General Principles

Epidemiology & Infection believes that research articles should contain sufficient information to allow others to understand, verify, and replicate findings. We therefore believe that apart from in exceptional cases, authors should make evidence and resources that underpin published findings, such as data, code, and other materials, available to readers without undue barriers to access.

These can include qualitative as well as quantitative data, and where possible should be shared under licences that freely permit reuse. We understand that in some cases access to resources may be restricted for legal, ethical, or other exceptional reasons.

Where research findings depend on resources such as data sets, code, and other materials, these should be cited in the article’s text and in the reference section as recognition of their importance as first class research objects.

How to comply with this policy

To comply with Epidemiology & Infection's policy, you must make your data publically available (apart from in exceptional circumstances such as those listed below), and include a Data Availability Statement in your manuscript, briefly describing how readers may access the resources that support your findings. 

If these resources are publicly available, your Data Availability Statement should state where and how they may be accessed, preferably with a unique, persistent identifier and any applicable licence information. 

If these resources are under embargo, or cannot be publicly released for legal, ethical, or other exceptional reasons, your Data Availability Statement should make this clear with a brief explanation. If resources are commercially distributed, this should also be made clear. 

Exceptional cases:

In rare cases, despite authors’ best efforts, some or all data or materials cannot be shared for legal or ethical reasons. In such cases, authors must inform the editors at the time of submission. This will be taken into account during the review process. Authors are encouraged to anticipate data and material sharing at the beginning of their projects to provide for these circumstances.  It is understood that in some cases access will be provided under restrictions to protect confidential or proprietary information. Editors may grant exceptions to data and material access requirements provided authors:

1. explain the restrictions on the dataset or materials and how they preclude public access.
2. provide a public description of the steps others should follow to request access to the data or materials.
3. provide software and other documentation that will precisely reproduce all published results.
4. provide access to all data and materials for which the constraints do not apply.

If your findings do not rely on any data, code or other resources, for example in the case of conceptual or theoretical studies, this should be stated.

Some examples of Data Availability Statements are given below:

1. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at http://doi.org/[doi], reference number [reference number].
2. The data that support the findings will be available in [repository name] at [URL / DOI link] following a [6 month] embargo from the date of publication to allow for commercialisation of research findings.
3. The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party]. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. Data are available [from the authors / at URL] with the permission of [third party].

For questions on compliance, please contact the editorial office.

What do we mean by “resources”?

In the interests of supporting transparency and openness, the resources underpinning research findings refer to anything that would be necessary for others to fully evaluate the basis for those findings, and to verify or reproduce the work. This includes raw or processed data sets, code, and protocols, as well as qualitative resources such as images, audio, video, maps, interview transcripts, field notes, and public reports. It also includes any information necessary for others to access, interpret and process these resources.

How to make resources available

Where possible resources should be available to peer reviewers at the time of submission, with the exception of physical materials. Resources should be made publicly accessible by the time of publication.

Epidemiology & Infection recommends that wherever possible, resources be shared via repositories that:

• Are supported and recognised by the community as appropriate for the resources they hold.
• Provide stable, unique identifiers for the information they hold.
• Support linking between their database records and associated published research articles.
• Allow free public access to their holdings, with reasonable exceptions (such as administration charges for the distribution of physical materials).

Authors' personal or departmental websites do not generally meet these requirements.

If there are domain-specific, specialised repositories in common use in your research community, we recommend using those to share resources. Generalist repositories, which can host a wide variety of data types, may also be used if no appropriate specialised repository exists. Examples of general Examples of general repositories include Dryad, Zenodo, Figshare, Dataverse and the Open Science Framework. Guidance for preparing qualitative data for sharing is provided by bodies such as the Qualitative Data Repository and ICPSR.

Epidemiology & Infection assumes no responsibility for data uploaded to external repositories. Authors are responsible for ensuring that such data are usable, the files uncorrupted, and for answering any questions from scholars wishing to replicate the data work.

Resources may also be made available as supplementary information which will be digitally hosted by Epidemiology & Infection. Supplementary information files will not be copy edited or otherwise modified before publication, and will not be assigned permanent identifiers.