RDM Demerit: Data available upon reasonable request
Scenario
Who hasn’t been there? Your project is rapidly approaching its end. Your paper is ready for submission, and there’s this question: Is the paper associated with a dataset and is the data published and available? The data underlying your paper is really interesting, but it is still a mess. You really don’t feel like straightening up your data and publishing it. So you put your fingers on the keyboard and start typing: The data is available upon ... This is the point where you should take a step back and rethink your life choices, especially if the next word would be reasonable.
Solution
Make your data available under the most open conditions as legally and ethically possible. Avoid any idiosyncratic conditions or mechanisms. In particular, avoid any opaque preconditions as suggested by the modifier reasonable. If you cannot make data – or any useful derivative of your dataset – available for legal or ethical reasons, be upfront about it.