Research Data Policy

Policy Statement

The International Journal of Research on Multidisciplinary Studies (IJROMS) recognizes the importance of research data transparency, accessibility, accountability, and responsible data management in advancing scholarly knowledge and maintaining research integrity.

The journal encourages authors to adopt responsible data management and sharing practices that support the transparency, reproducibility, verification, and further development of scholarly research.

This policy establishes the journal's expectations concerning research data availability, accessibility, sharing, documentation, and ethical management. It applies to all submitted manuscripts involving original research data, regardless of discipline, methodology, or research design.

IJROMS supports the principles of responsible data sharing and recognizes that research data should be made as openly accessible as possible and as restricted as necessary, subject to applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and confidentiality requirements.

1. Scope of Research Data

For purposes of this policy, research data refer to the materials, records, observations, measurements, and other forms of information generated, collected, or analyzed in the conduct of scholarly research.

Research data may include, but are not limited to:

• Quantitative datasets and statistical records.

• Qualitative interview transcripts, focus group discussions, and field notes.

• Survey responses and questionnaire results.

• Experimental and laboratory data.

• Observational and longitudinal research records.

• Images, audio recordings, videos, and other multimedia research materials.

• Digital records, computational outputs, and analytical files.

• Research instruments, coding frameworks, and supplementary methodological materials.

• Other materials necessary to support the findings and conclusions of a published study.

The specific nature and format of research data may vary depending on the discipline, methodology, and objectives of the study.

2. Data Availability Expectations

IJROMS encourages authors to make the data supporting their research findings available to readers whenever ethically, legally, and practically permissible.

Authors are encouraged to provide sufficient information regarding the availability of the data used in their studies to promote research transparency and facilitate independent verification where appropriate.

Where research data can be shared, authors should consider depositing them in a suitable institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose research data repository.

Authors are encouraged to provide a Data Availability Statement in their manuscripts indicating how readers may access the data supporting the reported findings.

The statement should clearly identify whether the data are:

• Publicly available through an accessible repository.

• Available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

• Restricted due to ethical, legal, confidentiality, or institutional requirements.

• Not applicable because the study did not generate or analyze research datasets.

3. Data Availability Statement

Authors of original research articles are encouraged to include a Data Availability Statement within their manuscripts.

The statement should accurately describe the availability, accessibility, and conditions governing access to the research data.

The following examples may be used where applicable:

a. Publicly Available Data

"The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are publicly available through [name of repository] at [persistent link or DOI]."

b. Available Upon Reasonable Request

"The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to applicable ethical and institutional requirements."

c. Restricted Data

"The data supporting the findings of this study are not publicly available due to ethical, privacy, confidentiality, or institutional restrictions. Access may be considered subject to appropriate authorization and applicable regulations."

d. No New Data Generated or Analyzed

"No new datasets were generated or analyzed during this study. Therefore, data availability is not applicable."

e. Secondary or Publicly Available Data

"This study utilized publicly available datasets obtained from [name of source or repository]. The relevant data sources and access information are identified in the manuscript."

Authors must ensure that their Data Availability Statements accurately reflect the actual status of their research data.

4. Research Data Sharing and Accessibility

IJROMS encourages responsible research data sharing to facilitate scholarly collaboration, independent verification, methodological transparency, and further academic investigation.

Authors are encouraged to:

• Deposit supporting research datasets in recognized and reliable repositories.

• Provide persistent identifiers, such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), where available.

• Include appropriate documentation describing the datasets.

• Identify relevant variables, coding procedures, measurement instruments, and data collection methods.

• Provide information regarding applicable data licenses and access conditions.

• Ensure that shared datasets are consistent with the findings reported in the manuscript.

Where possible, authors should use established repositories appropriate to their research discipline or institutional requirements.

The journal recognizes that not all research data can be made publicly available. Restrictions must be appropriately justified and disclosed.

5. Ethical, Legal, and Privacy Considerations

Research data sharing must comply with applicable ethical standards, data protection requirements, confidentiality obligations, and institutional regulations.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that data are collected, processed, stored, and shared in accordance with relevant legal and ethical requirements.

Particular care must be exercised when research involves:

• Human participants.

• Personally identifiable information.

• Sensitive or confidential records.

• Children and other vulnerable populations.

• Health, educational, employment, or institutional records.

• Proprietary, classified, or commercially confidential information.

Authors must not publicly disclose personal, confidential, or sensitive information without appropriate legal authority and ethical authorization.

Where necessary, authors should anonymize, de-identify, aggregate, or otherwise appropriately protect research data before sharing.

In the Philippine context, authors must observe applicable data protection requirements, including the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), where relevant.

6. Research Data Involving Human Participants

For studies involving human participants, authors must ensure that data management and sharing procedures are consistent with the approved research ethics protocol, informed consent conditions, and applicable institutional requirements.

