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Borealis

University of Lethbridge Borealis Deposit Guidelines 

 

Purpose 

The purpose of this document is to provide detailed guidelines on what University of Lethbridge researchers must do when they wish to deposit research data into the University of Lethbridge’s Institutional Collection in Borealis. 

A data curator at the University of Lethbridge will review all deposited Datasets for alignment with the Deposit Guidelines. Upon review the Depositor may be asked to make any modifications to the Dataset necessary to meet these guidelines. Curators will not request changes to the data itself, only metadata, file formats/organization, and data documentation. Once a data curator has approved your submission, you will be notified and the Dataset will be published. All published Datasets will receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to allow your Dataset to be cited.  

 

Definitions  

Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository: The instance of the Dataverse platform as a shared service provided in partnership with Canadian regional academic library consortia, institutions, research organizations, and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, with technical infrastructure hosted by Scholars Portal and the University of Toronto Libraries.  

Curation: The activity of managing and promoting the use of data from their point of creation to ensure that they are fit for contemporary purpose and available for discovery and reuse (from CASRRAI’s glossary).  

Curator: An individual who has responsibility for managing a set of content in a university’s institutional collection in Borealis. This may include but is not limited to making acceptance decisions on submission, auditing and improving metadata, and migrating the content if necessary.   

Collection: A collection (also known as a Borealis collection) is a container for Datasets (research data, code, documentation, and metadata) and other sub-collections, which can be setup for individual researchers, departments, journals and organizations (from the Dataverse Project with adaptation).  

Dataset: Any organized collection of data in a computational format, defined by a theme or category that reflects what is being measured/observed/monitored. The presentation of the data in the application is enabled through metadata (from CASRRAI’s glossary). See the Borealis User Guide for more information. 

Depositor: A user who submits a Dataset to a collection in Borealis. In most cases, the Depositor will be either an author of the submitted Dataset, a researcher collaborating with the author(s), or a librarian.   

Semi-mediated Curation: The RDM service creates a collection in Borealis or starts a Dataset deposit and assigns a role to the researcher. The researcher submits data to their collection (or Dataset). Depending on local policy, the Dataset is either flagged for review by the institutional Borealis administrators, or the depositor requests to have the Dataset reviewed by the data management team before or after it is published.  

 

Expectations for Depositors 

Research data deposited into Borealis must be generated through the course of a research project involving a University of Lethbridge researcher. 

Many files may be created over the course of a research project. An important step for Depositors in preparing their data for deposit is the selection or appraisal of which files should be archived. In making these decisions, Depositors should provide enough supporting documentation for other researchers to understand how data were created, reproduce methods and findings, and reuse the data files.  

When making decisions of what documentation to include with your data, consider what someone (or your future self) would need to know to understand, evaluate, analyze, or replicate your data without having to ask you.  

When possible, Depositors are strongly encouraged to include a version of their raw data, in addition to any processed data used in published analyses and figures. If raw data contain any sensitive information, Depositors should follow best practices for de-identification and ensure they have the proper permissions to share before depositing.  

 

Standards for Deposit 

Before depositing in Borealis, Depositors must make sure their Dataset(s) meet the following standards.  

  1. Sensitive data must be anonymized/de-identified  

Borealis does NOT accept content that contains confidential or sensitive information. Datasets, even ones that are embargoed or have restricted access must not contain information that could directly or indirectly identify a subject, except where the release of such identifying information has no potential for constituting an unwarranted invasion of privacy and/or breach of confidentiality.  

If your data cannot be shared or is previously published, you can still upload metadata and code to create a persistent record of your research data and help others reproduce your findings. Consult the following resource for help with de-identifying and anonymizing Datasets: De-identification Guidance document from the Portage Network.  

  1. Use consistent and comprehensive file names and structures 

Following proper file naming conventions makes it easier to navigate and find specific files and allows other researchers to understand and reuse your Dataset.  

  • Name files consistently 

  • Keep files names short (< 25 characters) but meaningful 

  • Do not use spaces to delimit words. Use capital letters, hyphens, or underscores 

  • Do not use non-alphanumeric characters 

  • Denote dates using ISO8601 standard YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. 2019-01-10). 

A well-structured file hierarchy will make it easier to locate and share your files. Recommended practices include:  

  • Restricting the level of folders to a maximum of four deep 

  • Limiting the number of folders within each folder to ten 

  1. Deposit your files in sustainable file formats  

The use of preferred file formats are important to support the long-term preservation of your research data. Consult the following resource for a non-exhaustive list of preferred file formats.  

If appropriate, files may be deposited in their original file format, in addition to a preferred format. If you have any questions about preferred file formats for your research data, contact library.rsg@uleth.ca.   

  1. Describe your Dataset with rich metadata 

Depositors must complete all required fields in the descriptive metadata. Depositors are strongly encouraged to complete geospatial metadata fields and subject-specific metadata fields, as appropriate. Consult the following resource for guidance on Borealis/Dataverse metadata fields.  

University of Lethbridge Library will suggest changes to the descriptive metadata for the purposes of discovery, reuse, and preservation.  

  1. Include a ReadMe file 

For research data to be read and interpreted correctly, it requires sufficient documentation. All deposited Datasets must include a “ReadMe” file that includes the following information: 

  • Details about Dataset creation 

  • Description of files contained in the Dataset 

  • Information about Dataset completeness 

  • Limitations on reuse  

ReadMe files should be saved as a Unicode UTF-8 plain text file (.txt). Alternatively, ReadMe files may be saved in PDF/A format. ReadMe files should use forced numbering in the filename (e.g. 00_ReadMe.txt) to make it appear at the top of the file overview. 

Consult the University of Lethbridge Library’s Borealis guide to find a basic ReadMe file template. 

 

Expectations of University of Lethbridge Library 

A data curator at the University of Lethbridge Library will review your deposit for alignment with the Deposit Guidelines. In the case of non-compliance, the Depositor will be asked to make necessary modifications. This is called semi-mediated curation. 

Once a data curator has approved your submission, you will be notified and the Dataset will be published. All published Datasets will receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to allow your Dataset to be cited.  

University of Lethbridge Library commits to preserving published Datasets for a period of at least ten years from the date of publication in Borealis. Notwithstanding, our objective remains the continued access and preservation of deposited Datasets for the longer term. To support this objective, the U of L Library reserves the right to convert deposited files to any medium or format and make multiple copies for the purposes of security, back up, and preservation. 

University of Lethbridge Library will never modify file contents and only make changes to file formats in the interest of long-term access and reuse.  

Please note, the University of Lethbridge Library does not attempt to judge the scholarly quality of deposited Datasets, and trusts the judgement and research expertise of those who created and deposited the Dataset. Thus, a determination of a Dataset’s research quality is at the sole discretion of the Contact Person as named in descriptive metadata.  

 

Terms of Use 

U of L Library manages the University of Lethbridge's Institutional Collection as a member of Borealis: The National Canadian Dataverse Repository, and as such users are also subject to the Borealis Terms of Use. 

All data deposited into U of L Borealis cannot contain any private, confidential, or other legally protected information (e.g., personal identifiable information). The data producer and the data depositor are responsible for the data’s adherence to relevant ethical norms and standards in the discipline in question. 

By depositing Datasets into University of Lethbridge's Borealis, the Depositor consents to be bound by and comply with all of the terms, conditions, notices, and acknowledgements contained in the U of L Library Borealis Collection Guidelines and the Borealis Terms of Use. 

 

References 

 

The information above has been adapted from several sources, including: