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Digital Commons Data

Digital Commons Data is a module for research data submission and hosting, part of the Digital Commons repository suite. Digital Commons Data offers a secure and trusted hosted platform for researchers to collaborate and manage data-intensive projects, and to share datasets in accordance with the FAIR data principles and funder policies.

How is Digital Commons Data different from Mendeley Data?

While Digital Commons Data is offered to researchers at subscribing institutions under their institutional (data) repository, Mendeley Data is the Elsevier open generalist data repository to create, share and access FAIR data globally provided free to journal authors and researchers who may not have access to institutional or domain-specific repositories.

Datasets are required to have a title, description, and at least one named contributor. Datasets must be scientific in nature and consist of research data. For example, raw or processed experimental or observational data is acceptable, rather than the narrative research article which may have resulted from the research. Datasets must NOT have already been published, and therefore may not already possess a DOI. They must NOT contain:

Executable files or archives that are not accompanied by individually detailed file descriptions
Copyrighted content (audio, video, image, etc) to which you do not own the copyright
Sensitive information (for example, but not limited to, patient details, dates of birth, etc.)

What are the maximum size and types of files that can be uploaded to Digital Commons Data?

If your Institution subscribes to Digital Commons Data you will have the ability to create datasets up to a maximum size of 100GB. The maximum size will depend on the storage agreement that your institution has. To benefit from the additional size limit as an institutional user, you will need to connect your Mendeley account with your institutional email address. You can upload files of any format including individual files, zipped files and folders.

Note: Zipped files preview is not supported.

Yes, as an institutional user you can. Metadata is useful because datasets can be described in more detail and more consistently according to a standard template. This helps the institution with organizing data, and researchers with discovering and interpreting data. Your institution can set a custom metadata template with fields for all datasets. Every author at your institution will be presented with the additional fields on their dataset. The following custom metadata fields are currently supported:

Free text
List of options (Single-select)
List of options (Multi-select)
Date

Fields can be either mandatory or optional, and visible or hidden on the published dataset page. Custom metadata is displayed on the dataset page in a metadata section.

To ensure the highest level of integrity and security possible, data is stored on Amazon’s S3 servers in Ireland. Our service was extensively penetration tested and received certification. Additionally, your published datasets are archived with Data Archiving and Network Services (DANS) to preserve your data over the long term. DANS is a long-term archiving provider, which is an institute of the Dutch Academy KNAW, and of the Netherlands' national research council, NWO. We contract with DANS to archive all valid published datasets in perpetuity. The agreement ensures that the DOIs we provide for datasets will always resolve to a web page, where the dataset metadata and files will be available. Data archived at DANS is backed up and stored in three locations for redundancy.

The Framework for Scholarly Link Exchange, known as Scholix, is an initiative to create an open global information ecosystem to collect and exchange links between research data and literature. Digital Commons Data contributes to Scholix by sending its metadata, including links to associated articles, to DataCite, one of Scholix’s hubs that aggregates information on the links between datasets and articles. This enables broad visibility and findability of these links by anyone.

Each dataset in your institution’s repository displays a basket of different usage metrics to help measuring the impact of research data.

Reuse metrics

These metrics include downloads, views and data citations. Downloads and views exclude machine-driven usage (e.g. bots, crawlers which are filtered according to the Project COUNTER list of bots). Data citations are sourced from DataCite and Crossref via the DataCite Event Data service.

Altmetrics

We display metrics capturing social media attention, media & policy mentions powered by PlumX.

Projects are an active research data collaboration tool which enables research groups to gather, organize, annotate, and share data all in one place. Projects allow you to collect your research data as it is generated, easily share it privately with your group, and organize and label it for easy retrieval and packaging. It also helps you get more value from the data you generate by enabling you to share better quality data to increase the likelihood of your data being used and cited.

To create a Project space navigate to the top of the page and on the header click the tab Projects. You can invite other researchers to join you or access any project you have previously been invited to. Once you are working on a project, you can connect a range of data sources, upload data to draft datasets, collaborate with your team on datasets, and eventually publish your data.

If your data files are held on a storage service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or Azure, you can connect the folders where they are held, to any of your projects. Then as new files are added, they will become available to your project team to view, share, and add to datasets. If your team uses a storage service we do not currently connect to, let us know so we can investigate supporting it. For detailed information on managing your projects refer to How do I create a project?

