Although it is usually funder policies which are seen to push the research data management (RDM) agenda, a number of publishers also have data policies. Three of these policies are identified below:

PLOS: PLOS state in their policy that “PLOS journals require authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception”. At the point of submission authors must provide a Data Availability Statement. They strongly recommend that the data is deposited in a repository.

Royal Society: The Royal Society Open Data Policy states that “it is a condition of publication that authors make available the data and research materials supporting the results in the article”. Similarly to PLOS, all manuscripts submitted to Royal Society journals should contain a Data Accessibility Statement which states where the supporting data can be accessed.

Nature Group: Nature Group policy states that “authors are required to make materials, data, code, and associated protocols promptly available to readers without undue qualifications“. Supporting data must also be made available to editors and peer-reviewers at the time of submission.

If your data is covered by a commercial agreement or cannot be released under the Data Protection Act then you will not be expected to make that data public. However, as with funder policies you should make efforts to release as much of your data as possible and/or practicable.

If you wish to publish data in Loughborough’s data repository please contact rdm@lboro.ac.uk.