ODC-SCI Data Use Agreement

Data Publication Summary

When a Principal Investigator requests to publish a dataset from their ODC-SCI Laboratory (“ODC-SCI Lab”), the ODC-SCI Curation and Review Board (CRB) will perform a quality assurance check of the data including dataset and associated data dictionary and metadata. During this process, the Principal Investigator acknowledges and accepts that the CRB will be able to access the corresponding data for review purposes under the conditions laid out in the ODC-SCI Non-disclosure Agreement for All Data Reviewers (https://scicrunch.org/upload/community-components/ODC-SCI_Confidentiality_and_Non-Disclosure_Rules_for_Editors_and_Data_Team.pdf). As part of the review process, a digital object identifier (“DOI”) will be generated and associated to the data. Prior to publication of the data, the DOI can be provided to the Principal Investigator upon request and upon approval by the ODC-SCI leadership to do so.

Upon completion of the review process and approval from the CRB for data publication, the Principal Investigator will be informed that the data is approved for publication (“publication-approved”). At this time, the ODC-SCI will lock the data, preventing further edits contingent upon a case-by-case agreement between the Principal Investigator and the ODC-SCI CRB or ODC-SCI leadership. The CRB-approved data will be published to the Public data space upon the Principal Investigator providing explicit approval to publish the data. The Principal Investigator can request to the ODC-SCI leadership to hold the publication-approved data under publication embargo until a specific date or event including but not limited to the publication of a corresponding scientific article. Alternatively, if an ODC-SCI visitor (“User”) informs the ODC-SCI that the data-associated DOI has been cited in public work including but not limited to journal publications, posters, and talks, the ODC-SCI will contact the Principal Investigator to request approval to publish the data. If the Principal Investigator does not provide a response within 1 month of the request, the ODC-SCI reserves the right to publish the data without express approval from the Principal Investigator. The Principal Investigator will be informed of the publication of data. 

In circumstances where the funding or external agencies associated with the dataset have additional data sharing restrictions that would prevent the public release of the dataset, the Principal Investigator can request an extended embargo regardless of the existence of public works citing the data-associated DOI. In such cases, the ODC-SCI will publish the dataset metadata but not the dataset itself. The published metadata will include details regarding the reason for restriction.

Datasets published to the Public data sharing space will be released with the unique DOI under a creative commons 4.0 CC-BY open access license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Any visitor (the “User”) to the Portal will have access to the descriptive meta-data for public data, and any visitors logged in under a valid email address (an “Authorized User”) will be able to download public data.

Data Use Agreement for Non-published Data

I request access to the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (ODC-SCI) Informatics System (the “Portal”) for research purposes including submitting and accessing pre-clinical data (data classed as ‘not human subjects’ data such as de-identified data from participants or animal subjects collected under Institutional Review Board and ethical approval) to and from the Portal. By requesting access, I agree to the terms described in this ODC-SCI Data Use Agreement, including but not limited to the following terms.

1. Data Disclaimers. I accept that the ODC-SCI does not and cannot warrant the results that may be obtained by using any data or data analysis tools included in the ODC-SCI. The ODC-SCI disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy of the data in the ODC-SCI or the performance or fitness of the data or data analysis tools for any particular purpose.

2. Data Governance for Published Data. I accept that once data has been published on the ODC-SCI, any aspect of the data such as data-associated metadata will be permanently shared with the public and visible to registered Users to the ODC-SCI. I accept that in order to remove published data from the ODC-SCI, I am required to submit a request to the ODC-SCI leadership and that the ODC-SCI SC reserves the right to reject the request or remove only a subset of the published data.

3. Accessing Public/Published Data. When accessing and using published data for my own work, I will adhere to the requirements established by the creative commons 4.0 CC-BY open access license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) with the understanding that all datasets made public on the ODC-SCI are done so under the license. Furthermore, I acknowledge that I must have an ODC-SCI account with a valid email (an “Authorized User”) in order to download published data and that the ODC-SCI will keep a record of my access upon downloading public data. 