Firstly log in to your institution’s repository by navigating the to the top right of your institutional repository’s homepage and click the tab Sign In. The welcome page My Data then appears.

What are the options for initially drafting a dataset?

Option A: If you are logged in, also from your institution's repository homepage, you can click My Data, and then click the leftmost “plus” button labeled Create new dataset under the Find research data section.

Option B: Click Projects and then, from the list of displayed projects, click on a project. Then, in Shared draft datasets click Create a dataset or Import from your datasets. Enter the dataset name and then click Save.

How do I add or remove contributors?

To add contributors, click the '+' in the Contributors section beneath the Title field. Then enter the email address and first and last name (required), and optionally, you may also include the Institution, ORCID iD, and details about the individual’s contribution. Finally, click Save Contributor. To remove a contributor, click on the individual’s name and then click Remove Contributor.

Note: By default, your name appears as a contributor since you created the dataset. However, you may remove yourself ONLY after at least one other contributor is added to the dataset.

How do I add metadata to my newly drafted dataset?

Once you have taken the preliminary step to create a dataset, you then must enter pertinent metadata. From the top of the new dataset page, you can edit the title.

Enter a description into the Description field.

To add data into the My files field of the dataset navigate to the section Drag files or folders here and drop off your files in that area or click Click here to upload. The latter prompts you to either upload a file from your computer by navigating to, selecting a file, and clicking Open from the Windows explorer window. Once the file upload is complete it will appear in the My files field. You can add a file or an entire folder, including zip files. For more information about file size limits refer to the section What are the maximum size and types of files that can be uploaded to Digital Commons Data? in FAQ What are the requirements for datasets?

At this point you have the option to decide whether your dataset should be made fully accessible, including underlying files and folders, or restricted. To publish only the metadata of your dataset click the checkbox preceding Restrict access to files. Dataset users that would like to access your files will be able to request access and you can decide when to share files with specific requesters.

The Institution field is optional and automatically populates your institution by default. However, you may add other institutions if needed. To do so, enter an institution name.

You are required to add at least one category in the Category field before you publish a dataset. To do so, start typing in the Category field and then you can select from the list that populates as you type. You are not able to add a custom category so choose one that is closest to describing the category you need.

Note: At this point, after having added data, you have effectively drafted your dataset and it is automatically saved into the system. If necessary, you can stop at this point and return to it later to edit or delete it. Refer to the help article How do I edit or delete a draft dataset?. Otherwise, you can continue completing the information.

Optionally, you may add details about how to reproduce the research represented in your dataset by entering these steps in the Steps to reproduce field.

You can also add additional metadata by adding details in the Date the data was collected and Nature of the data fields, respectively.

The License field defaults to ‘CC BY 4.0’ but you can change that by clicking Change and making a selection from the drop-down menu, and then clicking Change License. The All tab is displayed by default, but you can further specify the license type to be changed by selecting the Data,Software, or Hardware tab and then selecting the license type and clicking Change License.

If appropriate you can also add a Related link to your dataset by clicking the Add a related link button at the bottom of the page. A dialogue box opens, prompting you to indicate a link type by selecting the Article, Dataset, or Software radio button, entering a URL link, and making a selection from the Relationship drop-down menu. You will then click Add link. The newly added link appears in the Related Links field near the bottom of the page of your published dataset.

How do I preview a newly drafted dataset?

Once you have entered all the information into your newly created dataset, you may want to see how it will appear. To do so, click Preview at the bottom of the page, which will display how it will look once it is published.

What if I want to defer the availability of data to a later date (place a dataset 'under embargo')?

When drafting a dataset, a user may choose to defer the date at which the data becomes available to ensure it is only available at the same time as an associated article, meaning the dataset description and files are not publicly available until that date.

To place a dataset under embargo, it must be in the draft state. Click Set Embargo Date at the bottom right area of the page. The Set Embargo Date dialogue box opens, prompting you to indicate the time length of the embargo by either selecting 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year; or by setting a date using the calendar feature. Once a selection is made, click Set Embargo.

Upon signing into your institution’s repository, click the Projects tab. The Projects page displays a list of all existing projects for which you are either the owner or have been invited to join by another owner. This is the point from which you will add a new project.

From the Projects page, click + New Project. The New Project dialogue box opens, prompting you to enter a Project title and Description for the new project. Then, click Create project.

