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Research transparency

This journal supports best practices in research openness and transparency. The policies below outline our expectations for authors to help ensure that the research results we publish are as transparent as possible.

Data availability

All manuscripts submitted to this journal must contain a Data Availability Statement, explaining where and how readers can access the data underpinning the research published in the manuscript.

We require all data underpinning your research to be made available to readers through an appropriate repository. In particular, repositories that provide persistent identifiers and have robust preservation policies will help to ensure the long-term integrity of published research. This policy applies to both quantitative data and qualitative materials. 

It is not acceptable for your Data Availability Statement to say that data are “available on request” from the authors. If you cannot make your data publicly available due to ethical or legal concerns, please contact the editorial office to discuss an exemption to this policy.

If your code is stored and managed in GitHub, please make use of GitHub’s integration with Zenodo to create an archive of your code at the time of manuscript submission. This ensures that other researchers can access a version of your code as it was at the time you published your research, even if you later make changes in GitHub. You will receive a Zenodo DOI so that your code can be formally cited by others.

Citing data and other materials

We encourage authors to cite any materials and data they have used in their research, alongside literature citations, to recognise the importance of all kinds of research outputs.

Open Practice Badges

We recognise best practices in open research by awarding Open Practice Badges to authors who openly share the data and materials underpinning their research, or who have preregistered their research plans.

Badges are awarded by author declaration. You will be asked during the submission process to confirm whether or not you have met the criteria for each badge.