Key messages#

1. Safeguarding the anonymity of LPS participants is of paramount importance to UK LLC. Researchers must only include data in papers/presentations that have been approved through UK LLC’s output review process - see Moving files in and out guide.

2. All researchers must ensure that their analyses and outputs fall within the scope of their approved project and adhere to data owners’ terms and conditions.

3. All researchers must acknowledge UK LLC and its partners, collaborators, funders and contributing data owners appropriately. For presentations, an acknowledgement slide containing logos is available here. For papers, detailed information about LPS for supplementary materials is available in DOC-DAT-032 here.

4. All papers and similar outputs must be shared with UK LLC for review prior to submission for publication.

5. UK LLC does not require to see presentations before they are delivered.

6. Outputs should be placed into the public domain as quickly as possible. UK LLC encourages researchers to use a preprint server such as medRxiv to make their outputs publicly available while formal peer review is underway.

7. All papers and similar outputs must be published as Open Access in line with UKRI Open Access Policy. There are two main routes: gold open access, published under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence, or green open access whereby the author’s accepted version is deposited in an open access repository with a CC-BY licence. University library websites tend to have really good guidance and many will have grants from funders to pay for gold open access if your research is funded by them, e.g. see University of Bath Library, University of Bristol Library or University of Edinburgh Library.

8. Datasets from UK LLC’s TRE cannot be published in public databanks. If this is requested, we suggest that you provide the following statement: ‘Data used in this research are made available via UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC), which is a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) developed and operated by the Universities of Bristol and Edinburgh using an underlying ‘Secure eResearch Platform’ provided by Swansea University. These data cannot be used or shared outside this environment. Researchers can apply to access the UK LLC TRE using the procedure outlined in the UK LLC Data Access and Acceptable Use Policy. UK LLC uses a system of managed open access for researchers who demonstrate their project is intended to improve the public good.’

For further details see the UK LLC Publication Policy.

Sending your manuscript to UK LLC for review#

Data owners have devolved their responsibility for review of manuscripts to UK LLC to minimise the time taken to release findings into the public domain.

At least two weeks prior to journal submission, you must email your manuscript, lay summary and completed publication checklist (available here) to access@ukllc.ac.uk for approval by UK LLC. We expect to process all manuscripts within two weeks of receipt. Please note that if there are any substantive changes to the manuscript after UK LLC review, re-review must be sought.

UK LLC reviews all manuscripts to check that they fall within the scope of the approved project, that all parties are accurately described and acknowledged and that all data owners’ terms and conditions have been followed. UK LLC staff do not conduct peer-review or scientific assessment. UK LLC staff, partners and contributing LPS staff are not expected to be authors unless authorship is justified under ICMJE authorship guidelines.

The UK LLC Executive Group can withhold the right to publish any manuscript that may bring UK LLC or any of the contributing data owners into disrepute or which could compromise the confidentiality of LPS participants. They also reserve the right to submit letters or papers for publication in response to any paper or similar output to explain study procedures or to express an alternative scientific argument.