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Research Data

Peer Academics expects the evidence behind a published article to be available to the people who read it, so far as law, ethics, and the rights of third parties allow. The journal does not require you to make every dataset public, and it does not refuse work whose data cannot be shared. It requires you to say, clearly and in the article itself, what the evidence is and how a reader can get to it.

What the journal expects of you

  • Every submission carries a Data Availability Statement in the Declarations section, using one of the wordings below; work that created or analyzed no new data uses option 7. A manuscript submitted without one is returned before review.
  • Where sharing is possible, deposit the data in a recognized repository before you submit, and cite the deposit in the reference list and in the statement.
  • Deposit the analysis code and any custom instruments, coding frames, or scripts on the same terms as the data, so that the analysis can be followed.
  • Deposit data in an open, non-proprietary format where one exists (CSV rather than XLSX, plain text rather than a word processor file), with a readme that explains every variable, unit, and code.
  • If the data belong to someone else, or contain personal data, or are subject to a license or an ethics restriction, say so and say who controls access. "Available on request" is acceptable only where you undertake to honor such requests.
  • An editor or a reviewer may ask to see the data during review. If you cannot provide them and cannot give a reason the editor accepts, the editor may decline the manuscript.

Repositories

Use a repository that assigns a persistent identifier, keeps the deposit accessible after the article appears, and lets you attach a license. General-purpose repositories that meet this standard include Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad, and the Open Science Framework (OSF). A recognized disciplinary or institutional repository is equally acceptable, and often better, when your field has one.

A personal or laboratory website, a shared cloud drive, a file attached to an email, or a code-hosting account on its own is not a repository: nothing about it is persistent. If your code lives in a version control repository, archive a released version to a repository that mints a persistent identifier and cite that version.

Personal data and other restrictions

Do not deposit personal data. Data collected from people may be shared only if they are effectively anonymized, or if the participants gave informed consent for that specific sharing and the consent is documented. Where re-identification is possible — small samples, rare conditions, court files, linked administrative records — treat the data as personal data and use restricted access instead of open deposit. The journal is governed by Romanian law and by Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR); questions about personal data in a submission go to [email protected], and how the journal handles your own data is set out in the Privacy Statement.

The same restraint applies to commercially licensed data, to material held under a data use agreement, and to indigenous or community-held knowledge governed by its own protocols. Describe the restriction rather than working around it.

Keeping your deposit anonymous during review

Review is double-anonymous, and a repository record normally carries your name. Before you submit, generate the repository's anonymous or private review link and give that link in the anonymous manuscript; put the full, named citation on the title page only. Do not name the repository account, the project, or the funder in a way that identifies you. If your repository offers no anonymous link, tell the editor in the comments field and the editorial office will mediate access.

Wording of the Data Availability Statement

Use one of the following, adapted only where the square brackets say so. If none of them fits, write to [email protected] before submitting.

  1. Openly available. "The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [persistent link], reference number [identifier]."
  2. Available under restrictions. "The data that support the findings of this study are available in [repository name] at [persistent link]. Access is restricted [state the restriction] and is granted by [named body] on request."
  3. Available from the authors. "The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."
  4. Held by a third party. "The data were obtained from [third party] under [license or agreement] and are not publicly available. Requests for access should be directed to [third party contact]. The authors did not have special access privileges."
  5. Restricted for privacy or ethical reasons. "The data are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. [State the conditions, if any, under which access may be granted.]"
  6. Contained in the article. "All data supporting the findings of this study are included in this article and its supplementary material."
  7. No new data. "No new data were created or analyzed in this study, which draws on publicly available [legislation, case law, archival sources, published literature] cited in full in the reference list. Data sharing is not applicable."

Option 7 is the normal statement for doctrinal legal scholarship and for other work argued from published sources. Using it does not weaken the article; using it falsely does.

Citing data

A dataset you deposited or reused is a source, and it is cited like one: in the text at the point where it is used, and in the reference list in APA 7th edition form. Referencing Style gives the pattern. Citing the dataset is required in addition to the Data Availability Statement, not instead of it.