DDR Collections Policy for Research Data

Approved by the DDR Program Committee, December 14, 2016.

Who can deposit materials?

• Data deposit in the DDR is open to all members of the Duke Community for their research data with a valid netid.  

What types of materials can they deposit?

Research data are the original sources or materials (born digital or converted to digital) that were created or gathered in the process of your research. They serve as the foundation from which you draw conclusions and produce results/findings (test hypotheses, study trends, provide evidence, refute claims). They may be numeric or qualitative, structured or unstructured. Among many possible forms, data may take the form of notebooks, statistical or spatial data tables, audio or visual recordings, photographs or models. The end-results/findings of your research such as monographs, articles, white papers, or presentations are not considered research data.

• Data related to the teaching and research mission of Duke University including data linked to a publication, research project, and/or class

• Supplementary software code and documentation used to provide context for the data

What types of materials are out of scope for this area?

• Data for which the depositor cannot reasonably assert a license governing usage and access to the data.

• Data that contain sensitive or confidential information (i.e., personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), export-controlled information, etc.)

• Data that do not include a minimal level of description necessary for the operation of the DDR.

• Dynamic data (continuously updated data) are outside the scope of the DDR, however, the DDR will consider archiving snapshots and significant versions of these types of data.

If your data are out of scope for the DDR, we are happy to help you identify an appropriate repository, contact us at datamangement@duke.edu.

Other expectations

The Duke Faculty Handbook mandates that:

Research records should be archived for a minimum of five years after final reporting or publication of a project (or longer if required by an external sponsor, law, rule or regulation).

Deposit in the DDR will fulfill the terms of the Duke Faculty Handbook.  Additionally, deposit in the DDR will also fulfill many of the data sharing requirements as set forth in federal data sharing mandates.