Data Sharing Policy | GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences (GSCBPS)

📊 Data Sharing Policy

GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences (GSCBPS) encourages responsible data sharing to promote transparency, reproducibility, and the advancement of scientific knowledge. Making research data available, where appropriate, allows other researchers to verify published findings, build upon existing work, and contribute to scientific progress while respecting ethical, legal, and confidentiality obligations.

This Data Sharing Policy outlines the journal's expectations regarding the availability, management, citation, and responsible sharing of research data associated with manuscripts submitted to GSCBPS. The policy applies to all manuscript types published by the journal unless specific legal, ethical, privacy, or contractual restrictions prevent public disclosure.

Authors are encouraged to consider data sharing during the planning, conduct, and reporting of their research so that supporting datasets can be preserved and made accessible whenever possible.

📖 What is Research Data?

Research data refers to the information, observations, measurements, records, images, software code, protocols, questionnaires, laboratory results, datasets, and other materials generated or collected during the course of a research study that support the findings reported in a published article.

Depending on the discipline, research data may include numerical datasets, qualitative observations, genomic sequences, microscopy images, statistical analyses, software scripts, survey responses, laboratory notebooks, experimental protocols, and supplementary materials.

🎯 Purpose of Data Sharing

Responsible sharing of research data supports the integrity of scientific communication and provides numerous benefits for researchers and the broader scientific community.

Data sharing may:

• ✅ Improve research transparency.
• ✅ Facilitate verification of published findings.
• ✅ Support reproducibility of scientific research.
• ✅ Encourage scientific collaboration.
• ✅ Increase research visibility and reuse.
• ✅ Promote innovation through secondary analyses.
• ✅ Maximize the long-term value of research outputs.
• ✅ Support compliance with institutional and funding requirements.

📂 Journal Policy on Data Sharing

GSCBPS encourages authors to make the data supporting the conclusions of their research available whenever this is ethically, legally, and technically feasible. Data sharing should not compromise participant privacy, confidential information, intellectual property rights, national security, or other legitimate restrictions.

Where data cannot be made publicly available, authors should provide an appropriate explanation within the manuscript or Data Availability Statement describing the reason for the restriction.

📑 Data Availability Statement

Authors are encouraged to include a Data Availability Statement in every manuscript describing the availability of the research data supporting the published work.

Examples include:

• 📂 Data are publicly available in a recognized repository.
• 📧 Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
• 🔒 Data are not publicly available due to ethical or legal restrictions.
• 🧪 All relevant data are included within the manuscript and supplementary files.

🏛️ Recommended Data Repositories

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit research datasets in reputable institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose repositories that provide persistent identifiers and long-term preservation.

Examples include:

• 🏛️ Institutional repositories.
• 🧬 Discipline-specific repositories.
• 🌍 National research repositories.
• 📂 General-purpose Open Access repositories.
• 💾 University data archives.

📂 Types of Data That May Be Shared

Depending on the nature of the research, authors are encouraged to share the data necessary to understand, verify, reproduce, and build upon the published findings. The type of data shared may vary according to the research discipline and study design.

Examples of research data include:

• 📊 Raw and processed datasets.
• 🧪 Laboratory observations and experimental measurements.
• 📈 Statistical analysis files.
• 💻 Software code, algorithms, and computational scripts.
• 🧬 Genomic, proteomic, or molecular datasets.
• 🖼️ Microscopy images and scientific photographs.
• 📋 Survey questionnaires and response datasets.
• 📝 Study protocols and methodological documentation.
• 📚 Supplementary tables, figures, and appendices.

🔒 Data That May Not Be Shared Publicly

Although GSCBPS encourages responsible data sharing, certain categories of information should not be made publicly available where disclosure would violate ethical, legal, contractual, or privacy obligations.

Examples include:

• 🔒 Personally identifiable information.
• 🏥 Confidential patient or clinical records.
• 🧬 Sensitive genetic or genomic information where disclosure is restricted.
• 📜 Proprietary or commercially confidential information.
• ⚖️ Data restricted by legislation or contractual agreements.
• 🔐 Information that could compromise participant privacy or safety.

Where public sharing is not possible, authors should explain the reason within the manuscript's Data Availability Statement.

👨‍⚕️ Human Participant and Clinical Research Data

Research involving human participants requires special consideration when sharing data. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all applicable ethical approvals, informed consent requirements, institutional policies, and legal regulations have been followed before making participant data available.

Where appropriate, datasets should be anonymized or de-identified before sharing to protect participant confidentiality. Authors should not disclose information that could reasonably identify individual participants unless explicit permission has been obtained and disclosure complies with applicable regulations.

🧬 Data Supporting Biological and Pharmaceutical Research

For studies involving biological sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, microbiology, medicine, pharmacology, toxicology, environmental sciences, and related disciplines, authors are encouraged to preserve the underlying research data whenever feasible to facilitate scientific validation and future research.

Examples include experimental observations, laboratory measurements, analytical methods, computational workflows, biological sequences, chemical characterization data, imaging files, and supplementary datasets that support the published conclusions.

