Research data

Research data includes all documents other than the scientific publication, i.e. the article to be published, which have been used or produced in the course of the scientific research presented and which are used as evidence in the research process, or which are commonly accepted in the research community as necessary to validate the findings and results of the research.

Access to data is necessary to ensure the verification and reproducibility of the results presented.

Consideration should be given to:

- The protection of personal data in the project itself and for re-use by third parties.
- Ethical aspects affecting the data, to guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of the persons involved.
- The specific requirements demanded by the funding bodies.

This journal recommends that authors deposit these data in appropriate repositories. Repositories must guarantee both retrieval and access to the data, as well as long-term preservation.

The chosen repository should be a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and open access repository offering:
- guidelines for data standards
- a doi to be used to link to the published article
- indications to the user on what terms the datasets deposited in a repository can be used for
- use of open licences such as creative commons

The aim of this policy is to foster scientific development and ensure that research can be validated, replicated, and analysed for other studies.

The re3data register of research data repositories can be consulted, bearing in mind that each repository has its own deposit rules.

The article should mention that the data have been deposited in a repository, providing a description of the type of data, the name and URL of the repository, the identifier code, and the licence details for use and distribution. This information should appear at the end of the article, before the bibliographic listing, under the heading ‘Availability of deposited data’.

The data must be cited correctly, following a specific citation format, and must appear with the rest of the bibliographic references of the publication. In addition to the full bibliographic reference of the data, the citation must include the unique and permanent identifier of the repository where it is hosted.