Open Data Policy
Our journal is committed to supporting open scientific exchange and enabling our authors to achieve best practices in sharing and archiving research data. We encourage all authors of articles published in our journal to share their research data including, but not limited to protocols, analytic methods, raw data, processed data, code, software, algorithms and study material. The data should be FAIR – findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable – so that other researchers can locate and use the data.
We recommend that data and code should be deposited in a trusted repository that will allow for maximum reuse. If this is not possible, authors are encouraged to make this material available upon request to interested researchers. In addition, research materials necessary to enable the reproduction of an experiment should be specified in the paper. Data sharing policies concern the minimal dataset that supports the central findings of a published study. Generated data should be publicly available and cited in accordance with journal guidelines.
Our data policy is based on TOP Guidelines.
Where ethical, legal or privacy issues are present, data should not be shared. The authors should clarify the availability status of the data upon paper submission. Authors should ensure that the data shared is in accordance with consent provided by participants on the use of confidential data. Authors should ensure that the publication of such data does not compromise the anonymity of the participants or breach local data protection laws.
In situations where access is restricted to protect confidential or proprietary information, authors will be requested to clearly explain the restrictions on the dataset and make the data available upon request, with permission for the purposes of peer review.
Our journal recognizes that some institutions and funding agencies only require the retention of research data for a finite period after a project’s completion or publication. However, there are no such limits specified within our policy on open data and, therefore, we encourage the authors to archive their research data through appropriate data repositories or provide us with minimal datasets.
Authors are encouraged to formally cite any datasets stored in external repositories that are mentioned within their manuscript, including the main datasets that are the focus of the submission, as well as any other datasets that have been used in the work. For previously published datasets, authors should cite both the related research articles and the datasets themselves.
Ethical Approval Policy
The journal's policy on obtaining an ethical approval in research involving humans, animals, their biomaterials and confidential data is based on the current legislation of Ukraine, in particular the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Human Rights in the Area of Biomedical Research", the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Personal Data", the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Animals from Cruelty", as well as international ethical guidelines (Declaration of Helsinki, ARRIVE etc.). The journal recognizes the priority of ethical norms and standards in scientific research conducted with the participation of humans, animals, their biological materials, as well as in works that include personal or other confidential data.
Authors are required to provide confirmation of obtaining an approval from an authorized ethics committee in cases where the research:
• involves the participation of a person as a research subject;
• involves work with human biomaterials;
• uses animals or their bioobjects;
• involves the processing of personal, sensitive or confidential data;
• falls under special Ukrainian law or international regulations on bioethics and biosafety.
The approval must clearly state:
• the full name of the institution that issued the approval;
• the date and number of the protocol;
• the form of the informed consent obtained (for research involving humans).
The authors must confirm that the informed consent was obtained voluntarily, without pressure and in a form understandable to the participants.
It is prohibited to publish personal data or visual materials that allow the identification of a person without their written consent.
Animal research must comply with the 3R principles (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). The authors must provide information about the conditions of detention, the protocols used and measures to minimize animal suffering.
The processing of confidential and personal data must comply with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Personal Data” and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The data must be depersonalized or anonymized. Authors should describe the mechanisms for protecting information and procedures for accessing it.
The editorial board reserves the right to request copies of ethical approvals, informed consent forms, research protocols, or other documents to confirm compliance with ethical standards. The journal may refuse to publish material in which ethical requirements have been violated or information on compliance with standards is incomplete.