The journal Education in the 21st Century mandates analytical transparency, empirical reproducibility, and the strictly ethical management of research data. This statutory policy operates in absolute accordance with the FAIR Data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and the COPE Guidelines on Data and Reproducibility.

Mandatory Data Availability Statement (DAS)

All submitted manuscripts must encompass a formal Data Availability Statement. This mandatory declarative section must explicitly articulate whether the raw or processed datasets supporting the empirical findings are publicly accessible. If applicable, authors must provide the precise locational identifiers (e.g., DOIs or persistent URLs) of the designated data repository.

Ethical Exemptions and Privacy Protection

Given the pedagogical and socio-educational purview of the journal, the Editorial Board acknowledges that empirical datasets frequently involve human subjects, including educational practitioners and minors. Consequently, the dissemination of data is strictly governed by institutional review board (IRB) protocols and jurisdictional data protection regulations. In instances where unredacted public disclosure is legally or ethically precluded to ensure participant anonymity, authors must explicitly stipulate these restrictions within the DAS. Under such circumstances, authors are obligated to provide rigorously anonymized or aggregated datasets upon reasoned academic request.

Authorized Repositories

The journal categorically prohibits the utilization of personal websites or transient cloud storage infrastructures for data archiving. Authors are structurally mandated to deposit comprehensive datasets—where ethically permissible—in recognized, persistent, and open-access academic repositories (e.g., Zenodo, Open Science Framework, or formal institutional archives).