4. Submitting Data for Publication. In cases where I am the Data Provider of a dataset, I understand and agree to allow the ODC-SCI CRB to access and view my data (under the conditions laid out by the ODC-SCI Non-disclosure Agreement for All Data Reviewers) when it is submitted for publication. If a dataset-associated provisional (reserved) DOI is cited in a public work including but not limited to journal articles, poster presentations, and talks before the data has been made public by the Principal Investigator, I understand and agree that the ODC-SCI reserves the right to publish the data without requiring explicit approval of the Principal Investigator and other Data Providers.

I understand that if any associated funding or external agencies have additional data sharing restrictions, I must inform the ODC-SCI leadership and request to hold my dataset under embargo even after the DOI has been cited in a public work. I understand and agree that the ODC-SCI reserves the right to publish the dataset as outlined in this data use agreement if I do not inform and receive approval from ODC-SCI leadership to limit the publication of the dataset according to data sharing restrictions for external agencies.

I accept that the ODC-SCI CRB endeavors to complete the quality assurance process in a timely fashion, the process may take up to 4 weeks even if the data requires minimal revisions. The process may take longer than 4 weeks in cases where significant revisions are necessary to conform to the Minimal Data Standards for published datasets on the ODC-SCI.

5. Data Governance for Unpublished Data. I understand that the Principal Investigator of the ODC-SCI Lab containing the unpublished data is the legal steward of the data and is authorized by their University or other Organization to serve in this role as according to norms and legal standards governing granting organizations. The Principal Investigator of the ODC-SCI Lab has the sole right to determine which non-Public data sharing space (i.e., “Personal”; “Lab Space”; or “ODC-SCI Commons”) on the Portal each dataset in their ODC-SCI Lab is to be assigned. I accept that the Principal Investigator can change the data sharing space of a dataset at any time.

6. Accessing Unpublished Data. I accept that by uploading data to the ODC-SCI, I make the data accessible to a subset of other Users dependent upon the ODC-SCI data sharing space the data is assigned to. Data in the “Personal” data space will only be accessible to the Data Providers, which includes the original uploader and the Principal Investigator, and any of the Principal Investigator’s designates. Data in the “Lab Space” data sharing space will be accessible to any Laboratory Users who are members of the same ODC-SCI Lab that the data is uploaded to. Data in the “ODC-SCI Commons” data sharing space will be accessible to any Laboratory Users of the ODC-SCI, including those who do not belong in the same ODC-SCI Lab that the data is uploaded to. Accessibility includes both the right to see the data-associated metadata, including the title, descriptions, and current assigned data sharing space, and the right to download the data.

I understand and accept that by accessing an unpublished dataset, the ODC-SCI reserves the right to keep a record of my username, name, and date of download and that this record will be provided to the Principal Investigator of the ODC-SCI Lab in which the data is uploaded and their designates.

I understand and accept that if I use any unpublished data in work that will be made public including but not limited to journal articles, poster presentations, and talks, I will contact the Principal Investigator that serves as the dataset’s Data Provider to obtain their explicit agreement and permission to use the unpublished data in my work. I accept that use of the data without the explicit agreement of the corresponding Principal Investigator is a violation of the ODC-SCI Data Use Agreement.

In certain circumstances when unpublished data results in work that will be made public including but not limited to formal peer-reviewed papers or pre-prints, I will, upon receiving permission to use the data from the Principal Investigator that serves as the dataset’s Data Provider, submit the data for publication.

I agree to retain control over all accessed data and to not transfer or distribute the data to any other entity or individual except individuals who are also Authorized Users of the ODC-SCI and have permission to access the same data.

I agree that data submitted to the “ODC-SCI” data sharing space may be accessed and used broadly by qualified researchers for research and other activities consistent with law. In cases where I am the Principal Investigator, I acknowledge that if any such activities generate public work, I have the right to refuse permission for my unpublished data to be used.