clear information about permitted reuse.

Authors should respect:

• Copyright.
• Database rights.
• Licensing conditions.
• Third-party rights.
• Privacy restrictions.
• Ethical limitations.

Where a repository provides a standard data license, authors should consider using an appropriate license consistent with the nature of the data.

25. Journal Position on Mandatory Public Data Sharing

The Yemeni Journal of Life Sciences currently encourages responsible data sharing but does not require unrestricted public deposition of all research data.

The journal recognizes that data-sharing requirements must be proportionate to the research field and must respect ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, and institutional requirements.

The journal may develop more specific data-sharing requirements for particular article types or research fields as its policies and publishing infrastructure develop.

26. Transparency and Research Integrity

Transparent reporting of data availability contributes to research integrity and enables readers to better understand the evidence supporting published findings.

Authors are therefore encouraged to provide accurate information concerning:

• What data were generated.
• What data are available.
• Where the data can be accessed.
• Any restrictions on access.
• How legitimate access requests may be made.

27. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for:

• Maintaining appropriate research records.
• Providing accurate Data Availability Statements.
• Protecting participant privacy and confidentiality.
• Complying with applicable ethical and legal requirements.
• Ensuring that shared data are appropriately documented.
• Responding reasonably to legitimate data-related inquiries.
• Correcting inaccurate data availability information when necessary.

28. Responsibilities of Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers should respect the confidentiality of research data and supporting materials obtained during the editorial and peer-review process.

Editors may request data or supporting materials when necessary to evaluate:

• Research integrity.
• Methodological validity.
• Ethical compliance.
• Reproducibility.
• Credibility of reported findings.

Reviewers should not use confidential datasets or other unpublished materials obtained during peer review for personal or professional purposes.

29. Relationship With Research Integrity

Data availability is an important component of research and publication integrity.

Concerns involving fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or intentionally misrepresented data may be investigated according to the Research Misconduct Policy.

Where necessary, the journal may take appropriate action to correct or protect the scholarly record.

30. Policy Review

The Yemeni Journal of Life Sciences periodically reviews this policy to ensure that it remains appropriate for developments in research data management, reproducibility, privacy, ethical standards, and scholarly publishing.

The policy may be updated as appropriate.

Related Policies

For related information, please refer to:

• Publication Ethics
• Ethical Oversight Policy
• Research Misconduct Policy
• Complaints & Appeals Policy
• Authorship & Contributorship Policy
• Privacy Policy
• AI Policy
• Copyright & Licensing Policy
• Retraction & Correction Policy
• Open Access Policy
• Peer Review Policy