The Pakistan Journal of Nutrition (PJN) supports responsible sharing of research data to promote transparency, reproducibility, verification, and the continued advancement of scientific knowledge. Authors are encouraged to make the data supporting the findings of their research available whenever this can be done ethically, legally, and without compromising the privacy or confidentiality of research participants.

Data Availability Statement

Authors should include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript describing whether and how the data supporting the findings of the study can be accessed.

The statement should indicate, as appropriate, whether the data are publicly available in a repository, included within the article or its supplementary materials, available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to controlled access, or unavailable for legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, or contractual reasons.

Public Data Repositories

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit research data in a recognized subject-specific, institutional, or general-purpose repository that provides appropriate access and long-term preservation. When data have been deposited in a repository, the manuscript should provide the repository name and a persistent identifier, accession number, DOI, or other appropriate link or reference that allows the data to be located.

Data deposited in external repositories should be described sufficiently to allow readers to understand their relationship to the published article.

Data Included with the Article

Datasets, supporting tables, protocols, questionnaires, analytical materials, or other relevant research information may be provided as supplementary material when appropriate and when permitted by ethical, legal, and copyright requirements.

Data Available Upon Reasonable Request

When public deposition is not appropriate or practical, authors may state that supporting data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Authors should make reasonable efforts to respond to legitimate requests for data while protecting participant confidentiality, intellectual property, contractual obligations, and other applicable restrictions.

Human Participant and Clinical Data

Research data involving human participants must be shared in a manner consistent with informed consent, ethical approval, privacy requirements, and applicable laws and regulations. Personally identifiable or potentially identifiable information must not be made publicly available unless appropriate consent and authorization permit such disclosure.

Where sharing is appropriate, participant-level data should be de-identified or anonymized to the extent necessary to protect privacy. Access restrictions or controlled-access mechanisms may be used when open public sharing could create an unreasonable risk of identifying participants or disclosing sensitive information.

Clinical Trial Data

Manuscripts reporting clinical trials should include an appropriate data sharing statement. The statement should indicate whether de-identified participant data will be shared and, where applicable, what data and related documents will be available, when they will become available, for how long, and under what conditions access may be granted.

Animal and Laboratory Research Data

For animal, laboratory, nutritional, biochemical, molecular, or experimental studies, authors are encouraged to make the underlying data necessary to understand and verify the reported findings available whenever appropriate. This may include datasets, measurements, analytical outputs, protocols, or other supporting research materials.

Restricted or Sensitive Data

The journal recognizes that some research data cannot be made openly available. Legitimate restrictions may arise from participant confidentiality, informed consent, ethical requirements, legal obligations, intellectual property rights, contractual agreements, institutional requirements, or other justified limitations.

When data cannot be shared publicly, authors should explain the nature of the restriction in the Data Availability Statement without disclosing confidential or protected information.

Third-Party Data

Authors using data obtained from third parties must comply with the terms, licenses, permissions, and access conditions under which the data were obtained. Authors should not publicly redistribute third-party data when they do not have the legal or contractual right to do so. Where possible, authors should provide information that allows qualified readers to identify the original data source and understand how lawful access may be obtained.

Data Verification

During editorial assessment, peer review, or an investigation concerning the integrity of a manuscript or published article, the journal may request underlying data or relevant supporting documentation from the authors when necessary to verify the reported findings.

Authors are expected to cooperate with reasonable requests from the journal. Inability to provide supporting data when legitimately requested may require further clarification or editorial review, particularly where concerns arise regarding the reliability or integrity of the published findings.

Reuse of Shared Data

Researchers who reuse data produced by others should appropriately acknowledge and cite the original data source and comply with any applicable licenses, access conditions, ethical requirements, or terms of use. Secondary analyses should be clearly identified as such and should not misrepresent previously collected data as original data generated by the secondary researchers.

Responsibility for Shared Data

Authors are responsible for ensuring that data sharing complies with applicable ethical approvals, participant consent, privacy requirements, legal obligations, institutional policies, licenses, and contractual restrictions. Publication in PJN does not override restrictions that legitimately govern access to or distribution of research data.