🔗 Citing Shared Research Data

Research datasets are valuable scholarly outputs and should be cited whenever they are publicly available. Authors are encouraged to provide complete citations for deposited datasets, including repository information and persistent identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) where available.

A complete data citation should normally include:

• 👨‍🔬 Creator(s).
• 📅 Publication year.
• 📄 Dataset title.
• 🏛️ Repository name.
• 🔗 Persistent identifier (DOI or equivalent).
• 📚 Version number where applicable.

📖 FAIR Data Principles

GSCBPS encourages authors to manage research data according to the internationally recognized FAIR Principles, which aim to improve the long-term usefulness of scientific data.

💻 Research Software and Source Code

Where software, programming scripts, computational models, artificial intelligence workflows, or statistical code are essential for reproducing published results, authors are encouraged to make these materials available whenever possible through appropriate repositories or supplementary files.

Providing source code and computational workflows enhances research transparency and supports reproducibility across the scientific community.

📎 Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary files that support the published article when these materials assist readers in understanding the research or reproducing the reported findings.

Supplementary materials may include:

• 📊 Additional datasets.
• 📈 Extended statistical analyses.
• 🧪 Experimental protocols.
• 📸 Additional figures and images.
• 📋 Supporting tables.
• 💻 Software documentation.
• 📝 Questionnaires and study instruments.

⚖️ Intellectual Property and Confidentiality

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that the sharing of research data does not infringe intellectual property rights, contractual obligations, institutional policies, or applicable laws. Where patents, commercialization activities, or confidential agreements exist, authors should disclose data only to the extent permitted by applicable legal and ethical requirements.

The journal supports responsible data sharing while recognizing that certain legitimate restrictions may prevent unrestricted public access to research datasets.

🗄️ Data Retention

Authors should retain the original research data supporting their published work for an appropriate period after publication in accordance with institutional policies, funding agency requirements, applicable regulations, and accepted scientific practice.

Where questions arise regarding the accuracy, integrity, reproducibility, or validity of published research, authors may be requested by the Editorial Office to provide access to the underlying research data for editorial assessment.

🔍 Editorial Verification of Research Data

During editorial assessment or peer review, GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences (GSCBPS) may request additional information, supporting datasets, laboratory records, statistical analyses, software code, or other materials when necessary to evaluate the scientific integrity of a submitted manuscript.

Such requests are intended solely to support the editorial and peer-review process and do not imply that all submitted datasets will be made publicly available.

Failure to provide requested supporting information without an acceptable explanation may affect the editorial evaluation of the manuscript.

⚖️ Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to GSCBPS are expected to:

• ✅ Maintain accurate and complete research records.
• ✅ Preserve original research data supporting published findings.
• ✅ Provide truthful and complete Data Availability Statements.
• ✅ Share research data whenever ethically, legally, and technically feasible.
• ✅ Protect participant confidentiality and personal privacy.
• ✅ Comply with institutional, funding, and legal requirements.
• ✅ Respond promptly to editorial requests for supporting research data.
• ✅ Ensure that shared datasets accurately represent the published research.

🚫 Policy Violations

Failure to comply with this Data Sharing Policy may result in editorial investigation in accordance with the journal's Publication Ethics Policy.

Examples of situations that may require editorial action include:

• ❌ Providing false or misleading Data Availability Statements.
• ❌ Refusal to provide supporting research data when reasonably requested by the Editorial Office.
• ❌ Fabrication or falsification of research data.
• ❌ Intentional withholding of data that materially affects the interpretation of published findings.
• ❌ Sharing confidential or restricted information without appropriate authorization.
• ❌ Misrepresentation of deposited datasets or repository records.

Where necessary, the journal may suspend editorial assessment, reject a manuscript, publish a correction, issue an Expression of Concern, retract a published article, or notify the relevant institution or funding organization in accordance with established publication ethics procedures.

📋 Data Sharing Checklist for Authors

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is data sharing mandatory for every manuscript?

GSCBPS strongly encourages responsible data sharing whenever it is ethically, legally, and technically feasible. Some datasets may be restricted because of privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, or legal requirements.

What is a Data Availability Statement?

A Data Availability Statement explains where the research data supporting a published article can be accessed or provides the reason why the data cannot be publicly shared.

Can confidential clinical data be shared publicly?

No. Authors should protect participant privacy and comply with applicable ethical, legal, and institutional requirements. Confidential or personally identifiable information should not be disclosed without appropriate authorization.

Can the journal request supporting research data?

Yes. During editorial assessment or peer review, the Editorial Office may request supporting datasets or related materials to help evaluate the scientific integrity and reproducibility of a manuscript.

Should software code also be shared?

Where software, computational workflows, statistical scripts, or programming code are essential for reproducing published findings, authors are encouraged to make them available through appropriate repositories whenever possible.

How should shared datasets be cited?

Authors should cite publicly available datasets using complete bibliographic information together with the repository name and persistent identifier, such as a DOI, whenever available.

Does GSCBPS recommend any specific repository?

The journal encourages authors to use reputable institutional, disciplinary, national, or general-purpose repositories that provide long-term preservation and persistent identifiers appropriate to their research discipline.