Data sharing in scientific journals: how can we introduce it to environmental and occupational health studies?

Transparency in scientific research has recently been discussed more than ever, mostly with respect to secondary utilization of published data¹⁾. However, the current focus on research transparency is surely, at least partly, due to competition among researchers seeking better academic careers, sometimes resulting in researchers forging data and manipulating graphs in their publications. It is our responsibility to keep publications in scientific journals as scientific as possible, with research that is both logical and reproducible.

Environmental Occupational Health Practice (EOH-P), a sister journal of the Journal of Occupational Health (JOH), has activated data sharing using J-Stage Data²⁾, a data sharing service provided by Japan Science and Technology Agency. This editorial will show an example of data sharing summarizing past submissions and publications to our sister journal JOH. We may also summarize EOH-P’s own data within the next several years, once considerable data are accumulated.

Generally, in EOH-P publications so far, it seems that occupational health practice³⁾ is the main type of study published, followed by rather preliminary studies on environmental measurement or occupational epidemiology⁴⁾. Although we expect submissions of studies on environmental health, as the scope of EOH-P includes them, we have not yet received many of those.

Types of articles published in volume 2 of EOH-P, which focuses on practical reports in environmental and occupational health, included Good Practices, in addition to Case Studies, Brief Studies, and Opinions. Authors from Thailand and other Asian countries, Ethiopia, and Finland, in addition to Japan, contributed to EOH-P.

The number of submissions to JOH shows an upward trend, especially in the field of mental health and occupational health practice. Mental health studies are actively conducted in Japan, probably because of the practical importance in workplaces⁵⁾, and many important studies are published in JOH (Table 1). This may attract many submissions in this field from around the world. Some of the fields also crosslink with each other: reports on occupational health practice are workplace-based studies but may also assess mental health outcomes.

Table 1. Summary of Submission to Journal of Occupational Health by the Field

Field	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Epidemiology	60	55	68	36	40	47	74
Ergonomics	51	35	40	21	34	62	58
Health Promotion	47	53	45	38	34	53	63
Mental Health	47	35	42	51	64	97	107
Occupational Health Practice	44	53	45	57	67	108	111
Toxicology	55	39	42	41	34	60	35
Total	304	270	282	244	273	427	448

Discussion may arise when considering data sharing in occupational health studies. Ethical committee approval is needed to allow authors to open datasets to the public. Originality of the study may be threatened, as researchers around the world can use the dataset without the enormous effort of designing the research and collecting data. Additionally, as we have the occupational health setting as the study field, which is not usually where human studies take place, acquiring consent from the workplace regarding conduct of the study and data sharing is sometimes difficult.

Still, we find benefits of introducing data sharing in the field of occupational health, as we believe scientific data collected through a rigorous process should be fully utilized in more inclusive ways. Whether the source of funding is from a public or private agency will affect the decision. Whether the participants are from a single workplace or multiple workplaces may also affect the decision. Japan Society for Occupational Health has a long history of pursuing rigorous standards of science, encouraging discussion among the society members. We will do it again to keep our publication as scientific as possible.

EOH-P successfully attracts reports on occupational health practice, as mentioned above, which is the main scope of our journal. Occupational environment measurement and preliminary epidemiologic studies published in EOH-P may also be applicable for data sharing, which will enable readers to expand the significance of the study by adding insight from different perspective to reanalysis of the shared data. We can start with what we have available.

When publicly sharing those data, clearance of conflict of interest among employers, employees, and government and other stakeholders in environmental and occupational health studies will be needed for implementation of data sharing in this field. Obtaining approval from the institutional review board will be also required in human studies. Such discussions will follow.

So, let’s start sharing data. In order to encourage authors to make their data publicly available, EOH-P introduced J-Stage Data service, which shares data published in the journal. We welcome your submission to EOH-P, with your data available at J-Stage Data.

Data Availability Statement

Related data are available in J-STAGE Data.

• 1) Supplemental data

References

• 1.   Tenopir  C,  Allard  S,  Douglass  K, et al. Data sharing by scientists: practices and perceptions. PLoS One. 2011; 6(6): e21101.
• 2.  J-Stage Data. https://jstagedata.jst.go.jp/
• 3.   Sakai  K,  Nagata  T,  Nagata  M,  Fujino  Y,  Mori  K. The new practice of interviews focusing on presenteeism provides additional opportunities to find occupational health issues. Environ Occup Health Practice. 2022; 4: eohp.2021-0021-GP. https://doi.org/10.1539/eohp.2021-0021-GP
• 4.   Kawano  K,  Haga  S,  Endo  K,  Shimada  T,  Kobayashi  M. Outcomes of an employment support program in psychiatric day care collaborate with the public employment service: a single-arm preliminary study. Environ Occup Health Practice. 2022; 4: eohp.2021-0009-OA. https://doi.org/10.1539/eohp.2021-0009-OA
• 5.   Watanabe  K,  Inoue  A,  Eguchi  H,  Iwata  N,  Odagiri  Y,  Tsutsumi  A. Suggestions for new organizational-level item pools for the national Stress Check Program from management philosophy and mission statement: A qualitative study using unsupervised learning. J Occup Health. 2022; 64(1): e12335.