Data Sharing Policy:
The journal supports responsible data sharing to promote scientific transparency and reproducibility. The journal is committed to promoting research transparency, reproducibility, data integrity, and open science in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. The journal encourages authors to follow the FAIR Data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) wherever applicable to maximize the value and reuse of research data.
Authors are encouraged to make the data supporting the findings of their research publicly available whenever possible, or to provide the data upon reasonable request, subject to ethical, legal, or confidentiality considerations.
Authors are encouraged to deposit research data, supplementary materials, protocols, software, and other relevant resources in an appropriate, publicly accessible, and recognized data repository prior to or at the time of publication. Where applicable, data should be made available under an appropriate open-use licence.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that the data underlying the reported findings are accurate, complete, and retained for an appropriate period following publication in accordance with the policies of their institution, funding agency, or applicable regulations.
The journal encourages authors to retain the original research data and other supporting materials (including raw data, laboratory records, protocols, images, software, or other materials relevant to the study) so that they can be made available, where appropriate, to the Editorial Office or qualified researchers upon reasonable request, subject to ethical, legal, confidentiality, or proprietary restrictions.
To enhance transparency, authors should include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript indicating:
- whether the underlying data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request;
- whether the data have been deposited in a publicly accessible repository, together with the repository name and persistent identifier (e.g., DOI or accession number), where applicable; or
- if the data cannot be shared, the reason for the restriction (e.g., ethical, legal, confidentiality, or proprietary considerations).
The Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chief may request access to the underlying research data during the peer-review or post-publication process if necessary to verify the validity, integrity, or reproducibility of the reported findings. Failure to provide the requested data without a valid justification may result in rejection of the manuscript, publication of a correction or retraction, or other appropriate editorial action in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies and COPE guidance.
The journal maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward data falsification and fabrication. Proven cases will result in immediate rejection, retraction of published articles, notification to authors’ institutions, and other actions in accordance with COPE guidelines. For specific study types (e.g., genomic, clinical, or large datasets), authors are required to deposit data in recognized public repositories to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and long-term accessibility.