Now that you have created the project, you can connect a range of data sources, upload data to draft datasets, collaborate with your team on datasets, and eventually publish your data.

How do I add members and data to a project?

You may first want to add collaborators to your project. To do so, click the Members icon in the top right corner. The Manage project members dialogue box opens, prompting you to search for members by their email address. Click Search. A list of names will appear. Click + Add next to the name you want to add. Now, you must assign a project role to this person as follows:

An owner can edit and delete projects.
A project administrator can do different things, like assign owners and members.
An editor can edit the project and any datasets within it.
A viewer can only view the project but cannot change anything about it.

Once you assign the role, click Save. Repeat these steps for each member you wish to add to the project. Now, click Close to close the Manage Project Members window.

Note: If an individual you wish to add is not already a registered Mendeley user, when you click Search you will get a notification from the system, Users not found, upon which you will then be prompted to send an invitation via email for the person to create an account and then subsequently join your project. Click Send email invite to initiate this procedure.

How do I edit a project’s metadata?

From the Projects page, click Settings (gear icon) in the top right corner and select Edit metadata. The Edit Project window opens, allowing you to edit the Project title or Project description. Once you have finished your edits, click Save Changes.

How do I manage data in my project?

From within your project there are three main sections on the page:

Data sources – allows you to add a folder from an external cloud storage data source, such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and One Drive, in order to share files with your team.
Shared draft datasets – allows you to create a dataset to share date with your project team.
Published data – allows you to view published datasets in your project.

How do I add data sources?

To add data sources, from inside the Data sources section, click Add a data source. The Select a data source dialogue box opens, allowing you to select the data source from which you want to add a folder. In the Add from an existing Data Source section click on the preferred source icon (for example Google Drive), and then click Select.

Note: If your data source is not already connected to Digital Commons Data, you can add it by clicking an applicable icon from the Create new data source section in the Select a data source window. Follow the on-screen instructions and read the notices associated with connecting your external account.

Once you select the data source from which you want to share a folder, the Select folders to add to project window opens, prompting you to select the folder you want to share and then click Share Folders. The folders you selected will appear in the Data sources section in your project.

Note: You can only share folders, not individual files. Therefore, you would need to first share a folder and then look in it to locate and download a particular file. You may also drill down into a folder to share sub-folders inside of it.

The folders you add to the Data sources section in your project that are from a cloud storage data source automatically synch with Digital Commons Data. So, if you go to your Google Drive and for example, make edits to folders or delete sub-folders, the actions you perform there will replicate identically inside your folder structure in the Data sources section of your project.

To easily add content from within the folders in your project into a dataset in your project, clicking on a folder and navigate to the contents inside it or in a sub-folder within it. Once you locate the file you wish to add to a dataset, simply drag it into the dataset in the Shared draft datasets section and click Copy. A copy of the file will be added to the root of the dataset.

Note: Any updates made to the original source file will NOT synch with a copy that you dragged into the dataset.

How do I share datasets?

To share datasets, from inside the Shared draft Datasets section, click + Add a shared dataset. A box opens, prompting you to add a Dataset name and click Save.

Once the dataset is added, you can click on it and a side panel opens, prompting you to Edit or Remove the dataset. Click Edit to begin. Refer to Help article, “How do I draft and edit a dataset?” and go to the section labeled “How do I add information to my newly drafted dataset?” for more details about how to add data files or edit fields in a dataset. Repeat the above steps to add additional datasets to your project.

How do I publish shared datasets from within my project?

Once you have added datasets to the project, you can publish them from within the project. From inside the Shared draft datasets section, click on the dataset you wish to publish. In the right panel, scroll down and click Edit to open the dataset. Once you have verified that all the information is correct, and/or you have made any final edits, click Publish. Refer to Help article How do I publish a draft dataset? for more information. Once you publish the dataset it will appear in the Published data section of your project.

How do I add contents from folders into a shared dataset in my project?

Once you have added folders and datasets to your project, you can easily add content from within the folders to datasets, by using one of the following options:

Option A: Click on a folder and navigate to the contents inside it or in a sub-folder within it. Next, you can download the files onto your computer. Now, from the Shared draft datasets section, click the dataset to which you want to add files. Click Edit to open the dataset. Refer to Help article, “How do I draft and edit a dataset?” and go to the section labeled “How do I add information to my newly drafted dataset?” for instructions on how to add data into the My files field.

