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Conditions & Prerequisites

This page shall help to decide whether Edmond is the right place for publishing your data. Together with the Legal Notes, it describes the conditions for publishing data on Edmond. In case of doubt, we encourage to contact the Edmond support team.

General notes​

  • Aim
    The aim of Edmond is to store and provide research data in an openly accessible and citable way.
  • Scope
    Before submitting data, please check whether your data files are within the scope of Edmond. These are research data and metadata like processed data (e.g. in tabular form), raw data, data supporting findings or papers, metadata and code having been used for data processing. However, please take care not to publish any sensitive data or data where you don't have the needed rights for publishing them. Also text publications, posters and presentations are typically out of scope for Edmond. See below for further details.

Before publishing data to Edmond, legal aspects have to be considered.

Sensitive data​

Data published on Edmond are open accessible. Therefore, they must not include any sensitive data. Examples for sensitive data are:

  • Person-related data: See General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), German: Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO)
    • Exceptions where person-related data might be acceptable on Edmond may be anonymized data, potentially data with informed consent from participants and data about historical persons (e.g. Pythagoras or Mozart)
  • Dual use: Dual-use items refer to equipment, machines, goods and technology (both hardware and software) that can be used for both civilian and military applications. See document "Guidelines for the development of international collaborations of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft".
  • Secrets: Data must not contain any secrets or information which may be problematic. For example, the precise position of rare biological species should not be offered in case this would cause a risk for those.

DataSubmitter has the responsibility to clarify the ownership before publishing data on Edmond. In case DataSubmitter is not the owner of the data, DataSubmitter has to get allowance for publishing the data by the owner. Also Copyright issues (e.g. in case of code publication) and other intellectual properties or interests by other stakeholders have to be clarified.

Authors​

DataSubmitter has the responsibility to get the consent from all authors of the dataset for the publication on Edmond. By submitting data to Edmond, DataSubmitter implicitly confirms that all authors agree with the publication.

Further reading​

  • MPG GSP - Rules of good scientific practice of the Max Planck Society, title: "RESPONSIBLE ACTING IN SCIENCE Rules of conduct for good scientific practice – How to handle scientific misconduct" / "VERANTWORTLICHES HANDELN IN DER WISSENSCHAFT Verhaltensregeln für gute wissenschaftliche Praxis – Umgang mit wissenschaftlichem Fehlverhalten", Senatsbeschluss vom 24. Juni 2021
  • GSP for RSE - Recommendation about "Good Scientific Practice for Research Software Engineering"
  • Page Legal and Ethical Aspects in MPDL RDM portal, and links therein
  • Pages General Data Protection Regulation GDPR and Datenschutz-Grundverordnung DSGVO of intersoft consulting

Persistence​

Once a dataset is published, no modifications to that data version by DataSubmitter are possible. Therefore it is important to check beforehand for errors and in particular for sensitive information in both, the files and the metadata.

It is possible to publish an updated version, which allows for extending, updating or correcting metadata. For that new version, also adding further files is possible (even to remove or replace files, which however should be avoided in case of large files), see here for details.

However, please consider that the previous versions remain openly accessible - both, the files and the metadata. See here for the exceptional case of a deaccession.

Suitable for Edmond - yes, no, alteratives​

This section contains examples for data (types), which may be in the scope of Edmond or not. Also potential alternative places (repositories) are given. It is assumed that the above conditions have already been met (i.e. no sensitive data etc).

  • Raw data
    • Short answer: Potentially Yes
    • Further notes:
      • In principle, publishing raw data on Edmond is possible, and in some cases, the raw data may be considered as the most important data version.
      • However, raw data may be very large. Thus, as long as the main focus is on preserving (but not necessarily publishing) the data, alternative storage solutions may be more suitable, see also here.
  • Processed Data
    • Short answer: Yes
    • Further notes:
      • However, in case the raw data have already been published and if the processing steps from raw data to processed data is straightforward, publishing the processed data may not be necessary.
  • Code
    • Short answer: Yes
    • Further notes:
      • Code (e.g. a Python or R script) which has been used to process data may be included in the same dataset as the processed data.
      • Also self-created code of scientific software or software packages can be published on Edmond.
      • In order to enhance the reusability of code and software, it shall have a good documentation and a license. Where possible also examples for usage should be given.
  • Documentation related to data or experiment
    • Short answer: Potentially Yes
    • Further notes:
      • Data Management Plans (DMPs) and Software Management Plans (SMPs): Yes
      • Travel report (German: Fahrtbericht) of a ship cruise: Yes
      • Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) or similar experiment- or data-related document: Yes
      • Data Processing Report (DPR): Yes
      • Standard Operating Procedures (SOP): Yes
  • Manuals
    • Short answer: Depends
    • Further notes:
      • Instruction manuals of commercial instruments, which are already available in the internet, shall not be (re)published on Edmond.
      • Construction plans of a self-made instrument may be within the scope of Edmond, in particular if they are essential to understand data which are measured with that instrument.
    • Drawings, photos and further documentation of an experimental setup: Yes
  • Text-focused presentations like meeting notes, posters or text papers:

Summary​

  • Legal aspects must be considered: No senstive data (particular caution with person-related data), ownership, copyright, etc
  • Within scope of Edmond: Research data, code, documentation of data and experiments
  • In case of doubt: Contact Edmond support team.