Data availability statements
We encourage all researchers to include a DAS in their publications. As well as increasing the transparency of research findings, DASes help to increase visibility and recognition of the work you’ve put in to producing, gathering, and analysing your research materials. For these reasons, many of our journals now require all manuscripts to include a DAS.
What sorts of things does a DAS cover?
If your research process has involved collecting, producing, curating, analysing, or interpreting any kinds of primary research materials, these can be described in your Data Availability Statement.
It’s important to note that Data Availability Statements are:
NOT just for quantitative data
A DAS can be used to describe the location and availability of any kinds of materials that your research findings are derived from. These may of course include quantitative datasets, but also qualitative research materials and even physical samples or artefacts.
NOT just for open data or materials
There are many reasons you might not be able to make your research materials publicly available, for example because of ethical, commercial, or privacy concerns. In these cases you can use a DAS to explain why it wasn’t possible to share your materials publicly, and how and where readers might gain access to them.
NOT just for materials you've collected or generated yourself
If you've worked with materials or datasets provided by third parties, or even with proprietary information belonging to commercial entities, you can use a DAS to explain how readers can request access to the same materials.
How do I write a good DAS?
An ideal Data Availability Statement should complement the content and references of your manuscript, by giving readers a brief summary and explanation of:
- What materials your research findings are based on
- Whether it’s possible for readers to access those materials
- If so, how readers can find and access them
Put another way, your DAS should answer the question:
“If a reader wanted to access the source materials my findings are based on, what would they have to do?”
Rather than following a strict formula or template, we encourage you to think meaningfully about how to answer this question when writing a DAS.
What information should I include in my DAS?
This depends a lot on the kinds of materials your research is based on. A helpful approach to writing a good DAS is to consider what information a disciplinary peer would find useful if they wanted to access those materials – or what you might find useful if you were to revisit your publication 10 years in the future. This might include:
- The identifiers or locations, digital or physical, of any research materials that are accessible via a repository, archive, or institution
- Any conditions or restrictions that might apply when accessing research materials in digital or physical repositories, archives, or collections
- Explanations of any ethical, commercial, or other reasons your research materials can’t be made publicly available
- Descriptions of which specific materials your research is based on, if they are part of a larger dataset, archive, or collection
- Contact details for any third parties who own or control access to any of the materials your research was based on
If your materials are held in a repository, then at minimum please make sure to include the repository name, permanent identifier/URL, and any other relevant information such as reference numbers. For example:
- Materials that support the findings of this study are openly available in [REPOSITORY] at http://doi.org/[DOI], reference number [REFERENCE].
Even better is to create a formal citation to your materials, for example:
- Data and code that support the findings of this study are openly available in [REPOSITORY] (AUTHOR et al., 2026).
In this case the full details of this citation should be included in your References. If your materials have an associated DOI, you can use the DOI Citation Formatter to create a reference in most standard styles. For more information please see our guidance on citing datasets.
Example Data Availability Statements
Below are some example approaches to writing a Data Availability Statement for different situations. In many cases you may want to combine aspects of more than one of these approaches to fully describe the materials you have worked with.
How do I include my DAS in my manuscript?
Where to put your DAS
- In journal articles, Data Availability Statements should generally be placed in the back matter of your manuscript. However if your journal uses a double-anonymous peer review process, you may be asked to submit your DAS in another way, such as in a title page, to maintain anonymity.
- In Elements, Data Availability Statements should likewise be placed at the end of your manuscript.
- In books, Data Availability Statements should be included alongside your Acknowledgements, or at the end of your chapter if you are contributing to an edited volume.
Peer review and anonymity
If you are submitting a manuscript that will undergo a double-anonymous peer review process, it's important to ensure that the information in your Data Availability Statement doesn't compromise the anonymity of you or any co-authors. If there is information in your Data Availability Statement that could be used to identify authors, please submit your Data Availability Statement the same way as you would any other identifying information associated with your manuscript. This might be for example as part of a title page, submitted as a separate document from your manuscript.
Many repositories such as Dataverse , OSF , Dryad and Figshare also offer the option to create temporary, anonymised links for the purpose of peer review. If you submit your manuscript with an anonymised link in your DAS, please make sure that after your manuscript has been accepted, you replace the anonymised link with a final, permanent one.