The Journal of Cost Management (J. Cost Manag.) encourages authors to promote transparency, reproducibility, and research integrity by making relevant research data available whenever ethically, legally, and practically possible. Sharing appropriate supporting data enables readers and researchers to better understand, evaluate, reproduce, and build upon published research.

1. Encouragement of Data Sharing

Authors are encouraged to share the data, materials, code, analytical procedures, and other supporting resources underlying their research where appropriate. Data sharing is particularly encouraged when it can enhance the transparency, verification, and reproducibility of the published findings.

2. Data Availability Statement

Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement where appropriate. The statement should explain whether the data supporting the findings are:

• Publicly available through a recognized repository
• Available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request
• Available subject to specific restrictions
• Not publicly available due to ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, or other legitimate restrictions

Where data are deposited in a repository, authors are encouraged to provide a persistent identifier, DOI, or direct link to the dataset.

3. Ethical and Legal Considerations

Authors must ensure that data sharing does not compromise participant privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property rights, contractual obligations, or applicable laws and regulations.

Personally identifiable, confidential, proprietary, or sensitive information must not be shared publicly unless appropriate authorization and consent have been obtained.

4. Data Quality and Integrity

Authors who share research data are responsible for ensuring that the data are accurate, appropriately documented, and consistent with the research reported in the manuscript.

Any necessary documentation, metadata, codebooks, or methodological information should be provided where reasonably possible to facilitate appropriate interpretation and reuse.

5. Data Access for Verification

The Editorial Office may request access to relevant underlying data when necessary to assess the validity, integrity, or reproducibility of a manuscript or to investigate concerns regarding published research.

Authors are expected to cooperate with reasonable requests for supporting information, subject to ethical, legal, confidentiality, and ownership restrictions.

6. Restrictions on Data Sharing

Where data cannot be openly shared, authors should clearly explain the reason for the restriction. Legitimate restrictions may include:

• Protection of participant confidentiality
• Ethical or IRB requirements
• Privacy and data-protection regulations
• Proprietary or commercially sensitive information
• Third-party ownership or licensing restrictions
• Legal or contractual limitations

Such restrictions should not be used to prevent legitimate editorial assessment where appropriate alternative verification arrangements can reasonably be made.

7. Data Citation

Authors are encouraged to cite datasets and other research materials used in their work appropriately. Where possible, datasets should be cited with sufficient information to enable readers to identify and access the original resource.

8. Post-Publication Data Concerns

If significant concerns arise regarding the accuracy, availability, integrity, or reliability of data supporting a published article, the journal may request clarification or supporting documentation from the authors.

Where necessary, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in accordance with its publication ethics policies.

9. Commitment to Research Transparency

The Journal of Cost Management encourages responsible data sharing as part of its commitment to transparent, reproducible, and trustworthy scholarly research. Authors are encouraged to make supporting data and materials available whenever doing so is ethically and legally appropriate, while respecting the rights, privacy, and confidentiality of research participants and data owners.