eScholarship@UMassChan Data Deposit Policy

Lamar Soutter Library, Research and Scholarly Communication Services

General Statement

All research data housed within eScholarship@UMassChan is subject to the following data-specific policies. Note: Policies and Terms are subject to change without notice. Your use of the Site, or any of its Content licensed hereunder, after any such changes have been made will constitute your agreement on a prospective basis to the modified eScholarship@UMassChan Data Deposit Policy and all changes. Accordingly, you should read this policy upon each deposit.

Data We Collect (Data Collection Policy)

eScholarship@UMassChan is managed by the Lamar Soutter Library, and accepts digital research data, digital research artifacts, and digital research materials (henceforth referred to as "data") at no cost that meet the following collection criteria:

  • Data must be created by at least one University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) researcher with an active UMass Chan email at time of deposit. Depositor is responsible for notifying us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, if contact information changes.
  • Data should be original and unique, and not deposited elsewhere. If you have deposited your data in another repository we are happy to create a metadata record in eScholarship@UMassChan to link to the location.
  • Administrative records and documents (e.g. meeting minutes, internal memos) will not be accepted unless used for the purposes of research.
  • Data must be unencrypted and unclassified data, meaning data without private, confidential, or other legally protected information (e.g., personal identifiable information).
  • Data must be deposited for open access. Visitors to eScholarship@UMassChan may download and reuse your data. Data that is not suitable for reuse should not be shared publicly.
  • A release embargo of no more than 2 years may be placed on the data. Please contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, if you need this embargo extended.
  • Open, non-proprietary data formats are preferred such as csv and pdf. Repository staff reserve the right to create a copy of the data in an open, non-proprietary format for preservation purposes.
  • File upload and download speeds are dependent upon your network connection. We suggest limiting files to 1 GB for upload. However, larger files can be deposited. Please contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, to discuss datasets larger than 1 GB or that you are having trouble uploading.
  • Data must include a README file describing the nature of the data at an appropriate level for purposes of reuse and discovery. All data depositors must complete a README file as part of acceptance into the repository. The README must include:
    • Creators: Include contact information for the primary creator and principal investigator and/or advisor (if not the same), specifically email address, phone number, and institution. Contact information for all creators is preferred.
    • Directory of Files in Dataset: List and define the different files included in the dataset, which serves as its table of contents. This information can be included in the README file, in a separate file, or as part of the data file. If it is in a separate file or in the data file, explain where this information is located and ensure that it is accessible without specialized software. We recommend using plain text files or tabular plain text CSV files exported from spreadsheet software.
    • File Naming Convention: Define your File Naming Convention (FNC), the framework used for naming your files systematically to describe what they contain, which could be combined with the Directory of Files. For more information and examples, see the Research Data Management Resource Guide.
    • Data Description: A data description, dictionary, or codebook defines the variables and abbreviations used in a dataset. This information can be included in the README file, in a separate file, or as part of the data file. If it is in a separate file or in the data file, explain where this information is located and ensure that it is accessible without specialized software. We recommend using plain text files or tabular plain text CSV files exported from spreadsheet software.
    • If applicable, additional required information for README file:
      • Software: If specialized software(s) generated your data or are necessary to interpret it, please provide for each (if applicable): software name, version, system requirements, and developer.
      • Equipment: If specialized equipment generated your data, please provide for each (if applicable): equipment name, manufacturer, model, and calibration information. Be sure to include specialized file format information in the data dictionary.
      • Dates of Data Collection: List the dates and/or times of data collection.
    • A README file template, more information on README files and example README files are available at https://libraryguides.umassmed.edu/research_data_management_resources/documentation.
  • The data should be in a final, reusable state. We suggest cleaning your data, including deduplication, correction, and normalization. Tools such as OpenRefine can be used to assist with this process. Please contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, for more information and suggestions.
  • It is the responsibility of the individuals who are uploading the data to make sure that they have the necessary rights, permissions, or lawful authorization (such as fair use) to share any materials they did not generate and clearly and appropriately identify and acknowledge any third-party material in the content of the deposit.

Please contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, if you have questions or specific inquiries.

Requesting Removal of Data from eScholarship@UMassChan

In accordance with the Digital Collections Policy, we will consider requests to remove content on a case-by-case basis for reasons such as IRB infringement, plagiarism, or at the request of the creator(s). Once the data is removed, a tombstone metadata record will be left as a landing page for anyone who has the link. The tombstone record will not be crawled by search engines.

