- Data Archiving and Permissions
- ISSN 2997-2248
- Open access · CC BY 4.0
Data Archiving and Permissions
How the Journal of Wildlife asks authors to share the data and code behind their findings, protect vulnerable species and the people who work with them, and obtain permission for material they reuse.
At a glance
The essentials for authors.
- Data availability statement
- Required in every empirical research manuscript.
- Repositories
- Deposit in a recognized repository with a persistent identifier is encouraged.
- Code
- Analysis code and custom software are shared where possible.
- Sensitive locations
- Precise locations of threatened or poaching-prone species may be generalized or withheld, with the reason stated.
- Reused material
- Written permission from the copyright holder, supplied at submission.
- Preservation
- JWL articles will be deposited in Portico.
Data availability statement
Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. It explains where the data supporting the results can be found, or the conditions under which they can be accessed when permits, landowner agreements, ethics approval or the protection of vulnerable species restrict sharing. Typical statements read:
- Data in a repository: "The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository] at [DOI or URL]."
- Data on request: "The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."
- Restricted data: "The data are not publicly available because of [permit, privacy or species-protection restrictions] and are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."
- Data in the article: "All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and its supplementary files."
Choosing a repository
Data are deposited in a discipline-specific or general-purpose repository that assigns a persistent identifier, such as a DOI or accession number, and supports FAIR-aligned metadata. Examples include:
- General: Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad, Open Science Framework
- Occurrence and biodiversity records: Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), using the Darwin Core standard
- Animal tracking: Movebank
- Genomic and molecular: GenBank, European Nucleotide Archive, Sequence Read Archive
Code and software
Custom code, statistical analysis scripts and software used to produce the results are shared where possible, for example through Zenodo, GitHub or GitLab, with version numbers, dependencies and enough documentation to reproduce the analysis.
Sensitive locations and species protection
Publishing exact coordinates of threatened, collectible or poaching-prone species can put them at risk. Authors may generalize coordinates, for example to a coarser grid or a named protected area, or place precise locations in a controlled-access repository, and state in the data-availability statement what was done and why. The editors consider such restrictions when assessing a manuscript.
Human participants and privacy
Data from human participants, such as interviews or household surveys in landscapes shared with wildlife, are shared only when this is consistent with the participants' consent and the ethics approval for the study. Before sharing, authors remove information that could identify a participant, use a controlled-access repository when full de-identification is not possible, and follow applicable data-protection law.
Secondary data
Authors who analyze existing datasets cite the original data source, follow the conditions of use set by the data provider, acknowledge the data creators and explain how readers can obtain the same data.
Permission to reuse published material
A manuscript that reproduces figures, maps, tables or substantial text published elsewhere needs written permission from the copyright holder, usually the original publisher. Authors supply the permission with the submission and give the source in the caption, for example "Adapted with permission from [citation]". Material published under CC BY needs attribution but usually no permission. Photographs of identifiable people are published only with their written consent.
JWL articles are published under CC BY 4.0, so they can be reused without asking permission, provided they are credited as set out on the Copyright and License page.
Supplementary material
Supplementary files, such as extended tables, questionnaires, datasets, audio or video, are welcome. Each file is clearly named, for example "Supplementary_Table_1.xlsx", and briefly described in the manuscript. Supplementary material is reviewed with the manuscript. For very large files, contact the editorial office before submission.
Data sharing and permissions
For questions about data sharing or permissions, write to the editorial office at info@openaccesspub.org.