NF Data Portal Documentation
NF Data Portal Documentation
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SOP: Embargo End and Data Release

Purpose

This SOP outlines procedures and responsibilities for releasing data from a funded project within the NF Data Portal.

Procedure

At Embargo End Date

  • An automated tool (“NF-bot”) sends an automated reminder to NF-OSI DCC to complete the grant close out checklist (https://github.com/nf-osi/dcc-site/blob/main/sop/project-data-release-checklist.md ) 30 days prior to embargo end date.

  • NF-OSI DCC contacts Funder and Awardee notifying them of the impending data release and confirming their approval of the data release. 

  • If rejected, NF-OSI DCC adjusts embargo end date as determined by the funder. 

  • If approved, NF-OSI DCC completes the data release checklist. This checklist is subject to change but currently looks like: 

    • Confirm that the uploaded data has been annotated to minimal NF-OSI metadata standards. Ideally, issues were resolved around the Project Grant End (before researchers lose funding incentives to fix metadata issues), but conditions are often less than ideal, and a final check is helpful.

    • Confirm that any needed governance requirements (e.g. ARs) have been implemented before data release.

    • Confirm any new publications that should be linked to the project/datasets. (Many publications are not ready until after the Project Grant End.)

    • Create Dataset objects and their metadata for the project. Results depend on earlier steps being complete: file annotations done, governance requirements applied and documented, and known publications linked on the study annotation.

      The flow is: create draft Datasets from qualifying folders, add them to the Staging Catalog, review each one – paying particular attention to title, description, license, creator and contributor, which often need correcting against the data sharing plan – then version (snapshot) the Datasets, add them to the Production Catalog, and remove them from the Staging Catalog. Have the PI or data lead review license, creator and contributor before versioning.

    • Change dataStatus (to Available, Partially Available, or Rolling Release) in the Synapse project annotations, which will update the status in the Portal to let other users know the data status of the project.

      For Partially Available, sequester the withheld data – via folder-level permissions or another mechanism – before changing the status. Making the project public first and restricting afterwards exposes the withheld data in the interim.

    • Update study acknowledgementStatements, and add the same statement to the project wiki in Synapse. The statement reads:

      Data was provided by: {INSERT CITATION HERE}. Study data were provided by {PI contributor, institution, study Name and DOI, Funding Agency Grant Number(s)}. We thank all research participants who contributed their data and insight. The results published here are in whole or in part based on data obtained from the NF Data Portal (http://www.nf.synapse.org, RRID:SCR_021683) and made available through the NF Open Science Initiative.

      Before saving, replace {INSERT CITATION HERE} with the publication citation and {PI contributor, institution, study Name and DOI, Funding Agency Grant Number(s)} with the study contributor details.

    • Update study accessRequirements This is typically either something like "Accessing the data from this study requires a Synapse account." for unprotected studies or a link to the wiki page that describes data request application instructions.

    • Record the release date as the releasedDate annotation on the Synapse project. The Actual Data Release Date field on the Managed Synapse Projects board is deprecated in favour of this annotation.

    • Occasionally some or all data is made available immediately when a study completes, ahead of the normal embargo end (early release). In that case these release steps are carried out at award end rather than at embargo end.

    • Set the permissions to Public - All Synapse Users Can Download for the project. Make sure ARs are already in place to protect certain datasets if needed.

    • Recommended: Use a non-privileged account to test download of data.

  • After data release, NF-OSI DCC notifies Funder and Awardee of data release by email. 

  • NF-OSI DCC contacts Funder (and Awardee) whether the released data to be advertised through NF-OSI Newsletter