From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution

Abstract

Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023–Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021–Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5% encouraged and 38.2% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6% encouraged and 26.9% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0% and 77.0%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3% and 24.7%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.

Keywords

open science; journal policy; reproducibility; replicability; transparency; peer review

Published in

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
2025, volume: 292, number: 2055, article number: 20251394

SLU Authors

• Bertram, Michael

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Monash University
  • Stockholm University

• Martin, Jake

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Deakin University
  • Monash University

• Thoré, Eli

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Leuven (KU Leuven)
  • University of Namur

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Information Studies

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143747