Data-Sharing Policy Adherence in Medical Journals, 2023-2025

32 and 33 clinical trials from the BMJ were analyzed for data-sharing statements before and after a 2024 policy update, respectively. Researchers Alison Avenell and Dorothy V.M. Bishop deposited this data and code in 2026. The dataset includes comparisons with trials from five other major medical journals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the impact of editorial policy changes on data availability based on the comparison of pre- and post-policy trial cohorts.
• Benchmarking data-sharing rates across medical journals based on the inclusion of five comparison journals.
• Investigating reasons for non-compliance with data-sharing mandates based on the coding of data-sharing statements.

Strengths

• Includes R code for reproducibility in an .rmd file.
• Data is openly available under a CC-BY-4.0 license.
• Directly supports a preprint (MEDRXIV/2026/353284) with a clear methodology.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small (804.7 KB), indicating limited scope.

Provenance

Source

figshare deposit by Dorothy V M Bishop.

Collection Method

Data-sharing statements were downloaded from published clinical trials and coded for availability.

Time Range

Trials published in 2023 and 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-15 09:45:43; freshness should be verified.