Material and Data Release Policy for papers published in Genome Research
Material Release
As a condition for the publication of a paper in Genome Research, the responsible author(s) must identify all novel reagents needed to replicate the published work in the manuscript and make available to other scientists upon request. The requests for material must be reasonable, taking into account issues such as limited supplies and costs associated with preparing and shipping samples. The following are examples of requests for materials that are deemed to be reasonable:
- DNA and/or cell lines used in large-scale genome studies of individuals or species
- Individual recombinant DNA clones or clone collections
- Tissue samples and/or antibodies used to characterize genes and proteins functionally
If materials are held in repositories or if a third-party distribution agreement is in place, then the distributor name and location must be included in the manuscript.
Data Release
Genome Research maintains that the broad availability of pre-publication data, accompanied by fair use, enhances the scientific quality and reproducibility of a work by the entire research community and benefits society more generally. The journal, therefore, encourages all authors to make their data as freely accessible as possible prior to publication. Nevertheless, these data must be made available to the Reviewers. Upon acceptance for publication in Genome Research, reported data are required to be available via public databases or, if no suitable database exists, via the Genome Research website. Data may also be made available via the author’s own website but not as an alternative to public sites. For example, we require deposit of the underlying sequence data necessary to call variants. We further require the deposit of mass spectrometry–based proteomics data, as well as of individual-level data including phenotypic data and genotypes, under controlled access, if necessary. Accession numbers for data should be included within the manuscript prior to acceptance to avoid delays in publication. Websites for data submission are at Website References.
Genome Research recognizes that issues of informed consent may sometimes constitute a barrier to the free sharing of all information and that, in some cases, phenotypes and metadata beyond that needed to reproduce a study’s findings may not be able to be shared, or that restricted databases might be needed to conform to certain consent paradigms. Nevertheless, Genome Research will not consider manuscripts in which the data used and/or reported in the paper that are required for reproducibility are not freely available in either a public database or on the Genome Research website. In these cases, without exception, it is the responsibility of the authors to make arrangements to ensure the data are available to enable replication of published findings. We recommend thorough consideration of these issues prior to submission.
Authors submitting papers that describe or present a new computer program or algorithm or papers where in-house software is uniquely necessary to reproduce the work must make that source code or software freely available for academic and nonprofit use through online digital repositories and Supplemental Material, for posterity.