Data Availability

The International Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Fertility Sciences encourages responsible data management, transparency, and reproducibility of research. Authors should provide sufficient information about the availability of research data and supporting materials to help readers understand, verify, and build upon published findings. The policy is particularly important for research involving clinical information, human participants, reproductive materials, and other sensitive data.

1. Data Availability Statement

Authors should include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript where applicable.

The statement should clearly indicate whether the supporting data are:

  • Publicly available.
  • Available through a recognized repository.
  • Available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
  • Restricted because of privacy, ethical, legal, or confidentiality requirements.
  • Not applicable to the study.

2. Publicly Available Data

When research data are deposited in a public repository, authors should provide:

  • Repository name.
  • Dataset or accession number.
  • Persistent identifier or appropriate link, where available.
  • Any conditions governing access to the data.

Authors should ensure that deposited datasets correspond accurately with the research reported in the article.

3. Repository-Based Data

Authors are encouraged to use appropriate repositories when sharing research data is ethically and legally possible.

Repository-based data may include:

  • Research datasets.
  • Supporting files.
  • Experimental results.
  • Statistical data.
  • Supplementary research materials.
  • Other materials necessary to support the published research.

4. Human and Clinical Research Data

Research involving human participants requires particular care when handling research data.

Authors must protect:

  • Participant privacy.
  • Patient confidentiality.
  • Personally identifiable information.
  • Sensitive medical information.
  • Confidential clinical records.

Data should only be shared when permitted by applicable ethical approvals, informed consent, institutional requirements, and relevant laws or regulations.

5. Restricted or Confidential Data

Some datasets cannot be made publicly available because of:

  • Participant confidentiality.
  • Ethical restrictions.
  • Privacy requirements.
  • Legal restrictions.
  • Institutional policies.
  • Commercial or proprietary considerations.

In such cases, authors should explain the reason for restricted access in the Data Availability Statement.

6. Data Available Upon Reasonable Request

Where appropriate, authors may state that supporting data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

A statement may be written as:

Data Availability: The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to applicable ethical and confidentiality requirements.

Authors should not promise access to data that cannot legally or ethically be shared.

7. Data Integrity and Accuracy

Authors are responsible for ensuring that research data are:

  • Accurate.
  • Complete where appropriate.
  • Properly documented.
  • Consistent with the reported results.
  • Stored and managed responsibly.

Fabrication, falsification, manipulation, or misleading presentation of research data is not acceptable.

8. Supplementary Materials

Authors may provide supplementary materials when they are useful for supporting the published research.

These may include:

  • Additional tables.
  • Additional figures.
  • Supporting datasets.
  • Methodological information.
  • Additional statistical analyses.
  • Other relevant research materials.

9. Data Availability After Publication

Authors should make reasonable efforts to maintain access to data and supporting materials in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and publication requirements.

If a data link or repository identifier becomes unavailable, authors should provide updated information where appropriate.

10. Data Citation

When publicly available datasets are used, authors should appropriately acknowledge and cite the original data source.

Dataset citations should provide sufficient information for readers to identify and access the relevant data where permitted.