Virginia Tech Data Repository: Meeting US Funder Requirements

The Virginia Tech Data Repository has all of the relevant characteristics specified in the United States National Science and Technology Council Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research. This repository is an excellent option for the deposit and open access of research data and software/code originating from federally funded research (e.g. NSF, NIH, USDA).

 

Following is a description of the Virginia Tech Data Repository’s characteristics organized in the four themes and twenty-one characteristics in the NSTC document linked above.

 

Organizational Infrastructure

 

Free and Easy Access - The purpose of the Virginia Tech Data Repository is to highlight, preserve, and provide access to research products (e.g. datasets) of the Virginia Tech community. All datasets published in the Virginia Tech Data Repository are openly accessible and downloadable without cost or other restriction. Datasets that require access restrictions for any reason are not published in this repository.

 

Clear Use Guidance - All published datasets and software are accompanied by appropriate open access and use licenses. See the Preparing Data for Deposit document for more information on current repository license guidance. 

 

Risk Management - Datasets that require access restrictions for any reason are not published in this repository. The repository Deposit Agreement states that Depositors agree that their data deposit and publication does not violate law or ethics. For datasets where publication is requested, Repository Administrators check for sensitive information that may be included.

 

Retention Policy - The repository Deposit Agreement states that access to and integrity of published data on the Virginia Tech Data Repository platform is expected to be maintained for the foreseeable future but will be maintained at least five years after publication.

 

Long-term Organizational Sustainability - Virginia Tech University Libraries contracts with Digital Science for maintenance and support of the data deposit and access platform for the Virginia Tech Data Repository. Actions taken to maintain the integrity of datasets before and after unforeseen adverse events are specified in the About Page under ‘Data Preservation Actions’.

 

Digital Object Management 

 

Unique Persistent Identifiers - The Virginia Tech Data Repository assigns digital object identifiers (DOIs) to all published datasets. This assignment is achieved through using the University Libraries DataCite account and figshare for institutions instance. The figshare for institutions FAQs have additional information about how this DOI process is handled.

 

Metadata - To publish datasets through the Virginia Tech Data Repository, there are mandatory metadata fields the Depositor must fill out. These include Title, Description, Group, Item Type, Authors, Categories, Keywords, License, Corresponding Author Name, and Files/Folders Description. Additional metadata fields are optional for Depositor use. Dataset metadata are pushed to DataCite for improved discoverability and citation upon publication.

 

Curation and Quality Assurance - All datasets submitted to the Repository are curated by a Repository Administrator who has been through extensive data curation training. This curation service also includes a level of quality assurance. The Virginia Tech Data Repository is also a member of the Data Curation Network, a broad group of data repositories and curators that can be leveraged to provide expert curation for datasets outside of the Repository Administrators’ expertise.

 

Broad and Measured Reuse - Every published dataset is given a DOI to track reuse and an open license to maximize dataset reusability. Through integration with the Digital Science application Dimensions, the figshare for Institutions platform also has citation metrics for each dataset that tracks when a dataset published in the Virginia Tech Data Repository has been cited. See the Preparing Data for Deposit document for more information on current repository license guidance.

 

Common Format - The Virginia Tech Data Repository allows datasets and metadata to be accessed, downloaded, or exported from the repository platform in widely used formats consistent with standards used in the disciplines researched at Virginia Tech.

 

Provenance - The Virginia Tech Data Repository tracks provenance of all datasets from repository ingest to publication. Provenance logs for published datasets are included with archival packages. Once datasets are published, the figshare for institution platform supports version control following platform rules, and makes previous versions of datasets available. Versioning of datasets is also recorded in archival provenance logs.

 

Technology 

 

Authentication - Virginia Tech researchers who wish to publish datasets are required to sign into the repository platform via the Virginia Tech Single Sign-On service. The Virginia Tech Data Repository also allows Depositors to associate their datasets with an ORCID id, a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes them from every other researcher.

 

Long-term Technical Sustainability - Building on the repository’s Long-term Organizational Sustainability (above), the Virginia Tech University Libraries anticipates allocating at least the same amount of, if not more, resources to maintain and grow this data repository service. That academic libraries have reasonably stable annual budgets and personnel is an advantage of institutional data repositories.

 

Security and Integrity - The repository does not publish sensitive or human participant data. All datasets published in the Virginia Tech Data Repository are openly accessible and downloadable without cost or other restriction. The repository platform has many security features as described in the following article: figshare’s approach to security and stability.

 

Additional Considerations for Storing Human Data 

 

Fidelity to Consent - As specified in the repository Deposit Agreement, the repository does not publish sensitive or human participant data. De-identified human participants data is published only with the consent of the participants and IRB approval.

 

Security - De-identified human participants data is published only with the consent of the participants and IRB approval. Any deposited content not published is only accessible to the Depositor through the Virginia Tech Single Sign-On service. As described in the Deposit Agreement, the Depositor is primarily responsible for their deposited content.

 

Limited Use Compliant - The repository Terms of Use communicate to data users what can and cannot be done with accessed and/or downloaded published data.

 

Download Control - Since all published data is openly accessible without restrictions, the Virginia Tech Data repository does not control the number of times a dataset can be accessed or downloaded. Numbers of page views and downloads are captured by the repository system as described in the following article: Usage metrics.

 

Request Review - Since all published data is openly accessible without restrictions, the Virginia Tech Data repository does not review data access requests.

 

Plan for Breach - As described in the Terms of Use, the Virginia Tech Data Repository is governed by Virginia Tech’s Policy 7000: Acceptable Use and Administration of Computer and Communication Systems. In this policy are procedures for addressing cybersecurity breaches; see section 3.3.

 

Accountability - As described in the Terms of Use, the Virginia Tech Data Repository is governed by Virginia Tech’s

Policy 7000: Acceptable Use and Administration of Computer and Communication Systems. Should violations of terms-of-use or data mismanagement arise, the Repository Administrators would report these following Policy 7000, section 3.1

 

Last Modified 27 September 2024