Data Publication

Protected Data

Protected data in the  Data Depot Repository (DDR) are generally (but not always) included within interdisciplinary and social science research projects that study human subjects, which always need to have approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB). We developed a data model and onboarding instructions in coordination with our CONVERGE partners to manage this type of data within our curation and publication pipelines. Additionally, CONVERGE has a series of check sheets that outline how researchers should manage data that could contain sensitive information; these check sheets have also been published in the DDR.  

Natural Hazards also encompasses data that have granular geographical locations and images that may capture humans that are not the focus of the research/would not fall under the purview of an IRB. See both the Privacy Policy within our Terms of Use, 

Data de-identification, specially for large datasets, can be tasking. Users working with the RAPID facility may discuss with them steps for pre-processing before uploading to DesignSafe. 

To publish protected data researchers should pursue the following steps and requirements:

1. Do not publish HIPAA, FERPA, FISMA, PII data or sensitive information in the DDR.

2. To publish protected data and any related documentation (reports, planning documents, field notes, etc.) it must be processed to remove identifying information. No direct identifiers and up to three indirect identifiers are allowed. Direct identifiers include items such as participant names, participant initials, facial photographs (unless expressly authorized by participants), home addresses, phone number, email, vehicle identifiers, biometric data, names of relatives, social security numbers and dates of birth or other dates specific to individuals. Indirect identifiers are identifiers that, taken together, could be used to deduce someone’s identity. Examples of indirect identifiers include gender, household and family compositions, places of birth, or year of birth/age, ethnicity, general geographic indicators like postal code, socioeconomic data such as occupation, education, workplace or annual income.

3. Look at the de-identification resources below to find answers for processing protected data.

4. If a researcher has obtained consent from the subjects to publish PII (images, age, address), it should be clearly stated in the publication description and with no exceptions the IRB documentation including the informed consent statement, should be also available in the documentation. 

5. If a researcher needs to restrict public access to data because it includes HIPAA, FERPA, PII or other sensitive information, or if de-identification precludes the data from being meaningful, it is possible to publish only metadata about the data in the landing page along with descriptinve information a bout the dataset. The dataset will show as Restricted.

6. IRB documentation should be included in the publication in all cases so that users clearly understand the restrictions imposed for the protected data. In addition, authors may publish the dataset instrument, provided that it does not include any form of protected information. 

7. Users interested in restricted data can contact the project PI or designated point of contact through their published email address to request access to the data and to discuss the conditions for its reuse.

8. The responsibility of maintaining and managing a restricted dataset for the long term lies on the authors, and they can use TACC's Protected Data Services if they see fit. 

9. Please contact DDR through a help ticket or join curation office hours prior to preparing this type of publication.

De-identification Resources

The NISTIR 8053 publication De-Identification of Personal Information provides all the definitions and approaches to reduce privacy risk and enable research. 

Another NIST resource including de-identification tools. 

John Hopkins Libraries Data Services Applications to Assist in De-identification of Human Subjects Research Data. 

Reusing Data Resources in your Publication

Researchers frequently use data, code, papers or reports from other sources in their experiments, simulations and field research projects as input files, to integrate with data they create, or as references, and they want to republish them. It is a good practice to make sure that this data can be reused appropriately and republished as well as give credit to the data creators. Citing reused sources is also important to provide context and provenance to the project. In the DDR you can republish or reference reused data following the next premises:

1. If you use external data in a specific experiment, mission or simulation, cite it in the Referenced Data field.

2. Use the Related Work field at project level to include citations for the data you reused as well as your own publication related to the data reuse.

3. Include the cited resource title and corresponding DOI in https format; this way, users will be directed to the cited resource. 

4. Be aware of the reused data original license. The license will specify if and how you can modify, distribute, and cite the reused data.

5. If you have reused images from other sources (online, databases, publications, etc.), be aware that they may have copyrights. We recommend using these instructions for how to use and cite them. 

Timely Data Publication 

Although no firm timeline requirements are specified for data publishing, researchers are expected to publish in a timely manner. Recommended timelines for publishing different types of research data (i.e., Experimental, Simulation, and Reconnaissance) are listed in Table 1.

Guidelines specific to RAPID reconnaissance data can be found at rapid.designsafe-ci.org/media/filer_public/b3/82/b38231fb-21c9-41f8-b658-f516dfee87c8/rapid-designsafe_curation_guidelines_v3.pdf
 

Table 1. Recommended Publishing Timeline for Different Data Types

Public Accessibility Delay

This refers to time during which a project is not made broadly accessible awaiting for the review and publication of a corresponding journal paper. In some cases, users need to have the data DOI to submit their manuscript for review.  We work with users to:

• Provide access to reviewers via My Projects before the data is published. There is no DOI involved and the review is not annonymous.

• The dataset is curated and complete and receives a DOI. We can make the DataCite DOI metadata not web indexable. The publication will be findable within DDR. It will eventually be indexed by search engines. 

• The dataset is curated and complete and receives a DOI. We can remove the publication from the list of published datasets in the DDR. 

Users that request that their publications remain non-indexable and or non viewable should let the DDR team know through a Help ticket when the respective paper is accepted so we change its status. Without exceptions, all non-indexable, non-viewable publications in the DDR will be made publicly available upon one year even if the corresponding paper is not published.

We ask users to submit a Help ticket to Data Curation and Publication so we can work with them on the best alternative for their case. See our Public Accessibility Delay Policy for more information on the limitations and expectations for accessibility delays.

Licensing

Within DesignSafe, you will choose a license to distribute your material. The reason for offering licences with few restrictions, is that by providing less demands on reusers, they are more effective at enabling reproducible science. We offere licenses with few to no restrictions. By providing less demands on reusers, they are more effective at enabling reproducible science. Because the DesignSafe Data Depot is an open repository, the following licenses will be offered:

• For datasets: ODC-PDDL and ODC-BY
• For copyrightable materials (for example, documents, workflows, designs, etc.): CC0 and CC-BY
• For code: GPL

You should select appropriate licenses for your publication after identifying which license best fits your needs and institutional standards. Note that datasets are not copyrightable materials, but works such as reports, instruments, presentations and learning objects are.

Please select only one license per publication with a DOI. 

Available Licenses for Publishing Datasets in DesignSafe

DATASETS

If you are publishing data, such as simulation or experimental data, choose between: