Data Sharing & Accessibility

Penamas: Journal of Religious and Societies

Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy

Transparent and reproducible research, while protecting the people who take part in it.

Policy Statement

Penamas encourages transparent and reproducible research while protecting the people who take part in it. Data and research materials should be as open as possible and as closed as necessary. Penamas publishes field research on religion and society, which often involves interviews, observations, and community records. Ethics, informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality come before open access to data.

Data Availability Statement
Required in every article
Ethics first
Consent and privacy take priority
Shared in safe forms
Instruments, codes, and anonymised data
Reproducibility
Methods described clearly enough to follow

1. What Counts as Research Data

Research data and materials include, among others:

  • interview transcripts, field notes, and observation records;
  • survey instruments, questionnaires, and response data;
  • documents, archives, manuscripts, and visual or audio materials used as sources;
  • interview guides, coding frames, and analysis protocols;
  • statistical output, software, and code used in the analysis.

2. Data Availability Statement

Every article must contain a Data Availability Statement in a place that is easy to find, for example before the References. Authors choose the option that fits their study:

  • Data shared: the data are in the article, its supplementary files, or a named repository (give the link or DOI).
  • Data available on request: the data are held by the authors and can be requested from the corresponding author for legitimate scholarly use.
  • Data restricted: the data cannot be shared because of consent, privacy, safety of participants, or other ethical or legal reasons. The statement explains why.
  • No new data: no new data were created or analysed in the study.
Example: "The interview transcripts contain information that could identify informants and cannot be shared publicly. The interview guide and the coding scheme are provided as supplementary files. Anonymised extracts are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."

3. What May and May Not Be Shared

May be shared
  • Interview guides and questionnaires
  • Coding schemes and analysis protocols
  • Anonymised extracts and summary data
  • Public documents and published sources
  • Code and software, where possible
Should not be shared
  • Data that identifies informants without consent
  • Sensitive data about vulnerable persons or groups
  • Material that could cause harm or retaliation
  • Third-party material without permission

4. Reproducibility and Methods

Authors should describe the research design, sampling or selection of informants, data collection, and analysis in enough detail that other researchers can understand how the findings were reached. Where field data cannot be shared, the methods section should make the procedure transparent instead.

5. Ethics, Consent, and Privacy

  • Data about people may be shared only if the participants agreed, or if the data are properly anonymised.
  • Authors protect the identity and safety of informants, minority groups, and religious communities.
  • Where required, the article states the ethical clearance number and year, or a statement of ethical compliance approved by the editors.
  • Authors respect intellectual property and copyright when sharing material.

6. Repositories

When authors choose to deposit data, they are encouraged to use a trusted repository that gives a persistent identifier (DOI), such as an institutional repository or a general-purpose repository for research data. Authors give the link or DOI in the Data Availability Statement. Depositing data is encouraged but not required.

7. Responsibilities

1
Authors provide the Data Availability Statement, keep their data and materials safely, and respond to reasonable requests.
2
Reviewers check whether the statement is present and whether the methods are clear. They keep confidential any data they see during review.
3
Editors check that each accepted article has a clear statement, and may ask authors for further information.

8. Requests for Data and Non-Compliance

Editors may ask authors to provide the data or materials behind an article when a serious question arises about its findings. If authors cannot provide them without good reason, or the statement proves to be inaccurate, the journal may handle the case under the Correction and Retraction Policy or the Research Misconduct procedure.

9. Related Policies