Beginning next month, the Public Library of Science — publisher of PLOS ONE, PLOS Genetics, and other journals — will require authors to make their data publicly available upon publication of the related article, according to EveryOne, the PLOS blog.
Authors who submit articles starting on March 3rd will have to provide a Data Availability Statement that says where and how their data can be accessed; that statement will be published on the first page of every article. The data, Liz Silva notes, should be in its original form, before any processing, and should either be contained within the paper itself, in the supporting information, or in a stable public repository.
Silva adds that PLOS will make certain exceptions to the new policy. For instance, data with patient information, information about endangered species, or data obtained from third parties don't have to be made publicly available, but should be readily shared upon request.