data availability in political science journals

A characteristic of recent decades of scholarly work in the social sciences has been the increased amounts of empirical research. Access and availability of data are prerequisites for further research, replication work, and scientific development. As international peer-reviewed journals have gradually become the central forum for research debate, moves towards data sharing are dependent upon the policies of journals regarding data availability. This article examines contemporary data availability policies in political science and investigates the extent to which journals adopt such policies and their content. It also identifies a few factors associated with the existence of such policies.