From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution

Edward R Ivimey-Cook; Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar; Ilias Berberi; Antica Culina; Dominique G Roche; Rafaela A Almeida; Bawan Amin; Kevin R Bairos-Novak; Heikel Balti; Michael G Bertram; Louis Bliard; Ilha Byrne; Ying-Chi Chan; William R Cioffi; Quentin Corbel; Alexander D Elsy; Katie R N Florko; Elliot Gould; Matthew J Grainger; Anne E Harshbarger; Knut Anders Hovstad; Jake M Martin; April Robin Martinig; Giulia Masoero; Iain R Moodie; David Moreau; Rose E O'Dea; Matthieu Paquet; Joel L Pick; Tuba Rizvi; Inês Silva; Birgit Szabo; Elina Takola; Eli S J Thoré; Wilco C E P Verberk; Saras M Windecker; Gabe Winter; Zuzana Zajková; Romy Zeiss; Nicholas Patrick Moran

doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution

Edward R Ivimey-Cook^*
, Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar^*
, Ilias Berberi
, Antica Culina
, Dominique G Roche
, Rafaela A Almeida
, Bawan Amin
, Kevin R Bairos-Novak
, Heikel Balti
, Michael G Bertram
, Louis Bliard
, Ilha Byrne
, Ying-Chi Chan
, William R Cioffi
, Quentin Corbel
, Alexander D Elsy
, Katie R N Florko
, Elliot Gould
, Matthew J Grainger
, Anne E Harshbarger

Knut Anders Hovstad, Jake M Martin, April Robin Martinig, Giulia Masoero, Iain R Moodie, David Moreau, Rose E O'Dea, Matthieu Paquet, Joel L Pick, Tuba Rizvi, Inês Silva, Birgit Szabo, Elina Takola, Eli S J Thoré, Wilco C E P Verberk, Saras M Windecker, Gabe Winter, Zuzana Zajková, Romy Zeiss, Nicholas Patrick Moran

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023-Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021-Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5% encouraged and 38.2% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6% encouraged and 26.9% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0% and 77.0%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3% and 24.7%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.

Original language	English
Article number	20251394
Journal	Proceedings. Biological sciences
Volume	292
Issue number	2055
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1394
Publication status	Published - Sept 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Authors.

Funding

R.Z. was funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU, 20021/752) and gratefully acknowledges the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG–FZT 118, 202548816). G.W. was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG–CRC TRR 212, 396782608). M.G.B. was funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas (2020-02293). Z.Z. was funded by the project SOSPEN (Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, 2021, PID2021-124831OA-I00) and the project SEASentinels (Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, 2023, CNS2022-135631) and acknowledges the Spanish government through the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S funded by MCIN/AEI 10.13039/501100011033, ICM-CSIC). This work was partially funded by the Center of Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), which is financed by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the Saxon Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK) with tax funds on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament (via I.S.). Acknowledgements R.Z. was funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU, 20021/752) and gratefully acknowledges the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG FZT 118, 202548816). G.W. was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG CRC TRR 212, 396782608). M.G.B. was funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas (2020-02293). Z.Z. was funded by the project SOSPEN (Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, 2021, PID2021-124831OA-I00) and the project SEASentinels (Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, 2023, CNS2022-135631) and acknowledges the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S funded by MCIN/AEI 10.13039/501100011033, ICM-CSIC). This work was partially funded by the Center of Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), which is financed by Germany s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the Saxon Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK) with tax funds on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament (via I.S.). We thank the organizers of the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (SORTEE) conference that took place virtually in October 2023 for permitting us to host this hackathon. We also thank the session delegates who could not be part of this manuscript. Lastly, we thank the members of the editorial teams who helped us obtain data from Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Shalene Singh-Shepherd and Phil Hurst, and from Ecology Letters, Nathalie Espuno and Peter Thrall. The Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (SORTEE) has been supported by The Royal Society Publishing since 2024.

Funders	Funder number
Saxon Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism
MCIN
AEI
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas
Center of Advanced Systems Understanding
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
German Research Foundation
BMBF
Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
German Federal Environmental Foundation
Royal Society
SMWK
Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Swedish Research Council Formas	2020-02293
Spanish Government	CEX2019-000928-S
DFG	CRC TRR 212, 396782608, 202548816, FZT 118
Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation	PID2021-124831OA-I00, CNS2022-135631
DBU	20021/752

Keywords

journal policy
open science
peer review
replicability
reproducibility
transparency

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10.1098/rspb.2025.1394Licence: CC BY

ivimey-cook-et-al-2025-from-policy-to-practice-progress-towards-data-and-code-sharing-in-ecology-and-evolutionFinal published version, 2.47 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Ivimey-Cook, E. R., Sánchez-Tójar, A., Berberi, I., Culina, A., Roche, D. G., A Almeida, R., Amin, B., Bairos-Novak, K. R., Balti, H., Bertram, M. G., Bliard, L., Byrne, I., Chan, Y.-C., Cioffi, W. R., Corbel, Q., Elsy, A. D., Florko, K. R. N., Gould, E., Grainger, M. J., ... Moran, N. P. (2025). From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 292(2055), Article 20251394. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

@article{e48328ea960a48d895943c13063f1fc1,

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abstract = "Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023-Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021-Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5\% encouraged and 38.2\% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6\% encouraged and 26.9\% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0\% and 77.0\%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3\% and 24.7\%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.",

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author = "Ivimey-Cook, \{Edward R\} and Alfredo S{\'a}nchez-T{\'o}jar and Ilias Berberi and Antica Culina and Roche, \{Dominique G\} and \{A Almeida\}, Rafaela and Bawan Amin and Bairos-Novak, \{Kevin R\} and Heikel Balti and Bertram, \{Michael G\} and Louis Bliard and Ilha Byrne and Ying-Chi Chan and Cioffi, \{William R\} and Quentin Corbel and Elsy, \{Alexander D\} and Florko, \{Katie R N\} and Elliot Gould and Grainger, \{Matthew J\} and Harshbarger, \{Anne E\} and Hovstad, \{Knut Anders\} and Martin, \{Jake M\} and Martinig, \{April Robin\} and Giulia Masoero and Moodie, \{Iain R\} and David Moreau and O'Dea, \{Rose E\} and Matthieu Paquet and Pick, \{Joel L\} and Tuba Rizvi and In{\^e}s Silva and Birgit Szabo and Elina Takola and Thor{\'e}, \{Eli S J\} and Verberk, \{Wilco C E P\} and Windecker, \{Saras M\} and Gabe Winter and Zuzana Zajkov{\'a} and Romy Zeiss and Moran, \{Nicholas Patrick\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors.",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1098/rspb.2025.1394",

language = "English",

volume = "292",

journal = "Proceedings. Biological sciences",

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Ivimey-Cook, ER, Sánchez-Tójar, A, Berberi, I, Culina, A, Roche, DG, A Almeida, R, Amin, B, Bairos-Novak, KR, Balti, H, Bertram, MG, Bliard, L, Byrne, I, Chan, Y-C, Cioffi, WR, Corbel, Q, Elsy, AD, Florko, KRN, Gould, E, Grainger, MJ, Harshbarger, AE, Hovstad, KA, Martin, JM, Martinig, AR, Masoero, G, Moodie, IR, Moreau, D, O'Dea, RE, Paquet, M, Pick, JL, Rizvi, T, Silva, I, Szabo, B, Takola, E, Thoré, ESJ, Verberk, WCEP, Windecker, SM, Winter, G, Zajková, Z, Zeiss, R & Moran, NP 2025, 'From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution', Proceedings. Biological sciences, vol. 292, no. 2055, 20251394. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

TY - JOUR

T1 - From policy to practice

T2 - progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution

AU - Ivimey-Cook, Edward R

AU - Sánchez-Tójar, Alfredo

AU - Berberi, Ilias

AU - Culina, Antica

AU - Roche, Dominique G

AU - A Almeida, Rafaela

AU - Amin, Bawan

AU - Bairos-Novak, Kevin R

AU - Balti, Heikel

AU - Bertram, Michael G

AU - Bliard, Louis

AU - Byrne, Ilha

AU - Chan, Ying-Chi

AU - Cioffi, William R

AU - Corbel, Quentin

AU - Elsy, Alexander D

AU - Florko, Katie R N

AU - Gould, Elliot

AU - Grainger, Matthew J

AU - Harshbarger, Anne E

AU - Hovstad, Knut Anders

AU - Martin, Jake M

AU - Martinig, April Robin

AU - Masoero, Giulia

AU - Moodie, Iain R

AU - Moreau, David

AU - O'Dea, Rose E

AU - Paquet, Matthieu

AU - Pick, Joel L

AU - Rizvi, Tuba

AU - Silva, Inês

AU - Szabo, Birgit

AU - Takola, Elina

AU - Thoré, Eli S J

AU - Verberk, Wilco C E P

AU - Windecker, Saras M

AU - Winter, Gabe

AU - Zajková, Zuzana

AU - Zeiss, Romy

AU - Moran, Nicholas Patrick

PY - 2025/9

Y1 - 2025/9

N2 - Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023-Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021-Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5% encouraged and 38.2% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6% encouraged and 26.9% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0% and 77.0%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3% and 24.7%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.

AB - Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023-Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021-Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5% encouraged and 38.2% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6% encouraged and 26.9% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0% and 77.0%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3% and 24.7%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.

KW - journal policy

KW - open science

KW - peer review

KW - replicability

KW - reproducibility

KW - transparency

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105016332179

U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

DO - 10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

M3 - Article

C2 - 40957576

SN - 0962-8452

VL - 292

JO - Proceedings. Biological sciences

JF - Proceedings. Biological sciences

IS - 2055

M1 - 20251394

ER -

From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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