On this page you will find information on creating and editing a data record in the University of Bath Research Data Archive, as well as information on licensing data. There is inline guidance on filling in the fields of the online template within the deposit form.
The diagram below shows the process of depositing, reviewing and publishing datasets.
The University of Bath Research Data Archive provides a public-facing catalogue of all research data produced by the University. It also acts as a repository for datasets that have not been published by external data archives. University of Bath researchers can deposit data into the University of Bath Research Data Archive for free (up to 1TB of data). For datasets over 1TB please contact the Research Data Service.
To create a new record in the University of Bath Research Data Archive go to https://researchdata.bath.ac.uk and select the 'Login' link in the top right hand corner. Once you have logged in, you will see a 'Manage datasets' screen. Select the 'New item' button.
If your dataset is already available from an external archive or repository email the Library Research Data Service with the details of the dataset. Preferably, the details of the dataset should include, if available, the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the dataset and the DOI of the related publication. They will be able to set up a record for you based on the existing one, and will email you a link to it when it is ready.
If you are starting a brand new record from scratch, or select 'Edit item' from the 'Manage datasets' screen, you will be taken immediately to the editing screens, starting with 'Upload'. There is embedded guidance for the completion of each field in the deposit form. At the end of each section click on the 'Save and continue' box to continue with the deposit process. The information that you provide will help other researchers to find and re-use your data so ensure that you provide sufficient information to facilitate this process and that your files are structured appropriately.
If you want to continue to edit an existing record you can do until the point that the dataset is published. Follow a link sent to you by the Library Research Data Service, or select the 'View item' icon from the 'Manage datasets' screen, you will see a preview of the record, showing how it will look when published. Near the top of the record there is a 'Deposit item' button and a row of tabs with the 'Preview' tab active.
The University of Bath Research Data Archive supports specific licences for deposited datasets. The licences are listed below in the order that they appear on the drop-down menu on the deposit form. We generally recommend that you assign a licence that, at the very least, requires attribution of your work.
| Licence | Summary of the conditions of the licence |
| Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 (CC BY) | This licence lets others derive new datasets and other resources from your data, and redistribute your data and their derivations, both openly and commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is usually the most appropriate option for your data. |
| Software: MIT licence | This is a permissive licence that allows others to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, publish, sublicence or sell the software, including for commercial use, but users must include the original copyright and licence notice in any copy of the software. It is compatible with the GNU GPL 3.0 licence. |
| Software: Apache 2.0 licence | This is a permissive licence that allows others to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, sublicence or sell the software, including for commercial use, but users must credit you for the original software and include the original copyright and licence notice in any copy of the software. It is compatible with the GNU GPL 3.0 licence. |
| Creative Commons: Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) | This licence lets others derive new datasets and other resources from your data, and redistribute your data and their derivations, as long as they credit you and license any derivations under identical terms, that is, CC BY-SA or (if combined with software) GNU GPL 3.0. |
| Software: GNU GPL 3.0 | This is the most frequently used software licence and is a ShareAlike (copyleft) licence. The licence allows users to use, modify, copy and sell the software, including for commercial use, but users must include prominent legal notices preserving copyright information and all new software based on yours must carry the same licence (GPL). It is not suitable for data. |
| CERN Open Hardware Licence 1.2 | This licence allows users to use, modify, copy and distribute the hardware design, and to manufacture and distribute products that use the design or a modification of it. Users must retain copyright and licensing notices, and all new designs based on yours must carry the same licence (CERN OHL) along with a description of the changes made. It is not suitable for data. |
| Creative Commons: Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 (CC BY-ND) | This licence lets other reuse and redistribute the dataset in an unmodified form for any purpose, including commercially, so long as they credit you. They would, however, be prohibited from sharing modified versions or derived works with others. This may be a suitable option for certain videos and photographs. |
| Creative Commons: CC) 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication (CC0) |
This waiver removes all legal restrictions on the data to the fullest extent possible. Since users would not be legally required to credit you for creating the data, the University does not usually recommend it for data underlying research, but it is a good choice for metadata. |
| All Rights Reserved | Choose this option if access to the data is restricted. Normally, this limits the user to actions permitted by copyright and related legislation, but when users request access you have the opportunity to grant a bespoke licence, or apply your own terms and conditions in the form of an end user agreement or non-disclosure agreement. |
Some wording has been reproduced from https://creativecommons.org/licences/
Once you have uploaded your data, you will need to send the dataset for review by selecting 'Submit for review now'. As part of this process, you will be asked to accept the terms of the Data Deposit Agreement, which give Archive staff permission to proceed to publication at the appropriate time. The deposit screen has a summary of the full agreement.
At this point, a DOI will be reserved for you. The Archive staff will notify you, and provide you with a sample data citation you can use as part of your data access statement. If you need to add more documentation, you can return the dataset to your work area using the button on the 'Actions' tab, then deposit the item for review again when you are ready.
If you need to provide temporary access to your dataset e.g. to reviewers of your publication, the Research Data Archive can provide a preview under strictly controlled conditions. These previews are protected by access tokens. Each one has a configured expiry date which can be up to 90 days into the future. If you need this feature to be switched on, please contact the Library Research Data Service.
Once the dataset has been reviewed by the Archive staff, the item will be queued for publication. They normally publish datasets to coincide with the publication of an associated article; please contact the Library Research Data Service if you have a special need to publish your data earlier or later than this point.
On publication, the data files will be preserved in our long-term storage facility, and a DOI for your dataset will be activated.