Data Sharing and Research Transparency Policy

SAER Journal supports transparency, verifiability, and reproducibility in scholarly research. Authors are expected to provide, to the extent reasonably possible, sufficient information concerning the data, methods, analytical procedures, and relevant research materials underlying their findings.

Data sharing is nevertheless subject to participant confidentiality, personal data protection, ethics approval conditions, intellectual property rights, third-party obligations, contractual restrictions, and other legitimate limitations.

1. General Principle

SAER Journal supports reporting practices that allow readers to understand, as far as reasonably possible, the data and methods on which research findings are based. Openness, accuracy, and adequate methodological detail are fundamental principles of research reporting.

Data sharing is not the sole measure of research transparency. Depending on the nature of the study, sharing code, analytical plans, research materials, protocols, or other supporting documentation may also contribute to transparency.

2. Sharing of Research Data

Where ethically and legally permissible, authors are encouraged to make research data supporting the main findings of an article available through an appropriate institutional or disciplinary repository.

Where data cannot be shared, or can be shared only under specified conditions, the reason may be explained briefly in the manuscript or in a data availability statement.

3. Data Availability Statements

SAER Journal supports the inclusion of a data availability statement in research articles where appropriate. Such a statement may indicate that:

The data are available in an open repository,
The data are included in the article or supplementary files,
The data may be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request,
The data are not publicly available because of ethical, legal, or confidentiality restrictions,
Access is restricted by third-party conditions,
No shareable dataset exists because of the nature of the research.

4. Personal Data and Participant Confidentiality

Sharing research data must not compromise the confidentiality or privacy rights of research participants. Where data relate to identified or identifiable individuals, applicable data protection requirements, ethics approval conditions, and commitments made to participants must be considered.

Where appropriate, data should be adequately anonymized or identifying information removed. Data sharing may be restricted where anonymization is insufficient or there remains a meaningful risk of re-identification.

5. Sensitive Research Data

Particular care should be taken with research involving health information, disability, children, vulnerable populations, violence, sexual life, biometric or genetic information, and other sensitive areas.

Although open data may contribute to scholarly transparency, participant safety, confidentiality, and privacy take priority.

6. Ethics Approval and Participant Consent

Where ethics approval or participant consent imposes restrictions on data sharing, authors are expected to comply with those restrictions.

Where participants consented only to specific forms of data use, broader public sharing of those data may not be appropriate.

7. Data Accuracy and Integrity

Authors are responsible for ensuring that data presented in the manuscript accurately reflect the records generated or obtained during the research. Fabrication, falsification, selective concealment of data, or misleading manipulation of research data is not acceptable.

Where data cleaning, transformation, exclusion, or comparable procedures are important for interpretation of the results, they should be described adequately in the methods.

8. Analytical Code and Software

Analytical code, scripts, or specialized software procedures used to generate research findings may be shared where ethically, legally, and technically feasible.

Where relevant to understanding or reproducing the analysis, authors should report the name and version of software and the key characteristics of the analytical procedure.

9. Transparency in Quantitative Research

Quantitative studies should describe sampling procedures, data collection instruments, variable definitions, analytical methods, and important data-processing steps in sufficient detail to permit meaningful scientific evaluation.

Where preregistration, an analysis plan, or a research protocol exists, relevant information may be reported where appropriate.

10. Transparency in Qualitative Research

Transparency in qualitative research does not require the mandatory public release of raw interview or participant-level data.

Researchers should provide sufficient methodological information regarding sampling, data generation, analytical approach, coding or theme development, and, where relevant, researcher positioning to allow the study to be evaluated appropriately.

Participant narratives, recordings, or transcripts may remain unavailable where disclosure would compromise confidentiality.

11. Data Repositories

Where research data are shared, authors are encouraged to use sustainable and reputable institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose scholarly repositories where possible.

Where a persistent identifier or stable access link is available for a dataset, authors are encouraged to include it in the manuscript.

12. Third-Party Data

Data obtained from government agencies, private organizations, research centers, databases, or other third parties may be subject to restrictions on use or redistribution.

Where such data cannot be shared publicly, authors should describe the source and access conditions to the extent reasonably possible.

13. Editorial Requests for Data

Where necessary to support editorial assessment or evaluate the reliability of a study, the editor may request anonymized data, analytical outputs, research protocols, information about measurement instruments, or other relevant materials from the authors.

Such a request does not mean that the materials will automatically be made publicly available. Any materials provided will be considered in accordance with applicable confidentiality and data protection requirements.

14. Reproducibility of Research

Authors are expected to report methods and analytical procedures with sufficient clarity to permit meaningful scientific evaluation by other researchers.

Even where exact reproduction is not possible because of the research design, methodological transparency and adequate description of the research process remain important.

15. Post-Publication Data Concerns

If significant concerns regarding the accuracy, integrity, or ethical handling of research data arise after publication, SAER Journal may request explanations or supporting materials from the authors.

Depending on the nature of the concern, a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate post-publication action may be considered.

16. Policy Updates

SAER Journal may review and update this policy in response to developments in open science, research data management, data protection requirements, and scholarly publishing standards.