Data availability statements

A data availability statement, sometimes called a data access statement, is noted in the University's Research Data Management Policy and is often a requirement for submitting research for publication.

Journals and publishers may have different submission instructions, but require similar elements within a data availability statement. For example, Taylor & Francis provides the following guidance on its page, Writing a data availability statement.

Nature provides guidelines and examples: Reporting standards and availability of data, materials, code and protocols.

First, publish the data or descriptive (metadata-only) record associated with the research publication in an appropriate repository.

The University provides Institutional Figshare as our data repository, which allows you to select an appropriate licence and assign a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to the item. These are key elements of a data availability statement (refer to DOIs for research).

A data availability statement is typically a short paragraph that commonly includes:

• Details on whether the data is available and how to access it
• A link to the published data or descriptive (metadata-only) record, e.g. a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
• What, if any, access restrictions are associated with the data? Access may be restricted for a number of reasons, including ethics, data sovereignty, or commercial sensitivity
• The licence by which others may reuse the data

Data you created

“All data generated during the course of this study is available from [repository name] at [DOI] under a [licence] licence.”

Existing sources

“All data analysed during the course of this study was reused from existing sources: [dataset 1] is available from [repository] at [DOI] under a [licence] licence; [dataset 2] was sourced from [government website] and is in the public domain; [dataset 3] was provided upon request by [data contact] from [institution].”

Restricted access

“A metadata-only record of the data supporting this study is available from [repository name] at [DOI]. To request access to the full dataset, contact the corresponding author [name, email] or follow the data access process as described at [website]."

Not available

“The data associated with our study is not available, in line with our ethics approval process, due to commercial sensitivity.”

No data

“No new data was generated or analysed during this study.”

Research Data Support Services
Email: researchdata@auckland.ac.nz

e Research Engagement Specialist
Email: Tom Saunders