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BYU Library
Scholarly Communications

Data Terms of Use

If you have questions about submitting files to ScholarsArchive Data, please contact your subject librarian.

Collection Criteria

A. Purpose
ScholarsArchive is Brigham Young University’s open access institutional repository for the scholarly and creative content produced by BYU faculty, staff, and students. ScholarsArchive Data refers to the portion of the repository designated to store research data.
B. Privacy Statement
The Harold B. Lee Library and ScholarsArchive staff are committed to preserving the privacy of contributors. Personal information will not be used for any purposes beyond ScholarsArchive.
C. Collection Guidelines
ScholarsArchive Data, as part of the broader ScholarsArchive, houses open access materials of scholarly, academic, or non-commercial interest. Many file formats are accepted (e.g., text, spreadsheet, audio, and video). The following materials fit within the collection guidelines of the data repository:
Faculty/Staff: Data gathered through experiments, surveys, interviews, case studies, etc. This could be data funded through grants with open access storage requirements, but this is not a requirement.
Students: Undergraduate or graduate students who engage in mentored research projects may also submit research to the repository, although data generated from regular class projects are generally not included.
Please be aware that after submission, your data may not be visible for 1-3 days for processing.

Submission Criteria

A. Copyright

  1. By default, all materials in ScholarsArchive Data will be given a CC By 4.0 license. This Creative Commons license makes the data freely open to the public so long as the user cites the original authors/creators. If you need assistance determining whether your data should have a dedication other than CC BY, peruse information provided by Creative Commons, seek help from the Copyright Licensing Office, or contact the ScholarsArchive staff (scholarsarchive@byu.edu or ellen_amatangelo@byu.edu).
  2. Any notifications of copyright infringement will be referred to the Copyright Licensing Office for processing.

B. Other Requirements

  1. All materials in ScholarsArchive Data must be associated with a scholarly work, although the work may not necessarily be stored in the broader ScholarsArchive. A link to the associated work will be included in the metadata of each submission. If this criterion is not met, the subject librarian over your academic discipline must approve the submission.
  2. For each submission, the primary file associated with the record will be a data description document. See guidelines for this document here. The actual data file(s) will be listed under “Other Files” in the record.
  3. If data collection required approval from a compliance committee (IRB, for human subject research; IACUC, for animal subject research, or IBC, for recombinant DNA research), you will be asked to confirm the following:
    1. I obtained the necessary compliance committee approval prior to data collection.
    2. In my application to the appropriate compliance committee, I indicated that I would store my final released data in an open access repository. (Note: If you did not originally specify this, contact BYU’s Office of Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) to amend your application and obtain approval to store your final released data in the ScholarsArchive repository.)
    3. I am submitting data that contain no direct identifiers. If the data contain indirect identifiers, I confirm that the information across variables cannot be used in combination to identify individual participants. If you have questions about whether your data meets this qualification, please contact ORCA before submitting.
  4. If data collection did not require approval from a compliance committee, you will be asked to confirm the following:
    1. I confirm that according to federal regulations, I did not need to receive approval from a compliance committee prior to data collection.

C. Copyright Use Information
Please visit our copyright use page for complete information.
D. Withdraw Criteria

  1. ScholarsArchive Data is designed to make content openly available. However, the following circumstances may merit the withdrawal of materials:
    1. The author sends ScholarsArchive (via scholarsarchive@byu.edu or ellen_amatangelo@byu.edu) a more recent or complete dataset (e.g., the author collected additional data or discovered that some data were inaccurate).
    2. A copyright owner contacts the Copyright Licensing Office and/or the ScholarsArchive staff and requests to withdraw the material due to possible copyright violations.
  2. Any requests for withdrawal will be reviewed.