Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
'All raw and processed data are available at Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.XXXXXXX.'
- Is an instance
'Data are available under controlled access via dbGaP study accession phsXXXXXX.'
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
No data availability statement at all.
- Not an instance
A vague claim 'data available from the corresponding author'.
Editorial commentary
A data availability statement (DAS) is a dedicated manuscript section, distinct from the Methods, that tells readers where and under what conditions the data underlying a paper’s findings can be obtained. Most journal and funder policies now require one for every empirical article, whether or not the data itself is openly deposited, because the statement’s job is transparency about access conditions, not a promise that data is unrestricted.
Standard categories
Data availability statements typically fall into a small number of conventional categories: data publicly available in a named repository (with an accession number or DOI); data available on reasonable request from the corresponding author; data subject to restricted access (e.g., via a data access committee, due to participant privacy or a data use agreement); or data that cannot be shared (e.g., proprietary or legally restricted data, with the specific reason stated). A strong statement names the actual repository or contact route and any conditions, rather than a bare category label.
Why enforcement is tightening
Studies auditing statement compliance — for example Gabelica, Bojcic, and Puljak (2022), “Many researchers were not compliant with their published data sharing statement” — found low rates of actual data delivery when readers followed up on “available on request” statements. As a result, journals and funders are increasingly favoring deposit in a named repository over on-request language, and some now spot-check or require evidence of deposit before publication rather than accepting a statement at face value.
In practice
A data availability statement works alongside, but is not a substitute for, the broader disclosures covered by open data and open code policies, and for sensitive-data handling commitments made earlier in a data management plan — the DAS is the publication-facing summary of decisions that should already have been made during data management planning, not a place to newly decide them.
References
- Gabelica, Bojcic, Puljak, ‘Many researchers were not compliant with their published data sharing statement’ (Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2022).
Also known as
DAS · data accessibility statement
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Data availability statement"
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},
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},
"datePublished": "2026-05-21T02:22:49",
"dateModified": "2026-08-22T15:52:09",
"inLanguage": "en-GB",
"isAccessibleForFree": true
}
