Research Data and Reproducibility Policy

MENTOR Revista de Investigación Educativa y Deportiva promotes transparency, verifiability, and reproducibility in scientific research while recognizing the methodological characteristics of Education and Educational Sciences; Physical Activity, Exercise and Sport; and Health Sciences.

The availability of research data and materials should follow the principle of responsible openness: as open as possible and as restricted as necessary, taking into account applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and data-protection obligations.

Scope

This policy primarily applies to articles based on data, materials, instruments, code, protocols, or other resources used to obtain or verify research findings.

Its application must be appropriate to the quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, documentary, experimental, clinical, or other nature of each study.

Reproducibility does not mean that all studies must publicly disclose all their data. MENTOR recognizes that some research is subject to ethical, legal, contractual, institutional, privacy, or confidentiality restrictions.

Data Transparency

Authors must describe the data, sources, procedures, instruments, and analytical methods used with sufficient clarity to allow scientific understanding and assessment of the study.

Where relevant and ethically and legally possible, authors are encouraged to make available the data and materials necessary to verify published findings.

Materials shared may include, depending on the nature of the research:

• datasets;
• data dictionaries or variable codes;
• research instruments;
• questionnaires;
• protocols;
• analytical code or scripts;
• audiovisual materials where legally and ethically permissible;
• analytical procedures;
• supplementary materials; and
• other research-related resources.

Data Availability Statement

Articles based on research data must include a data availability statement where appropriate to the nature of the study.

The statement may indicate, as applicable, that:

• data are available in a public repository;
• data or materials are included as supplementary material;
• data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request;
• data are subject to ethical, legal, or confidentiality restrictions;
• data are owned by an institution or third party and access requires authorization; or
• no independent research data were generated or analyzed for the type of contribution concerned.

Where restrictions apply, they should be explained sufficiently without disclosing confidential or protected information.

Data Repositories

Where research data or other materials can be shared publicly, MENTOR recommends using institutional, disciplinary, or general repositories that provide appropriate conditions for preservation, identification, and access.

Where possible, authors are encouraged to use repositories that assign persistent identifiers and support the FAIR principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

MENTOR does not require the use of any specific commercial repository.

Where data have been deposited in a repository, the relevant reference, link, or persistent identifier should be included in the manuscript where applicable.

Sensitive and Confidential Data

Data must not be made public where disclosure could compromise privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, protection of vulnerable populations, institutional confidentiality, third-party rights, or other ethical or legal obligations.

Human-participant data must be appropriately anonymized or protected in accordance with applicable requirements before sharing.

Consent to participate in research does not automatically constitute permission to make individual-level research data publicly available.

Where data cannot be shared, this will not in itself constitute grounds for manuscript rejection, provided that the restriction is appropriately justified and the study otherwise complies with relevant scientific and ethical requirements.

Qualitative Research

MENTOR recognizes that qualitative data may contain contextual, personal, or cultural information that prevents public dissemination even after conventional anonymization procedures.

Interview transcripts, focus-group data, narratives, photographs, recordings, and other qualitative materials should be shared only where there is an appropriate ethical and legal basis and disclosure is consistent with the consent provided by participants.

Transparency in qualitative research may be achieved through sufficient description of data collection, analysis, coding, and interpretation without requiring publication of information that would compromise participant confidentiality.

Code, Instruments, and Materials

Where software code, instruments, scales, protocols, or other materials are essential to understanding or reproducing an analysis and can legally be shared, authors are encouraged to make them available with the article or through an appropriate repository.

Reuse of copyrighted instruments or materials must comply with the conditions established by the relevant rights holders.

Reproducibility and Methodological Reporting

Authors must provide sufficient methodological information to allow specialists in the field to understand how the findings were obtained and analyzed.

Where exact reproduction is not possible because of the study design, population, context, or methodology, sufficient transparency must be provided to permit assessment of the procedures and analytical decisions used.

Data availability does not replace the obligation to describe the methodology adequately in the article.

Editorial Verification

Where reasonable concerns arise regarding research findings, integrity, or reproducibility, the editorial team may request additional information or confidential access to specific data or documentation.

Such a request does not mean that the data must be made publicly available.

Information supplied to the journal will be handled in accordance with MENTOR’s confidentiality, ethics, and data-protection obligations.

Data Integrity

Fabrication, falsification, misleading manipulation, unjustified deletion, or misrepresentation of data will be handled in accordance with MENTOR’s Editorial Ethics and Research Integrity Policy.

Where data-related concerns arise after publication, corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other actions may be taken in accordance with MENTOR’s Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Updates Policy.

Relationship with Other Policies

This policy must be applied together with MENTOR’s Editorial Ethics and Research Integrity Policy, Privacy Policy, Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools, and other applicable editorial policies.