We have been having some debate among our journal editors regarding access to authors' original data. I have looked at various member journals' instructions to authors and have found very little by way of guidance. What is "usual" practice? Do you require authors to make all original data accessible to editors and peer reviewers as a condition at submission? Or on acceptance?

I know that from time to time we have requested original data from authors but we haven't always received it. I'd welcome some advice on whether or not it should be mandatory and clearly stated in instructions to authors.

Alex Williamson
Publishing Director, BMJ Journals
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To request original data, in my opinion, opens a hornet's nest because it basically raises the question why you don't do it all the time. And that, of course, is impossible! In my opinion the review of original data (1) suggests a degree of suspicion about a manuscript which, in the first place, probably warrants its rejection and (2) initiates a process for which editorial offices are really not properly prepared.

Norbert Gleicher
J Assisted Reprod and Genetics
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Although NIH has mandated (or, more accurately, will soon mandate) that all NIH-funded trials register their trials with an online database meeting specific requirements (such as www.clinicaltrials.gov or rctbank.ucsf.edu/), making the data available is not one of those requirements (yet), as far as I know. The Journal of General Internal Medicine is encouraging (but not yet requiring) authors to register trials, and I think we will likely be requiring it in the coming year. We will not be requiring access to the data because, first of all, making individual patient data available outside of the original study team would create huge issues related to HIPAA, IRB approval, etc. even for de-identified data. It essentially cannot be done under the current HIPAA regulations. Second, I'm afraid authors would balk at doing so, and I worry it would dramatically reduce submissions of manuscripts describing high-quality clinical research.

Bill Tierney
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of General Internal Medicine
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