Data Sharing and Reproducibility Policy

1. Purpose and Scope

MILLATI: Journal of Islamic Studies and Humanities promotes research transparency, methodological accountability, and the responsible preservation and availability of scholarly evidence. This policy establishes the journal's requirements for data availability, responsible data sharing, and the transparency of research methods and findings.

The policy applies to all submitted manuscripts, with requirements proportionate to the research design, disciplinary conventions, and ethical, legal, and cultural circumstances of each study. Supporting evidence may include empirical datasets, interview materials, research instruments, analytical code, primary texts, manuscripts, archival records, and other materials relevant to the research.

2. Data Availability Statement

All submitted manuscripts must include a section entitled Data Availability Statement, placed immediately before the Bibliography. The statement must accurately explain whether and how the data or materials supporting the article can be accessed.

As applicable, the statement should indicate whether:

1. Supporting data or materials are publicly available through a repository, with a functional access link and persistent identifier where available.
2. Supporting materials are included in the article or its supplementary files.
3. Materials are available through controlled access or upon reasonable request, subject to relevant conditions and restrictions.
4. Materials cannot be publicly shared because of legitimate ethical, legal, institutional, archival, or cultural restrictions. The statement should explain the restrictions and identify permissible access arrangements where appropriate.
5. No new empirical dataset was generated or analyzed, in which case the relevant primary texts, editions, manuscripts, archival collections, or other source materials should be identified in the manuscript and bibliography, as applicable.

Authors must ensure that statements concerning data availability are accurate and that cited links and repository records are functional. Claims of availability must correspond to materials that can actually be accessed under the stated conditions.

3. Data Sharing and Responsible Access

Authors are encouraged to deposit supporting research data and materials in appropriate institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose repositories whenever feasible and consistent with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and cultural obligations. Suitable repositories may include recognized institutional repositories, relevant subject repositories, Zenodo, and the Open Science Framework (OSF). Where materials are shared, authors should provide sufficient documentation to explain their origin, context, structure, and relationship to the published findings. Shared datasets and materials must be appropriately cited in the manuscript and bibliography. Persistent identifiers, such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), should be used where available. When unrestricted sharing is inappropriate, authors should consider responsible alternatives, including anonymized or aggregated data, redacted materials, descriptive metadata, controlled access, or a transparent explanation of the applicable restrictions.

4. Research Transparency and Reproducibility

Authors must describe their research methods, analytical procedures, and supporting evidence sufficiently to enable readers to assess the credibility of their findings and understand how their conclusions were reached. Depending on the research design, relevant information may include source identification and selection, research design, participant selection, data collection, analytical procedures, interpretive frameworks, source provenance, software, and methodological limitations.

For empirical research, authors should provide sufficient methodological detail to support independent scrutiny and, where feasible, replication or reanalysis. For historical, textual, philosophical, philological, and interpretive scholarship, transparency and reproducibility require appropriate identification of primary sources, editions, archival collections, manuscript references, and analytical procedures. The aim is to enable readers to trace the supporting evidence and critically assess the interpretation, not to require identical conclusions from different researchers. Where relevant to the research design and disciplinary practice, authors are encouraged to follow established reporting guidelines and document applicable research protocols or study-registration practices.

5. Ethical Restrictions and Exceptions

Data sharing must respect informed consent, research ethics requirements where applicable, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property rights, copyright, institutional obligations, archival restrictions, applicable law, and the rights and interests of research participants and communities. Authors must not disclose identifiable participant information, confidential research records, restricted archival materials, unpublished manuscripts, or culturally sensitive knowledge without the necessary authorization and safeguards. Public data sharing is not required where legitimate restrictions prevent responsible disclosure. Such restrictions must be explained in the Data Availability Statement, with permissible alternatives identified where appropriate. Legitimate restrictions, by themselves, do not constitute grounds for rejection.

6. Editorial Assessment, Responsibilities, and Non-compliance

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their Data Availability Statements, the appropriate documentation and identification of supporting materials, and compliance with relevant ethical and legal obligations. The editorial office is responsible for checking that the required statement is present, assessing whether explanations of restricted access are adequate where relevant, and applying this policy consistently and proportionately. Editors may request reasonable supporting information, materials, or methodological clarification when necessary to assess a manuscript's transparency, accuracy, or research integrity. Such requests must respect legitimate restrictions and appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

Incomplete or unclear statements may need to be corrected before editorial evaluation proceeds. Misrepresentation of data availability, refusal to provide reasonable clarification, or credible concerns regarding fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or misleading research evidence may be examined under MILLATI's Publication Ethics policy. Any necessary post-publication action will follow the journal's Retraction, Withdrawal, and Correction (R-W-C) Policy.

Editorial decisions remain based on the manuscript's overall scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, and integrity. The journal may review this policy periodically to reflect developments in responsible research practices and the needs of the disciplines it serves.