Data Storage & Management

Thank you for your question. We would highly recommend preparing 2 copies of the data; one with the contact details of the patients which will be used for administrative purpose and a second copy of the data which will be anonymized that can be used for your research purpose. Hope this answers your question. Please write to us if you require more clarity.You may find the following resources useful:Is journal permission required for reproducing a figure?When citing a figure, can I remove the unnecessary part?Tips on effective use of tables and figures in research papers

We had received a similar query recently. You may refer to it here: Is there any timeframe for the original data for a previously published article to be kept or shared? Our response herein should be the same for your situation.Apart from that, you may find it useful to go through these related queries:What are the rules for reusing data sets accompanying publications?What are the copyright requirements related to data sharing in a public repository?How exactly does the editor want me to share my data?Hope that helps!

We understand your predicament. However, it is advisable to retain your research data (raw data, analyses, original figures, etc.) for as long as possible for exactly the reason the journal editor has reached out to you. :)Retention of data generated from your study is important for verifying or reproducing the findings. In particular, if you anticipate questions about the validity of the data or conduct of the research, you must retain all the original research data until such issues have been completely resolved. Another reason to hold on to your data is if you want to re-use the data in some way for a different study. Ideally, data should be retained for as long as possible, even indefinitely, provided that this does not breach the conditions of ethics approval or any agreement under which the data were obtained.Coming to your predicament, you might need to check if your institute mandates a minimum period of data retention and/or if your sponsor/funder’s contract has any such requirements. This would particularly be so for studies involving human participants. For example, FDA requires research records to be retained for two years after the study is over, while for research that involves collecting identifiable health...

The exact type of data that you need to ask from the authors depends on the specific goal and the context of your study. Broadly speaking, since a meta-analysis pools multiple data sets, you may want to know the details like ‘heterogeneity’ in the results of different studies, length of the confidence interval, weight or precision of a study. Since a detail discussion on this is outside the scope of the current forum, it is advisable that you talk to a statistician to understand what specific details of the data you would need to answer your specific research question.We acknowledge that the research is a competitive field and there is a difference in opinions or comfort levels among the researchers when it comes to sharing information about their study. However, if you consider your meta-analysis would involve serious collaborative effort, or you need a considerable amount of critical data from other researchers, please share necessary details of your study so that the others can understand why their data is important for your study. This will help you in receiving the desired support from other researchers. The funding agency or the regulatory body associated with a study or national security law...

In many fields, it is acceptable to present the same research at multiple conferences. First of all, you need to make sure if this is acceptable in your field. Your supervisor or a senior colleague might be able to give you this information.Additionally, it would be a good idea to inform the organizers of the second conference that you have made a presentation using the same data at a domestic conference. Explain that while the data is the same, you plan to use a different analysis and add a good amount of new material. If the international conference is okay with this, you can definitely make your presentation. Related reading: 8 Tips for presenting a paper at an academic conference

As per PLOS ONE data sharing policies, you need to share all your data publicly. From the email, it seems that you have just shared the results of the statistical derivations, such as the mean, median, etc. However, you will need to share all the underlying data. To explain this more clearly, you need to provide all the individual data points from which you derived the mean or median. You can provide the entire dataset as supporting information which you can probably upload on the submission page or send to the editor via email.However, if the dataset is too large to upload as supporting information, you will have to create an account in a public data repository such as arXiv, figshare, Dryad, etc. and put up your data there. Once you upload your dataset on the repository, you should give the editor access to the data. Usually, most public repositories are associated with a DOI. In that case, you have to give the DOI to the editor. If the repository is not associated with a DOI, it will give you an accession number, which you should share with the editor.  Recommended reading: A young researcher's guide to open access publishing...

From the viewpoint of a university's institutional repository, it would not be unethical or unacceptable for authors to submit their work to a journal or another repository. However, if you make changes to one version, you’ll have the hassle of replicating them in all repositories.  Readers might find different versions of your paper in online searches and get confused. If you’re hosting a version of your paper in an established repository, like Figshare, there should be no reason to simultaneously host it elsewhere. If you do choose to host your preprint in different repositories, it would be a good idea to check whether either repository mentions any restrictions on this. Regarding publication in a journal, it is perfectly acceptable, and in fact desirable to develop a preprint into a full-fledged journal article. Preprints are not publications: they are just a way to give people access to your research. For your work to gain the stamp of credibility, it must be published in a peer reviewed journal. However, there may be some restrictions and/or specifications at the journal end about submitting papers that have been deposited in a repository. Many journals allow authors to deposit into open repositories pre-prints that do not contain...

The idea behind publishers' data sharing mandates is to make data open for reuse. In most cases, data sets accompanying publications are freely available for reuse by other researchers, of course, with proper citation and attribution. Generally speaking, you are not required to take the permission of the authors, unless specified in the paper or the journal. However, you should use complete data citations in the style that is appropriate to your field. This usually includes the name of the author, publication date, title, publisher, and digital object identifier (DOI).It is recommended that you check the style guide that is followed in your field while citing a data set. Here is an example of data citation formats used in different style manuals: APA: Cool, H. E. M., & Bell, M. (2011). Excavations at St Peter’s Church, Barton-upon-Humber [Data set]. doi:10.5284/1000389 Chicago: (Footnote) H. E. M. Cool and Mark Bell, Excavations at St Peter’s Church, Barton-upon-Humber (accessed May 1, 2011), doi:10.5284/1000389. (Bibliography) Cool, H. E. M., and Mark Bell. Excavations at St Peter’s Church, Barton-upon-Humber (accessed May 1, 2011).doi:10.5284/1000389. MLA: Cool, H. E. M., and Mark Bell. “Excavations at St Peter’s Church, Barton-upon-Humber.” Archaeology Data Service, 2001. Web. 1 May 2011.<http://dx.doi.org/10.5284/1000389>. Oxford: Cool, H. E. M. and Bell, M. (2011), Excavations at St Peter’s...

Datasets and metadata on Figshare are published under a CC0 license, which enables you to make your datasets available in the public domain. This reduces legal barriers to the reuse of data. But users have the responsibility to cite the source, though they do not have to ask or inform the data owner before using it. Data on Figshare also have DOIs and are citable. The DOI will appear in citations, making it easier for other researchers to get back to the original data. PLOSONE expects authors to adhere to a data sharing policy and submit a data sharing statement. Check the PLOSONE website for specific requirements for data sharing by article type. However, if you have concerns about openly sharing data due to ethical reasons or to protect the privacy of patients, you can inform the editorial team. In such cases, they usually have policies that allow the publication of the paper maintaining the appropriate level of security.

Raw data refers to data that has not been processed. Raw data needs to undergo processing such as selective extraction, organization, and sometimes analysis and formatting to make it presentable. The data that you have collected for the purpose of your research is raw data. It is also called primary or source data.Most journals ask for a part of raw data, i.e., only the underlying data that is vital and relevant to the paper. This is a step which journals are taking in response to an increased call for transparency within the academic community. With a large number of papers being churned out every year by journals, new theories and findings are constantly being published. Accessibility of raw data ensures reproducibility of these findings and enables researchers to conduct replication studies. Accessibility of raw data is the right step towards open science as it ensures reproducibility of these findings. Generally, journals ask for raw data to be provided along with the manuscript as supplementary information, which is part of the submission package. You can look up the author information page of a journal to find out whether they require raw data at the time of submission. Some of the popular journals that ask for...