Data Sharing and Reproducibility Policy
World Nutrition is committed to promoting transparency, openness, scientific rigour, and reproducibility of research findings, in line with international best practices recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
- Purpose
This policy aims to:
- Promote open science principles
- Encourage responsible data sharing
- Enhance reproducibility and validation of research findings
- Support the reuse of research data for further scientific discovery
- Maintain ethical standards, participant confidentiality, and data protection
- Data Availability Requirements
All manuscripts reporting original research must include a Data Availability Statement (DAS) clearly describing:
- Whether the data are publicly available
- Where the data can be accessed
- Any access restrictions and justification
- Conditions for reuse
Acceptable data availability statements include:
- Data is openly available in a public repository.
- Data available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
- Data cannot be publicly shared due to ethical, legal, or confidentiality constraints.
- Recommended Data Repositories
Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit datasets in recognised, stable, and open repositories, including but not limited to:
- Dryad
- Figshare
- Zenodo
- Harvard Dataverse
- Open Science Framework (OSF)
- Institutional or subject-specific repositories
Repository selection should ensure long-term preservation, accessibility, and the use of persistent identifiers (DOIs).
- Data Types Covered
This policy applies to:
- Quantitative datasets
- Qualitative datasets
- Statistical analysis files
- Laboratory data
- Genomic, metabolomic, or biochemical datasets
- Survey instruments
- Software codes and computational scripts
- Reproducibility Standards
To promote reproducibility, authors are encouraged to:
- Provide complete methodological details
- Submit analysis scripts or codes where applicable
- Clearly describe experimental protocols, analytical workflows, and statistical methods
- Use standardised reporting guidelines (CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, ARRIVE, etc.)
- Ethical and Legal Considerations
Data sharing must comply with:
- Ethical approval conditions
- Informed consent agreements
- Institutional review board (IRB) approvals
- Data protection regulations
Personal identifiers must be fully anonymised, and sensitive data must only be shared under controlled access agreements.
- Exceptions
Authors may request exemption from data sharing when:
- Data contains confidential personal or community information
- Legal, contractual, or ethical restrictions exist
- National security or proprietary rights apply
Such exemptions must be clearly justified in the manuscript.
- Compliance Monitoring
Failure to comply with this policy may lead to:
- Request for data clarification prior to acceptance
- Editorial rejection
- Post-publication corrections or retractions in serious cases
