Frequently asked questions

4TU.ResearchData is a data and software repository for science, engineering and design domains, as well as support services and a vibrant community around them.

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4TU.Federation is the federation of the four Dutch universities of technology: Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), University of Twente (UT), Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR). Founded in 2007 as 3TU, the Federation name changed to 4TU in 2016 when WUR joined forces.

Visit the 4TU.Federation website for more information.

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4TU.ResearchData helps researchers publish their research data and software and make it available in the long-term. In addition, 4TU.ResearchData offers researchers community support, training opportunities, thematic events, funds to help them make their data FAIR, as well as consultancy support.

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Anyone from science, engineering and design can use 4TU.ResearchData to upload and publish their research data and software.

Learn more on our Getting Started webpage.

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A trustworthy repository is confirmed as complying with requirements related to organisational governance, data management and technical infrastructure. Together, these requirements provide assurance that the data provided are from a trustworthy repository.

For 4TU.ResearchData, the CoreTrustSeal accreditation provides researchers with the assurance that their data held in our repository will remain useful and meaningful into the future. The accreditation further assures funders, publishers and other stakeholders that resources are findable, accessible, understandable and reusable over time, thus enabling reproducibility of research and data reuse for future discoveries.

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The FAIR principles are international guidelines for research data management that aim to optimise the reuse of research data, to promote best practices on research data management and to enable Open Science. This is achieved by making research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

Data management plans and trusted data repositories, such as 4TU.ResearchData, help to make data FAIR.

Learn more on our Manage & Share page; the FAIR Principles tab

FAIR data practices, such as good documentation, data sharing, and striving to increase reproducibility, have many benefits, such as:

• A citation boost (Colavizza et al., 2020)
• Avoiding disaster through robust workflows (Markowetz, 2015)
• Increased efficiency through reuse of other people’s work

Resources to support researchers to make their research data FAIR are available on the Publish-Cite page of our our website.

More information on how 4TU.ResearchData adheres to the FAIR Principles is available on our Manage & Share page; the FAIR Principles tab

Every researcher can upload up to 5 GB of data per year to 4TU.ResearchData free of charge. For uploads larger than 5 GB we charge a one-off €4.50 per GB. For researchers from partner and member institutions (TU Delft, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Twente and Wageningen University & Research) we apply special rates and upload volumes which you can find on our Costs page. Learn more on our Publish & Cite, User's webpage.

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Please visit our Policies and Guidelines webpage to access information on our:

• Data Collection Policy
• Deposit Agreement
• Data Processing Agreement
• Privacy policy
• Terms of Use
• Preservation policy
• Deposit guidelines
• Guidelines for creating a README file
• Preferred file formats
• Metadata review guidelines
• Restricted Access

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4TU.ResearchData strongly encourages the use of standard, exchangeable or open file formats. For the preferred formats, 4TU.ResearchData guarantees that the research data will remain accessible in the future.

Learn more in our Preferred File Formats guideline.

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Any researcher, from anywhere, can upload their research data to 4TU.ResearchData.

Learn more on our Publish & Cite, User's webpage.

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We recommend data to be "open" whenever possible*. However, you can also embargo the data (delay access for a specified time) or restrict who gets access to data. For more details, please refer to our Access Conditions tab on this webpage.

*Data should be restricted if they are of sensitive nature (e.g. still contain personal information because the data could not be fully anonymised). For guidance, consult the GDPR policy and guidelines of your home institute on how to handle sensitive and personal data.

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4TU.ResearchData strongly encourages the use of standard, exchangeable or open file formats. For the preferred formats, 4TU.ResearchData guarantees that the research data will remain accessible in the future.
Learn more in our Preferred File Formats guideline.

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If you are publishing a paper and need to separately deposit the underlying datasets, you can reserve a DOI in advance to provide to the publisher.

Visit our Manage and Share page to view the Step-by-Step guide under “Reserve a DOI”:

1. Go to your Dashboard page and click the Add new dataset button.
2. Add descriptive metadata
   The reserved DOI for the dataset can be found in the DOI reservation field.
3. Click Save draft once you have completed the form

Please note that the reserved DOI is inactive, and will only resolve once your dataset is published.

Find all information on our Manage & Share page (at ‘Reserve a DOI’ tab)

4TU.ResearchData assigns DOIs at two levels: to a dataset (with multiple data files), and to a collection (aggregation of multiple datasets).
At what level and how granular you want to publish your research data, consider the expectations and needs of your research community. How will the data be used, and what is likely to be cited?

DOIs are primarily designed for citation and discovery. Each citable entity should make sense independent of any wider set or collection to which it might belong.

Visit our Manage & Share page for information on how to reserve a DOI (at ‘Reserve a DOI’ tab).

Integrating your 4TU.ResearchData and git account(s) allows you to make public the code associated with a research output, and make clear which version of the code you used.

The 4TU.ResearchData platform has support for the Git protocol. To publish the source code of your software, follow the instructions in the metadata form when choosing Software deposit under the heading Files.

Find more information on ‘Connecting with Git’ on our Getting started page.

