README.md

Unofficial guidance on various topics by Social Science Data Editors

Data and Code Availability Standard

The Data and Code Availability Standard (DCAS) is a standard for sharing research code and data, endorsed by leading journals in social sciences. See https://datacodestandard.org/ for more information.

README template

Please cite as

Lars Vilhuber, Connolly, Marie, Koren, Miklós, Llull, Joan, and Morrow, Peter. 2022. “A Template README for Social Science Replication Packages”. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7293838.

The template README provided on this website is in a form that follows best practices as defined by a number of data editors at social science journals.

The most recent version is available at https://social-science-data-editors.github.io/template_README/.

Discussion forum for (Data) Editors

We have a (low-intensity) mailing list for data and reproducibility editors, and a more active working group that meets monthly, and maintains these resources. We use a mailing list for discussion.

• to join general list, send email to [email protected] with subject line "join". Approval required. You might contact any one of the working group members prior to sending the email.
• to join the active working group, contact Lars Vilhuber. Meetings are usually first Monday of the month, 11:00AM Eastern/17:00 Central European time.

Guidance on creating replicable data and program archives for authors

This guidance is for the author wanting to create a replication archive.

See Requested information for the information the Data Editor may request from you, prior to the acceptance of your paper for publication.

Guidance on testing replicability of code

Out of date.

This guidance has two audiences:

• the author wanting to verify whether her code passes muster as a replicable archive
• the replicator wanting to verify the replicability of such an archive

See Verification guidance

Journal-specific policies

Below is a selective list of policies from journals that actively verify compliance with policies through review of data, code, and documentation.

See Journal Policy Pages

If you see a journal absent from this list, please suggest an addition (Github login required).

Guidance to journals

• We suggest that journals require the template README, as it provides effective guidance to authors and, when correctly filled out, useful information for replicators.
• We encourage journals to adopt the Data and Code Availability Standard (DCAS) as a basis for their data and code availability policy.
• We provide some guidance on how to choose a repository for replication packages, but also encourage journals to accept replication packages from any trusted repository, as long as the content is compliant with the journal's policy.

FAQ

See our growing FAQ. If you have questions or answers to add, please notify us by creating a new issue.