Data Archiving Permissions

Clear data sharing guidance that protects animal welfare, owner privacy, and research integrity.

Provide a concise statement explaining where data are stored and how they can be accessed. Examples include:

Choose repositories that provide persistent identifiers, version control, and clear access options. Use discipline appropriate repositories whenever possible.

• Remove identifying owner information and farm location details unless consent is documented.
• Use coded identifiers for animals and herds when sharing datasets.
• Confirm animal ethics approvals and align with institutional welfare policies.
• For wildlife studies, follow regional regulations and conservation guidance.

Clinical records should be de-identified, and any owner or farm identifiers should be removed or masked. For herd level data, aggregate results when possible to reduce the risk of indirect identification.

If your study uses datasets provided by clinics, farms, or industry partners, confirm that data sharing is permitted. Document any licensing restrictions or agreements and summarize them in the manuscript or supplementary materials.

When data sharing is restricted, provide a contact pathway for qualified researchers to request access under a data use agreement.

For analytical scripts or custom tools, provide a public repository link and describe versioning and dependencies. This enables other researchers to reproduce findings and adapt methods responsibly.

Authors should retain raw data and analysis files for a reasonable period after publication in case of audit, replication, or regulatory requests. Ensure that data storage follows institutional and legal requirements and that access permissions are documented clearly.

We recommend documenting file formats, variable definitions, and data dictionaries to make datasets reusable for clinical and research purposes.

Clear documentation reduces interpretation errors and supports future meta analyses.