Summary of Policies

Purpose and Scope

eData is an Institutional Repository for STFC researchers who have a responsibility or requirement to deposit data (including software), especially data and software that underpin research publications, and data and software where the funding body or publisher requires its registration, archiving and preservation. eData does not replace subject-based, national, or STFC Facility data repositories that STFC researchers use. Researchers should check with their Funder or Facility for any specific requirements on where to deposit data.

Data deposit should be in line with any Data Management Plan associated with the research project.

Software deposit should be in line with any Software Management Plan associated with the research project.

eData offers a complete service for the deposit, registration, preservation, discovery, sharing and citation of data.

eData is not intended to store:

  • data still in active (live) use by research projects
  • data that is confidential, sensitive, or contains personal information
  • software that has been licensed by STFC for commercial use

Deposit

  • Depositors are required to accept and comply with deposit conditions.
  • Any file format is accepted (advice is available on the best file formats for long-term preservation).
  • Multiple files can be zipped up before deposit.
  • Researchers should ask for advice before submitting data files larger than 10GB.
  • Login to eData is authenticated by STFC federal id.
  • Permission to submit entries is approved and assigned by the eData Team.
  • Descriptive metadata to accepted standards for discovery, description, reporting and funder compliance must be assigned to each dataset.
  • A CC-BY licence is the default for deposited datasets.
  • There is an option to set an embargo period for datasets.
  • There are no charges to individual researchers for deposit or storage of datasets.

Access

  • No login is required to search eData and access openly available datasets
  • Only STFC members of staff may deposit datasets into eData
  • Datasets must only be used in line with the licence restrictions applied
  • If there is no licence specified, you are advised to contact edata@stfc.ac.uk to ensure your intended use is permitted.
  • Metadata may be freely reused under a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication licence (CC0)

Citation

  • Datasets are assigned a persistent and unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) generated by DataCite for citation and attribution
  • It is expected that datasets deposited in eData will not be registered in another repository in order to maintain unique identification, citation and streamlined reporting of usage
  • Other repositories may point to records and datasets in eData
  • Please cite datasets using the format: Creators. Publication Year. Dataset Title [format and/or medium]. Publisher/Repository. DOI
  • Guidance on writing a Data Access Statement is available for STFC staff

Discovery

  • eData is indexed by the Clarivate Data Citation Index, re3data, Google and other search engines, thus maximising the global exposure of data deposited in eData.
  • eData has a freely available public interface for searching and access to data.
  • Access and download statistics are available for datasets.

User support

  • A user guide to deposit is available and sent to each person when they register to deposit.
  • Online in-context help is available in the repository.
  • There is a dedicated email helpdesk edata@stfc.ac.uk for queries and feedback.
  • We endeavour to reply to all queries within 5 working days.

User Management

User records will be removed from eData within 10 days of receipt of leaver notification via the LDAP (Active Directory) system. If a depositor leaves STFC their items will be retained in eData in accordance with our preservation policy.

Retention and Preservation

  • Items deposited in eData will be retained for the long term which is defined as a minimum of 10 years.
  • Where data is no longer available, the associated DOI and metadata will be retained in accordance to the withdrawal policy.
  • Content within the system is preserved at the bit level through system back-ups and regular integrity checks.
  • We do not intend to do any routine preservation activities. Preservation activities will be part of a wider project and the specific activities will be identified through that. The project team will review preservation concerns once a year.

Withdrawal Policy

If an uploaded dataset must later be withdrawn, the reason for the withdrawal will be indicated on a tombstone page, which will henceforth be served in its place. Withdrawal is considered an exceptional action, which normally should be requested and fully justified by the original uploader. In any other circumstance reasonable attempts will be made to contact the original uploader to obtain consent. The DOI and the URL of the original object are retained.

Takedown Policy

  • The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.
  • Any copyright or Intellectual Property infringements are entirely the responsibility of the creators/depositors.
  • If eData receives proof of Intellectual Property infringement, the relevant item will be withdrawn in line with the eData withdrawal policy.

If you have a query or complaint about material in eData please send the following information to edata@stfc.ac.uk: Your contact details, details of the item (title, author, URL and/or DOI) and the nature of your complaint, including any evidence or proof.

Operational Policies

  • eData is an ‘end-user’ self-service facility. Individuals are expected to enter their own data deposits.
  • The eData Team may engage in one-off projects to assist in ‘bulk’ or ‘retrospective’ deposits if the data is in scope for eData and funding and other required resources are provided.
  • “Communities” in eData are defined as STFC Departments.
  • Technical management and development of eData is managed and resourced by the SCD Data & Software Engineering Group.
  • Promotion and user support for eData is managed and resourced by the Open Science Services Group.

Updated Jan 2023

Responsibilities of Depositors

  • Depositors are responsible for ensuring that any Data submitted to eData were generated in accordance with the policies of relevant research funders.
  • Depositors agree to deposit Data according to eData Policies.
  • Depositors are responsible for ensuring that if the submission contains material for which the Depositor does not hold copyright or other IP rights, the Depositor will have obtained the permission of the rights owner to grant STFC the rights required to make these Data available by eData, and that such third party-owned material is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text or content of the submission.
  • Depositors are responsible for including sufficient supporting information in their deposit to enable other researchers to understand the research and re-use potential of the Data.
  • If the Data is subject to an embargo on public access, Depositors are responsible for indicating the duration of the embargo in the eData deposit form.
  • Depositors are responsible for ensuring that submitted Data have an appropriate and accurate metadata description so that the Data can be discoverable and effectively re-used by others.
  • Depositors are responsible for assigning the appropriate licence to their Data and must be willing and able to grant STFC the right and licence to preserve and distribute their Data via eData.
  • Depositors accept that we may make reasonable changes to the Terms and Conditions at any time, and, once we have posted those changes on our website, the new version will then apply to them.