Authors should clearly establish whether participants have consented to the sharing or secondary use of their data, where such consent is required.

Identifiable participant information, confidential interview transcripts, and other sensitive materials must not be made publicly accessible without appropriate authorization.

Where public sharing is not permissible, authors may provide appropriately anonymized datasets, aggregated findings, metadata, or a justified explanation of the access restrictions.

The protection of participants' rights, privacy, confidentiality, and welfare shall take precedence over unrestricted data sharing.

7. Data Integrity and Research Reproducibility

Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy, authenticity, consistency, and integrity of the research data supporting their manuscripts.

Research data must not be fabricated, falsified, manipulated, selectively altered, or misrepresented.

Where applicable, authors should retain sufficient documentation to support the reported research procedures, analytical methods, and findings.

IJROMS may request relevant research data, documentation, or additional methodological information when necessary to assess concerns regarding the validity, reliability, or integrity of a submitted or published manuscript.

Such requests shall be handled with due consideration for confidentiality, participant privacy, intellectual property rights, and applicable legal requirements.

8. Data Repositories and Recommended Practices

IJROMS encourages authors to use established research data repositories that support reliable preservation, discoverability, accessibility, and appropriate citation of research datasets.

Suitable repositories may include:

• Institutional research repositories.

• Discipline-specific data repositories.

• Government-supported research data platforms.

• Recognized general-purpose research repositories.

• Other reputable platforms that provide appropriate data preservation and access mechanisms.

Authors should select repositories that provide, where available:

• Persistent identifiers.

• Clear data ownership and licensing information.

• Appropriate access controls.

• Long-term preservation arrangements.

• Descriptive metadata and documentation.

• Reliable data retrieval and citation mechanisms.

The journal does not endorse or guarantee the long-term availability of data deposited in any particular third-party repository.

9. Data Citation and Acknowledgment

Authors are encouraged to formally cite datasets used in or supporting their research.

Data citations should provide sufficient bibliographic information to identify and retrieve the relevant datasets.

Where available, dataset citations should include:

• Author or responsible organization.

• Year of publication or release.

• Dataset title.

• Repository or hosting institution.

• Version or edition, where applicable.

• Persistent identifier or DOI.

• Applicable access information.

Authors must properly acknowledge data sources and comply with relevant licensing and attribution requirements when using third-party datasets.

10. Editorial Assessment and Verification

The editorial office may assess the adequacy of Data Availability Statements and the consistency of data-sharing declarations with the research presented in submitted manuscripts.

Where necessary, the journal may request:

• Clarification regarding data availability.

• Supporting documentation or methodological records.

• Information about data repositories and access procedures.

• Evidence of appropriate ethical authorization.

• Explanations for restrictions on data sharing.

The journal reserves the right to seek additional clarification when concerns arise regarding the authenticity, accessibility, or integrity of research data.

Failure to provide satisfactory explanations may be considered during editorial evaluation and may affect the publication decision.

11. Exceptions to Data Sharing

IJROMS recognizes that certain research datasets cannot reasonably or ethically be made publicly available.

Acceptable reasons for restricted access may include:

• Protection of participant confidentiality and personal information.

• Legal or regulatory restrictions.

• Institutional or research ethics requirements.

• Third-party ownership or licensing limitations.

• Commercial or intellectual property restrictions.

• National security or other legitimate confidentiality considerations.

• Other justified circumstances that prevent responsible public disclosure.

Authors requesting restricted access must provide a clear and reasonable explanation in their Data Availability Statement.

Restrictions must not be used to conceal research misconduct, manipulate findings, or prevent legitimate scrutiny of scholarly claims.

12. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are primarily responsible for the proper management, preservation, documentation, and disclosure of research data associated with their manuscripts.

They are expected to:

• Ensure that research data are authentic and accurately represented.

• Maintain appropriate records of data collection and analysis.

• Comply with relevant ethical and legal requirements.

• Provide accurate Data Availability Statements.

• Obtain necessary permissions before sharing third-party or confidential data.

• Properly acknowledge and cite datasets obtained from external sources.

• Cooperate with reasonable editorial requests concerning research data.

• Disclose legitimate restrictions affecting data accessibility.

Authors remain accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the research data supporting their published findings.

13. Policy Implementation

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to and published by the International Journal of Research on Multidisciplinary Studies (IJROMS).

The journal encourages the responsible sharing of research data while recognizing the importance of ethical safeguards, confidentiality, intellectual property rights, and applicable legal obligations.

IJROMS reserves the right to revise or update this policy as necessary to reflect developments in research data management, open science, scholarly publishing, and internationally recognized research integrity standards.

All data-related editorial decisions shall be guided by the principles of transparency, accountability, responsible research conduct, and the protection of the scholarly record.