Data Archiving and Permissions

Data Archiving and Permissions in full

1. Data availability statement

   Every empirical research manuscript includes a data-availability statement. It explains where the data supporting the results can be found, or the conditions under which they can be accessed when ethics approval or participant consent restricts sharing. Typical statements read:

   • Data in a repository: "The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository] at [accession number or URL]."
   • Data on request: "The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."
   • Restricted data: "The data are not publicly available because of [ethical, privacy or legal restrictions] and are available from the corresponding author under a data use agreement."
   • Data in the article: "All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and its supplementary files."

2. Choosing a repository

   Data are deposited in a discipline-specific or general-purpose repository that assigns a persistent identifier or accession number and supports FAIR-aligned metadata, where a community repository exists. Examples include:

   • Structures: Protein Data Bank (PDB), BMRB for NMR data, EMDB for cryo-EM maps
   • Proteomics and metabolomics: PRIDE, MassIVE, MetaboLights
   • Sequence and expression: GenBank, European Nucleotide Archive, GEO
   • General: Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad, Open Science Framework

3. Code and software

   Custom code, analysis scripts and simulation inputs used to produce the results are shared where possible, for example through Zenodo, GitHub or GitLab, with version numbers, dependencies and enough documentation to reproduce the analysis.

4. Human participants and privacy

   Data from human participants, including patient-derived samples, are shared only when this is consistent with the participants' consent and the ethics approval for the study. Before sharing, authors remove information that could identify a participant, use a controlled-access repository when full de-identification is not possible, and follow applicable data-protection law, such as the GDPR or HIPAA.

   Identifiable images or detailed case information are published only with written informed consent for publication from the person concerned, or from a legal guardian.

5. Secondary data

   Authors who analyze existing datasets cite the original data source, follow the conditions of use set by the data provider, acknowledge the data creators and explain how readers can obtain the same data.

6. Permission to reuse published material

   A manuscript that reproduces figures, schemes, tables or substantial text published elsewhere needs written permission from the copyright holder, usually the original publisher. Authors supply the permission with the submission and give the source in the caption, for example "Adapted with permission from [citation]". Material published under CC BY needs attribution but usually no permission.

   IJBA articles are published under CC BY 4.0, so they can be reused without asking permission, provided they are credited as set out on the Copyright and License page.

7. Supplementary material

   Supplementary files, such as extended tables, uncropped gels and blots, spectra, structure-validation reports, questionnaires, datasets or video, are welcome. Each file is clearly named, for example "Supplementary_Table_1.xlsx", and briefly described in the manuscript. Supplementary material is reviewed with the manuscript. For very large files, contact the editorial office before submission.

8. Questions

   For questions about data sharing or permissions, write to the editorial office at info@openaccesspub.org.