Yes, you can share your draft dataset with a private link.
To do this, go to your My datasets page and click the private link icon (chain) to the far right of the dataset title. Or find the private link feature on top of the dataset’s Edit dataset page.
You will be directed to the Private link page. Click the button Create new private link which opens a form:

• Select the duration of the private link, and optionally the purpose of the link and who the link will be shared with.
• Check the box Hide authors and affiliation if the link is shared for blind (anonymous) peer review.

When the form is completed, click the Activate private link button.
You will be able to send the resulting private link to, for example, the peer reviewers.

Visit our Manage & Share page for more information.

The step-by-step instructions for uploading your data are described on our Upload your Data webpage.

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The storage where 4TU.ResearchData saves and stores all data is managed by the ICT department of Delft University of Technology. All data is stored in object storage at two locations in Delft and in one location in Leiden.

If corruption takes place "in transit" between the application server and the storage, this is immediately recognized because the file is checked with a hash. If this does not match, the transfer will be done again.

When the file has arrived in our storage environment and is in the 3 locations, we have 3 separate copies. If for any reason 1 copy becomes corrupt, this is detected because the system regularly checks all hashes of the files with each other. In this case ICT will receive a message and the file will be repaired using the other copies.

All dataset owners and visitors can see the md5 check when they have uploaded or view a file from a dataset. For more information, please consult our Data Collection Policy.

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It is not possible to delete files from our storage instantly. Deleted files are stored on the storage for 1 year after a delete action, by the policy of our storage, before they are permanently deleted.

For more information, please consult our Data Collection Policy.

We guarantee at least 15 years, and have no plans of pro-actively removing any of our datasets.
Check the Data Collection Policy for more information.

Yes, 4TU.ResearchData collaborates with other partners within Research Data Netherlands and we jointly offer 'Essentials 4 Data Support' for any aspiring data professionals from the Netherlands and beyond. In addition, on a regular basis training courses, workshops and events are organized to support researchers, PhD students and support staff on various topics related to data and software management. Announcements about upcoming (training) events will be made through our Community portal.

The 4TU.ResearchData community is built around our international data repository for science, engineering and design. Our members comprise researchers and research data supporters from different domains of expertise. The community provides an opportunity for its members to connect and exchange knowledge about best practices for the creation and reuse of FAIR data within the technical sciences.

Join our community by creating your public profile and we’ll contact you with a ‘welcome pack’ and an invitation to join our Slack workspace.

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Subscribe for a monthly round-up of news, events, opportunities and announcements from 4TU.ResearchData by providing your email address.

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You can reach us at researchdata@4tu.nl. One of our team members will respond to your query as soon as possible.

Contact details for 4TU.ResearchData representatives at each of our member universities as well as the Data Curation and Community Management team members are available on our website.

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Go to https://data.4tu.nl and click the log in button at the top right of the screen. Select your institution, or use eduID if your institution is not listed, and begin using 4TU.ResearchData’s archiving services.

We strongly encourage the use of persistent identifiers, including ORCID for researchers.
You can connect your ORCID to your account in 4TU.ResearchData: go to your My Profile page and click Connect ORCID on top of the page.
Your ORCID will now be shown in every dataset you publish.

Via the Search & Link option in your ORCID page, you can authorise Crossref and/or DataCite - the main suppliers of DOIs of research publications - to automatically update your publication list.

Yes. You can create an eduID after which 4TU.ResearchData can move your datasets to your new account.

Find information about logging in here.

The steps of the metadata quality review are described in detail in our Metadata Review Guidelines.

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Yes. You are allowed to modify your published dataset. Go to your My Datasets page, locate your record in the list of published datasets, and click on the "+" icon to the far right. You will be taken to the Edit dataset page where you can edit metadata and/or files. Click Submit for review to publish the dataset.

Be aware that modifying the dataset’s metadata or the file(s) associated with the dataset will always create a new version of the item and its DOI. DOIs are versioned, whereby the alphanumeric string may be followed by e.g. .v1, .v2, .v3, and so on to denote version numbers.

The base DOI of the published dataset (without version number) will always take you to the latest version of the item. Versions are listed and accessible in the drop-down menu under the dataset title.

Learn more on our After Uploading webpage.

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Yes, you can change any metadata element including the licence. Follow the guidance in the previous FAQ about updating/changing datasets.

Be aware that the dataset can already be used under the conditions of the licence in the previous version. That can’t be changed. But following users will always be directed to the most recent version of the dataset with the current licence.

More information on licensing can be found onthis page.

No. Once a dataset is published, it cannot be deleted. However, the dataset can be deaccessioned or ‘unpublished’, meaning that the dataset is no longer openly available. A notification will be shown on the landing page explaining why the dataset is no longer available.
Please note that datasets can only be deaccessioned in exceptional circumstances.

There is a workflow to request access to a restricted dataset. Check the paragraph ‘How to request access to a restricted dataset’

here

4TU.ResearchData supports all research disciplines within science, engineering and design domains.

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To cite any content on 4TU.ResearchData you need to select the citation text in the Cite section under the title, and use the Copy function in your browser. You can also export the citation to RefWorks, BibTeX, RefMan, Endnote, DataCite, NLM, DC and CFF. These are available in the side pane (to the right) of every dataset page