The Employee Relations Law Journal (Empl. Relat. Law J.) encourages authors to share relevant research data, materials, and supporting information where appropriate and ethically permissible. Responsible data sharing can improve transparency, reproducibility, verification, and the overall value of published research.

Encouragement of Data Sharing

Authors are encouraged to make the data, research materials, analytical resources, and other supporting information underlying their findings available to readers whenever possible.

Where appropriate, authors should deposit research data in a reliable and recognized data repository and provide a persistent identifier, DOI, or direct link to the relevant dataset in the manuscript.

Data sharing is encouraged but must always comply with applicable ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, and institutional requirements.

Data Availability Statement

Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement where applicable. The statement should explain whether the data supporting the findings are:

• Publicly available through a repository
• Available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request
• Subject to restrictions because of privacy, confidentiality, legal, ethical, or contractual requirements
• Not applicable because no data were generated or analyzed

Where data are available through a repository, authors should provide the repository name, dataset identifier or DOI, and an appropriate access link.

Protection of Confidential and Sensitive Data

Authors must not share personal, confidential, proprietary, or sensitive information where disclosure could identify individuals or violate applicable laws, ethical requirements, institutional policies, or agreements.

Where research involves human participants, authors must ensure that data sharing does not compromise participant privacy or confidentiality. Appropriate anonymization or de-identification should be applied where feasible.

Informed consent and relevant ethical approval requirements must be considered before making research data publicly available.

Restrictions on Data Sharing

The journal recognizes that some datasets cannot be openly shared because of:

• Participant privacy or confidentiality
• Legal or regulatory restrictions
• Institutional requirements
• Intellectual property rights
• Third-party ownership
• Confidential agreements
• Security considerations
• Other legitimate ethical or contractual limitations

In such cases, authors should clearly explain the reason for restricted access in their Data Availability Statement and, where possible, describe how qualified researchers may request access.

Data Integrity and Accuracy

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and appropriate documentation of shared data. Data should be presented and preserved in a manner that allows readers or qualified researchers to understand its origin and, where feasible, verify the research findings.

Authors should not fabricate, falsify, manipulate, selectively omit, or otherwise misrepresent research data.

Data Citation

When datasets or other research materials have contributed to a manuscript, authors should cite them appropriately. Where available, authors should use persistent identifiers such as DOIs to facilitate reliable attribution and access.

Editorial Access to Data

The Editorial Office may request access to relevant underlying data or supporting materials when reasonably necessary to assess the validity, integrity, or reproducibility of a manuscript.

Authors should cooperate with reasonable editorial requests, subject to legitimate privacy, confidentiality, legal, ethical, and intellectual property restrictions.

Post-Publication Data Concerns

If significant concerns arise regarding the accuracy, integrity, or availability of data supporting a published article, the journal may request clarification or supporting documentation from the authors.

Where necessary, the journal may take appropriate action to protect the integrity of the scholarly record, including publishing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in accordance with its publication ethics policies.

Commitment to Responsible Data Sharing

The Employee Relations Law Journal supports responsible and transparent data-sharing practices that strengthen scholarly communication while respecting the rights and interests of research participants, authors, institutions, and data owners.

Authors are encouraged to share appropriate supporting data whenever it is ethically, legally, and technically possible, thereby supporting transparency, reproducibility, and further scholarly research.