Data availability statement
Authors must include a Data Availability Statement describing where supporting data, code, and materials can be accessed or explaining legitimate restrictions. Repository identifiers, accession numbers, and persistent links should be supplied when available.
Secondary analyses must cite the original dataset, state access conditions, and describe preprocessing and analytical methods sufficiently for evaluation.
Clinical and surgical data
Clinical and surgical data may contain highly sensitive personal information. Authors must not release identifiable data, photographs, case records, or restricted clinical materials without appropriate consent and lawful authority.
Restricted access, de-identification, or a reasoned explanation of why data cannot be shared is acceptable where required to protect participants or comply with applicable obligations. A statement that data cannot be shared is acceptable; the absence of any statement is not.
Verification by editors
Editors may request underlying evidence through a secure and appropriate process, including during the assessment of a concern raised after publication. Where participant confidentiality limits what may be supplied, authors are asked to demonstrate the existence and provenance of the material in a way their ethics approval permits; inability to release raw data is assessed in that light and is not treated by itself as evidence of fabrication.
Case reports and identifiable material
For case reports and any material containing potentially identifiable information, written consent for publication must be obtained and documented, and reviewers assess whether that consent and the protection of identity are adequately evidenced; see Peer Review Policy and Publication Ethics and Authorship.
Read together with Publication Ethics and Authorship, Preservation and Self-Archiving and Copyright and Licensing. This policy is reviewed at least once a year.