Regulations of China Pharmacy on the Management of Research Data in Papers

To promote the transparency, traceability, and sharing of research data, and in response to the Scientific Data Management Measures (2018) and other relevant requirements, the following regulations on research data management are formulated:

I. Data Availability Statement

The journal encourages authors to provide a “Data Availability Statement” at the beginning or end of the manuscript upon submission, specifying one of the following four situations:

(1) Statement where data are publicly available, e.g., “The data relevant to this study are publicly available in [repository name] at [DOI/URL].”

(2) Statement where data are available upon request, e.g., “The data can be requested from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.”

(3) Statement where data access is restricted, e.g., “Due to [ethical/privacy/commercial] reasons, the data are not publicly available, but restricted access may be requested from [institution name].”

(4) Statement where no new data are generated, e.g., “This study generated no new data.”

II. Data Submission

The journal requires that, in principle, papers involving data from basic experiments, quantitative analysis, pharmacoeconomic evaluation, clinical medication use, etc., shall provide raw data or complete data processing materials for verification upon the editorial office’s request during review. The data submission requirements for different types of research papers are as follows:

1. Questionnaire-based studies: The platform name (e.g., tools such as Wenjuanxing), sample size, sampling method, and quality control process must be specified in the methods section; when necessary, the original questionnaire and completed sample responses should be provided for verification.

2. Basic research: For basic research such as cell experiments and pharmaceutical analysis, necessary raw images, Excel spreadsheets for data calculations, and other data should be provided.

3. Studies involving human participants, human biological samples, or human behavior: In addition to the data requirements for basic research, a formal ethics approval document (including the approval number and date of approval) must be provided; a statement must be included that informed consent has been obtained or a reasonable justification for exemption, and a sample informed consent form may be provided for verification when necessary; data de-identification measures should be specified. Researchers are encouraged to register the study in a public trial registry (e.g., Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR) before subject enrollment and to include the registration number in the manuscript.

4. Animal experimental studies: In addition to the data requirements for basic research, the sex and number of animals must be indicated; animal ethics approval documentation (including the approval number and date) should be provided, and animal welfare measures need to be clearly stated.

III. Preservation and Submission of Raw Data

1. Preservation of raw data: Authors are advised to properly preserve the raw data (raw images, spreadsheets, etc.) themselves at the time of submission for future verification.

2. Submission of raw data: Authors are encouraged to submit raw data through the following methods: (1) upload to the National Science and Technology Resource Sharing Service Platform; (2) submit raw data as supplementary materials to the editorial office at the time of submission.

IV. Other Provisions

1. Data generated from funded projects must specify the funding source in the paper and declare any conflicts of interest.

2. Authors are expected to uphold academic integrity and must not fabricate, falsify, or tamper with data. If any such misconduct is discovered, the editorial office will immediately retract the paper in accordance with publication ethics guidelines and reserves the right to publish a notice on the journal’s official website or to inform the author’s institution as appropriate.

3. These regulations on research data management will be revised and supplemented promptly in line with updates to academic publishing standards and research integrity requirements. Authors should refer to the latest published policy on the journal’s official website at the time of submission.