The Healthcare Quality Professionals Journal (HQPJ) supports transparency, reproducibility, accountability, and responsible sharing of research data. Authors are encouraged to provide sufficient information about the availability of data, materials, documentation, analytical code, or other research resources that support the findings reported in their manuscripts.
The journal recognizes that healthcare research may involve confidential patient information, personal data, institutional records, commercially sensitive information, or other materials that cannot always be made publicly available. Data sharing should therefore be undertaken in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, privacy, consent, institutional, and contractual requirements.
Purpose of the Data Availability Policy
Transparency
Enables readers to clearly understand the evidence underlying published clinical and managerial conclusions.
Reproducibility
Supports appropriate verification, replication, or further analysis where feasible and ethically permissible.
Research Integrity
Helps preserve the accuracy, accountability, and reliability of healthcare research and audit data.
Responsible Use
Balances scholarly openness with patient privacy, confidentiality, consent, and ethical requirements.
Research Materials Covered by This Policy
- Quantitative & Qualitative datasets
- Survey, interview, or focus-group data
- Healthcare quality indicators & audit records
- Statistical analysis files & analytical code
- Study protocols & research instruments
- Questionnaires and assessment tools
- Supplementary tables, figures, and charts
- De-identified clinical data where appropriate
- Other supporting research & evaluation resources
Examples of Data Availability Statements
Authors should include a clear Data Availability Statement in their manuscript accurately reflecting the data circumstances:
| Data Status | Standard Statement Wording |
|---|---|
| Data Included in Article | “The data supporting the findings of this study are included within the article and its supplementary materials.” |
| Available on Request | “The data supporting the findings of this study may be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to applicable restrictions.” |
| Restricted Data | “The data are not publicly available because of privacy, ethical, confidentiality, institutional, or legal restrictions.” |
| Public Repository | “The data supporting this study are available in an appropriate public repository at [repository link/DOI].” |
| Third-Party Data | “Restrictions apply to the availability of data obtained from a third party. Access is subject to the terms established by the provider.” |
| No New Data | “No new datasets were generated or analyzed specifically for this article.” |
Patient Privacy, Anonymization & Data Restrictions
- Personally identifiable health info must be strictly protected.
- Removing obvious identifiers may not suffice to prevent re-identification.
- Evaluate variable combinations and granularity before sharing.
- Qualitative transcripts and field notes require special privacy caution.
- Patient confidentiality, ethical approval, and consent limits.
- Hospital, organizational, or third-party data ownership rules.
- Contractual, legal, regulatory, or commercial sensitivities.
- Security considerations and intellectual property limitations.
Data Integrity, Citation & Misconduct Rules
Data Accuracy
Shared data must accurately correspond to the reported research without misleading alterations, selective deletion, fabrication, or falsification.
Citation & Attribution
Datasets created by other researchers or agencies must be properly cited and acknowledged in accordance with terms of use and data licenses.
Peer Review Access
Authors may be requested to provide underlying data confidentially to editors or reviewers during evaluation for scholarly verification.
Responsibilities of Authors
Open Access vs. Data Availability
Open Access to a published article does not automatically mean that every underlying research dataset must be publicly released without restriction. Article accessibility and data sharing are distinct matters; data sharing remains subject to privacy, ethical, consent, and legal protections.
Authors submitting to Healthcare Quality Professionals Journal (HQPJ) should clearly describe the availability of supporting research data where relevant. Public data sharing is encouraged when appropriate, but data must not be disclosed in ways that violate patient privacy, participant confidentiality, informed consent, ethical approval conditions, legal requirements, institutional restrictions, or legitimate third-party rights.