Data Availability and Research Data Policy
The International Journal of Social Exploration (IJSoE) supports transparency, reproducibility, responsible data management, and appropriate access to research materials while recognizing ethical, legal, confidentiality, privacy, and participant-protection obligations.
Data Availability Statement
Authors should provide an appropriate Data Availability Statement describing whether and how the data underlying the research may be accessed.
Depending on the nature of the study, the statement may indicate that:
- data are publicly available through an appropriate repository;
- data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request;
- data are subject to ethical, legal, institutional, privacy, confidentiality, or other legitimate restrictions;
- data are not publicly available because they contain sensitive or identifiable information; or
- no new dataset was generated or analysed for the study.
Sharing of Research Data
Where ethically and legally appropriate, authors are encouraged to make relevant research data, instruments, coding materials, documentation, or other supporting materials available in a reliable repository or through another appropriate mechanism.
Public sharing of data is not mandatory where legitimate restrictions apply.
Human Participants and Sensitive Data
Research data involving human participants must be handled in accordance with applicable ethical approvals, informed-consent arrangements, confidentiality commitments, privacy requirements, institutional policies, and relevant laws.
Authors should not publicly disclose personally identifiable, confidential, sensitive, or restricted information unless appropriate authorization has been obtained.
This consideration is particularly important for research involving vulnerable populations, health information, children, marginalized communities, sensitive social identities, or other protected information.
Qualitative Research Data
The journal recognizes that qualitative research materials such as interview transcripts, field notes, life histories, ethnographic records, photographs, recordings, and other contextual data may not always be suitable for public sharing.
Authors should balance research transparency with participant confidentiality, consent, cultural sensitivity, and ethical obligations.
Data Repositories
Where authors choose to deposit research data, they are encouraged to use an established institutional, disciplinary, general-purpose, or other appropriate repository that provides persistent access and suitable documentation.
Where available, persistent identifiers for deposited datasets may be included in the manuscript or Data Availability Statement.
Accuracy and Integrity of Data
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, authenticity, integrity, and appropriate documentation of data presented in or supporting their manuscript.
Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or misleading presentation of research data is not acceptable.
Editorial Requests for Supporting Information
Where reasonably necessary to evaluate concerns relating to research integrity, methodology, analysis, or reliability, the Editorial Team may request relevant supporting data, documentation, research instruments, ethics information, or other materials from the authors.
Such requests will be considered in light of confidentiality, privacy, ethical, legal, and institutional restrictions.
The journal does not require authors to provide material where disclosure would violate legitimate ethical, legal, contractual, or privacy obligations.
Retention of Research Records
Authors should retain research records and supporting materials for an appropriate period consistent with applicable institutional, ethical, disciplinary, funding, or legal requirements.
Third-Party Data
Authors using data obtained from third parties are responsible for ensuring that they have appropriate rights, permissions, licences, or lawful authority to use and publish the relevant material.
The journal does not assume ownership of datasets or other research materials submitted or referenced by authors.
Data Availability and Publication Decisions
Restrictions on public data sharing will not, by themselves, prevent publication where the restrictions are legitimate and are transparently explained.
Editorial decisions will consider the nature of the research, ethical and legal obligations, methodological transparency, and the information reasonably necessary to evaluate the scholarly reliability of the work.
Policy Development
Research-data practices continue to develop across disciplines. IJSoE may revise this policy as appropriate in response to developments in research ethics, data governance, scholarly publishing, and applicable requirements.
