The BJP expects authors to share data

The BJP has recently implemented several policies to improve the rigour and transparency of experimental design, analysis, and data reporting (Alexander et al., 2018; Curtis et al., 2018; Docherty et al., 2019). This journal has also developed checklists to help authors comply with the BJP's submission requirements on experimental design and reporting (Declaration, 2018a), animal experimentation (Declaration, 2018b), and immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry (Declaration, 2018c). The editors recognize also that a keystone in the process of improving further the transparency and openness in reporting scientific progress is to make raw data compliant with FAIR principles (i.e., be findable, available, interoperable and reproducible; FAIR, 2019). The Senior Editorial Team at BJP is committed to supporting fully initiatives that open up data sharing as widely as possible. In 2017, we considered issues on data sharing relevant to pharmacology research. We concluded that, at that time, no digital solutions existed to enable the integration of published findings with the underpinning raw data for the types of approaches typically published in the BJP (George et al., 2017). With due consideration of the practical limitations and fallibilities of available repositories and archiving systems, and issues on data storage and transfer, we adopted a policy of encouraging authors to share their data. This position did not unnecessarily burden authors with having to comply with systems for data sharing that we decided were not fit for purpose. However, we pledged to provide an update in due course, and this editorial reviews the rationale for expecting data sharing for articles published in BJP and provides guidelines for authors to comply with this expectation.