This journal supports best practices in research openness and transparency. The policies below outline our expectations for authors to help ensure that the research results we publish are as transparent as possible.

Methodology

We encourage authors to follow best practices in reporting their methodology. Reporting guidelines for many study designs, including quantitative and qualitative scholarship across many disciplines, can be found in the EQUATOR Network.

Data availability

Authors are strongly encouraged to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscripts, explaining where and how readers can access the data underpinning the research published in the manuscript. Data Availability Statements should be placed in the back matter of your manuscript, before the References.

Whenever possible, we encourage you to make all data and qualitative materials underpinning your research available to readers through an appropriate repository. If you cannot make your data publicly available due to ethical or legal concerns, we encourage you to explain this in your Data Availability Statement.

Appropriate repositories are ones that provide persistent identifiers and have robust preservation policies, ensuring the long-term integrity of published research. 

Citing data and other materials

We encourage authors to cite any materials and data they have used in their research, alongside literature citations, to recognise the importance of all kinds of research outputs.