Books Data Sharing Policy

Do you have a data set associated with your book (or chapter)? Taylor & Francis Books encourages you to share it and our Data Sharing Policy can help you to decide how your data should be shared.

The details below will help you get to grips with our policy and the steps you’ll need to take as an author.

As of April 2021, all new Taylor & Francis publications entering the production process will be encouraged to adhere to the following Data Sharing Policy where appropriate:

Taylor & Francis strongly encourages all book and chapter authors to share and make data open where this does not violate protection of human subjects or other valid subject privacy concerns. Authors are further encouraged to cite data and provide a data availability statement for inclusion in their publication

• Sharing data publicly improves the robustness of the research process, supporting validation, research transparency, reproducibility and replicability of results.
• Sharing data can lead to re-use and discovery, with greater opportunities for carrying out meta-analyses and the extraction of new knowledge.
• Depositing data in a repository that mints a permanent identifier such as a DOI, allows authors and others to cite the data set, allowing researchers to get appropriate credit for their work.
• Data deposition supports the preservation of data long term.
• Wider public availability of research data supports the translation of research into practice.
• Many funders now make data sharing a requirement (you can check using this handy Sherpa-Juliet tool), and it’s become increasingly commonplace for some subject areas to make data available to everyone.

Read more about the benefits of sharing data.

What is research data?

Research data is the information (whether it has been observed, collected or generated) needed for independent verification of research results. In other words, research data is the underlying evidence upon which the claims made in your publication rely. What research data looks like varies by discipline and subject area, and may include raw data or a manipulated or sub-set of data. It’s important to note that data doesn’t just mean data files or spreadsheets – it can take many forms such as video, transcripts, questionnaires or slides.

I want to share my data, what data should I share?

The minimum data set is the data needed for independent verification of research results. Our books data sharing policy leaves you as the author to determine the minimum data set to be shared. Some authors might choose to share the full raw data, while others will select a manipulated sub-set of the data that underlies the analysis in the specific article to be published.

What license or copyright will be applied to my data?

Taylor & Francis will not apply a licence to data linked to in your book or chapter. If you share your data in a repository, you as the author get to decide the terms on which it can be accessed and reused. We encourage open licenses that allow for re-use where appropriate and possible. Learn more about creative commons licenses

Do I have to share my data?

No, at present the Taylor & Francis Books Data Sharing Policy strongly encourages, but does not mandate, the deposit or sharing of data. We do not require you to include a data availability statement in your work if you do not wish to. We do however urge you to consider the benefits of sharing data outlined above and check the requirements of any funders associated with your work.

Data Repositories explained

A data repository is a storage space for researchers to deposit data sets associated with their research. If you’re an author seeking to share your data publicly or if your funder requires you to deposit your data, you’ll need to identify a suitable repository for your data.

Authors can choose from a range data repositories. To help you decide where to deposit your data, we’ve prepared some information here.

We encourage authors to select a data repository that issues a persistent identifier, preferably a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and has established a robust preservation plan to ensure the data is preserved in perpetuity.

Data Availability Statements

When you submit your manuscript, we will ask you if you wish to include a data availability statement with your publication. These statements provide information on where and under what conditions the data directly supporting the publication can be accessed. The aim of such statements is to make data more findable and discoverable.

For further details on how to write a data availability statements, please visit our author guidelines.