Data Access Statements

A data access statement describes where the data underwriting the publication can be found, and under what conditions can it be accessed or used.  

Where possible, Aston encourages research data to be published and shared, following the principle of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”. Aston researchers are offered support in publishing their data through Aston’s repository, Data Explorer.  A data management plan can help to prepare the conditions for making data shareable at the end of the project.

It is not always possible to make your data available to other users. Your data access statement can then include the justifications for this, for example, if it is due to ethical or legal constraints. Many funders will not accept cost as a reasonable justification for not sharing data.

Example Data Access Statements

•  Open Research Data

“Data created during this research are available under CC BY license from Aston Data Explorer at [doi].”

“The data underwriting this publication can be accessed at [doi].”

“The data used in this publication is available as supplementary information to this article.”  [N.B. this is not a recommended method for sharing data as supplementary information is typically shared in a PDF format which can make access and reuse difficult.]

•  Ethical restrictions

“Due to ethical concerns, the data for this publication cannot be made available.”

•  Legal restrictions

“Due to contractual agreements with industry collaborations, the data for this publication cannot be made available.”

“Due to contractual agreements with industry collaborations, the data for this publication can only be shared with registered researchers. Metadata for this dataset and information on how to access it can be found at [doi].”

• No data produced

“No data was produced for this article.”

“All data are present in this paper.”

If you have any queries about data access statements, please contact researchdata@aston.ac.uk.