Research data policy

At Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences we believe that original and novel research is vitally important, so too are the studies that follow to confirm or repudiate their findings. We also believe in the creative re-use of data. Allowing other researcher’s access to the data that you have collected considerably extends its value. Creative reuse offers the opportunity to validate your findings as well as exploring new ways of using it. It also means that funding bodies and patients involved in the research see their initial investment grow.

Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences encourages authors to share research data that are required for confirming the results published in the manuscript and/or enhance the published manuscript under the principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary. We accept supporting software applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound or video clips, large appendices, data tables and other relevant items that cannot be included in the article.

Authors may submit data together with the manuscript through our journal management system. In this case, the data will be made available to reviewers and published once the manuscript is accepted for publication online (e.g. on the general-purpose data repository Zenodo). Each data file will be assigned a DOI, enabling the data to be cited the same way as traditional publications. Note that these materials will not be copy-edited or typeset: their appearance and format is entirely the author's responsibility.

Alternatively, authors may deposit relevant data in a FAIR-compliant repository – institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose. If you need assistance in finding a FAIR compliant repository, check this link: https://repositoryfinder.datacite.org/. Authors should also provide via the repository any information needed to replicate, validate, and/or reuse the results / your study and analysis of the data. This includes details of any software, instruments and other tools used to process the results. Where possible, the tools and instruments themselves should also be provided.

Exceptions: We recognize that openly sharing data may not always be feasible. Exceptions to open access to research data underlying publications include the following: obligation to protect results, confidentiality obligations, security obligations, the obligation to protect personal data and other legitimate constraints. Where open access is not provided to the data needed to validate the conclusions of a publication that reports original results, authors should provide the relevant access needed to validate the conclusions to the extent their legitimate interests or constraints are safeguarded).

We strongly encourage you to discuss sharing your data on the Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences website with our Editorial team (editorjhrs@almamater.si) after we have accepted your paper. We look forward to working together on this exciting open initiative.

1.1. Ethical and security considerations

If data access is restricted for ethical or security reasons, the manuscript must include:

• a description of the restrictions on the data;
• what, if anything, the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent said about the data sharing; and
• all necessary information required for a reader or reviewer to apply for access to the data and the conditions under which access will be granted.

1.2. Data protection issues

Where human data cannot be effectively de-identified, data must not be shared in order to protect participant privacy unless the individuals have given explicit written consent that their identifiable data can be made publicly available.

In instances where the data cannot be made available, the manuscript must include:

• an explanation of the data protection concern;
• any intermediary data that can be de-identified without compromising anonymity;
• what, if anything, the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent said about data sharing; and
• where applicable, all necessary information required for a reader or peer reviewer to apply for access to the data and the conditions under which access will be granted.

In addition, data may/should be linked to from a Data Accessibility Statement within the submitted paper, which will be made public upon publication. If data is not being made available within the journal publication, a statement from the author should be provided to explain why. When depositing data for a submission, the below should be considered:

• The repository the data is deposited in must be suitable for this subject and have a sustainability model.
• The data must be deposited under an open license that permits unrestricted access (e.g., CC0, CC-BY). More restrictive licenses should only be used if a valid reason (e.g., legal) is present.
• The deposited data must include a version that is in an open, non-proprietary format.
• The deposited data must have been labeled in such a way that a 3rd party can make sense of it (e.g., sensible column headers, descriptions in a readme text file).
• Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate Ethics Committee. The identity of the research subject should be anonymized whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian).
• A ‘Data Accessibility Statement’ should be added to the submission, prior to the reference list, providing the details of the data accessibility, including the DOI linking to it. If the data is restricted in any way, the reasoning should be given.