How People Can Use Your Material (End-User Access Policy)

eScholarship@UMassChan is an open access repository and makes collection holdings freely available, worldwide. End-users may download and use posted materials in any manner not prohibited by copyright or other applicable law and subject to the eScholarship@UMassChan Terms of Use. Although eScholarship@UMassChan does not grant end-users any rights in the posted material, some authors may choose to apply a Creative Commons license to their data, which will give end-users certainty that they do not need permission for any uses allowed by the license.

What You Need to Agree to for Us to Host and Share Your Work (Deposit License)

The submission process consists of the following steps:

Before you begin the online submission, please be sure you have the following items ready:

  • The submission's title
  • Name, email address, affiliation, and ORCID ID of the data creators
  • Description or abstract of the data
  • Completed README file
  • A list of keywords
  • Funding information (if applicable)
  • An electronic version of your primary data file and any supplemental files, or hyperlink to your file (maximum size of 15 GB, with 800 MB limit for Microsoft Word files)

eScholarship@UMassChan Non-Exclusive Deposit License

I hereby grant UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) the non-exclusive right to retain, reproduce, and distribute the deposited work (“the work”) in whole or in part, in and from its electronic format, worldwide and without charge.

UMass Chan may make and keep more than one copy of the work for preservation and access and may translate the work to other formats for these purposes, including but not limited to audio, video, and the addition/editing of descriptive information.

I represent that the work is my original work and does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe upon anyone’s copyright, nor violate any proprietary rights, nor contain any libelous matter, nor invade the privacy of any person or third party.

I represent that third party material included in the work is clearly identified, and I have secured sufficient and appropriate permissions from the copyright holder(s) to agree to the terms of this license.

If the submission is based upon work that has been sponsored or supported by an agency or organization other than UMass Chan, I represent that I have fulfilled any right of review or other obligations required by such contract or agreement.

This agreement does not represent a transfer of copyright to UMass Chan.

By granting this license, I assert that I, as an author, copyright holder, or authorized depositor, have the power and authority to enter into this agreement and that I have read and agreed to all the terms of this agreement.

Limited Review of Data by the Repository Administrator

Before data is made available through eScholarship@UMassChan, the repository administrator will complete a limited review of the data to:

  • Check for completeness of the README (data dictionary, etc.)
  • Perform a cursory check for personal protected or health information but will not check for cross-variable identification
  • Not checking for errors or omissions
  • Repository administrator is not liable

Language for Use in the Grant-Writing Process

Please contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, prior to including eScholarship@UMassChan in your data management plan or grant proposal.

Feel free to use the language below when filling out grants that require data sharing and/or data management plans. Please note that eScholarship@UMassChan can only accept data that is openly available - we are unable to provide restricted access to data.

The data will be deposited into eScholarship@UMassChan, https://repository.escholarship.umassmed.edu/. The Lamar Soutter Library's hosted institutional repository is an open access platform for dissemination and long-term storage of university research data. In addition, eScholarship@UMassChan maintains persistent DOIs for datasets, facilitating data citations. In accordance with eScholarship@UMassChan policies, the (deidentified, if applicable) data will be accompanied by the appropriate documentation, metadata, and code to facilitate reuse and provide the potential for interoperability with similar datasets.

If you need further assistance with language for a grant, please see Florida International University's boilerplate library at http://research.fiu.edu/proposal-preparation/templates/#data. For further inquiries or assistance, contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu.

Registering Your Data in eScholarship@UMassChan

There may be situations where you do not want to deposit your data in eScholarship@UMassChan. For example, you may intend to deposit your data in a repository specific to your discipline instead. If this is the case, you can register your data in eScholarship@UMassChan. By registering your data in eScholarship@UMassChan, you increase the potential for your work to be discovered and reused by other researchers. To register your data, you will provide information (metadata) describing the data, along with the location of the data. Please contact us, escholarship@umassmed.edu, if you have questions, or would like more information about data registration.

Contact

eScholarship@UMassChan Team: escholarship@umassmed.edu

Policies Used in the Creation of this Document

Policies Related to DEPOSIT of Materials in eScholarship@UMassChan

Digital Collections Policy 
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Minting Policy

Policies Related to USE of Materials Available in eScholarship@UMassChan

Terms of Use

This policy was last updated on August 29, 2022. 
This policy was approved by the eScholarship@UMassChan Management Team on August 29, 2022.