Data Sharing in Anesthesia Research: The Price Tag of Transparency and Compliance

Introduction: This study evaluated data sharing statements (DSS) in manuscripts from the top five anesthesia journals between 2020 and 2023. DSS are crucial for research transparency. Given the growth in anesthesia and its research, it is important to assess how leading journals are adopting these practices. This analysis investigates DSS presence and quality in leading anesthesia journals publishing primary patient data.

Methods: We identified the top five anesthesia journals using Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports™ and searched MEDLINE (PubMed) for relevant studies from 2020 to 2023. Authors screened articles and extracted data using a standardized form. We focused on DSS presence, themes, and authors’ responsiveness to data sharing requests.

Results: DSS prevalence varied: Anaesthesia, Critical Care & Pain Medicine increased from 15.4% in 2020 to 30% in 2023, while Anesthesia and Analgesia remained under 8%. Government-funded research was positively associated with DSS inclusion (estimate: 0.734, p = 0.047), whereas higher impact factor journals showed a negative association (estimate: -0.298, p = 0.008). The most common DSS theme was Conditional Data Availability (74.5%). Only 27.4% of authors responded to data sharing requests, and 13.7% agreed to share data for replication.

Conclusion: The study reveals significant deficiencies in data sharing practices in leading anesthesia journals. Implementing robust data sharing policies could improve transparency and reproducibility, advancing open science in this field.