Option B: Click on a folder and navigate to the contents inside it or in a sub-folder within it. Once you locate the file you wish to add to a dataset, simply drag it into the dataset in the Shared data datasets section and click Copy. A copy of the file will be added to the root of the dataset.

Note: Any updates made to the original source file will NOT synch with a copy that you dragged into the dataset.

To edit or delete a project you must have the role of owner or admin of the project. While logged in, go to Projects and search for the project you want to edit or delete.

To make edits, click the project. Refer to Help article How do I create a project? for instructions on inviting more members, editing metadata, or adding more data sources and data folders to the project.

You will only see the Delete button available if you are the project owner. If the button is available click Delete. A dialogue box opens, asking you to confirm the deletion, as it cannot be undone. Click Delete to confirm.

Note: Any of datasets that were linked to the project you deleted will still be available in the respective My Data section of the person to whom it belongs.

To begin, Sign In to your institution’s Digital Commons Data instance at the top right section of the page. Upon logging in as an administrator, the My Data homepage appears. Click the Admin tab. The admin page opens on the Datasets tab by default. You will see four sub-tabs in the upper right area – Datasets, Users, Audit Log, and Customise Homepage.

How do I manage my institution’s datasets as an administrator?

The Datasets tab lists your institution’s published datasets. There are sub-tabs for both Public and Draft datasets. To filter the list of datasets, enter search words in the Search field and click the “magnifying glass” icon or press Enter.

How do I manage public datasets?

From the Public datasets sub-tab, displayed are the Name of the dataset, the Owner, Version, Published date and time, and the DOI. By clicking on the three dot icon you also have the ability to Manage articles associated with a dataset or to Remove a dataset. Refer to FAQ What is the difference between a “draft” dataset and a “published” dataset? for more information about dataset versions.

To view the dataset page, click the DOI link to open it, thus enabling you to view more detailed information, download files, cite the dataset and compare versions of it.

If you wish to export the metadata of your institution’s datasets you may do so by clicking on Export CSV which is found above the list of datasets in the Public datasets sub-tab.

To manage articles associated with the dataset, click Manage articles. The Manage articles window opens, allowing you to add an article DOI. To do so, enter the DOI in the Add article DOI field and then click + Add.

Once an article is added, it can also be removed. Click Manage articles. The Manage articles window opens, allowing you to locate the Associated article you wish to remove and click Delete.

How do I manage draft datasets?

From the Draft datasets sub-tab, displayed are the Name of the dataset, the Owner, Created date and time, and the Last Updated date and time. You also have the ability to Edit datasets or to Transfer ownership of a dataset. Refer to Help article How do I draft and edit a dataset? and go to the section labeled How do I add information to my newly drafted dataset? for further instructions.

How do I manage my institution’s users log as an administrator?

From the Admin page, click the Users tab to see a list of users. Also, from the Users tab, you may see two sub-tabs – Admin and Moderator. These sub-tabs distinguish the different roles that users may have within the system and depending on your institution's subscription of Digital Commons Data. Note that a user’s name may appear on more than one of these sub-lists, indicating that they have multiple roles and privileges assigned to them.

To add a user, click the appropriate sub-tab (Admin or Moderator) and then click + Add. A dialogue box opens, prompting you to add a User email and then click Add.

To remove a user, click Remove next to their name. A dialogue box opens, asking you to confirm the deletion. Click Remove to confirm.

How do I manage my institution’s audit log as an administrator?

From the Admin page, click the Audit Log tab to see a list of all of your institution’s dataset editing activity in chronological order. You can see the Dataset ID, Version, which Action occurred (such as created or updated), which Entity was updated (such as license or draft dataset), which User ID made the edit, and the Date (including time) the edit was made. You also have the ability to click Expand details to see more information and download the record of Action details.

You can further filter dataset editing activity by using the filters in the left panel. To view editing activity for a specific date range, click the calendar icons to enter From and Until dates. Or, you may choose to select one of the radio buttons to filter by Anytime, Last 24 hours, Last week, or Last month.

Additional filters include User ID, Dataset ID, and Action type. Each has a text field for you to enter search words.

You may also choose to select one of the radio buttons to filter by All users or Admin only.

Once you have filtered the datasets for which you want to audit editing activity, you can save a list of the results. To do so, click Export results and save the file to a location of your choice as you normally would.

How do I customise my institution’s homepage as an administrator?

From the Admin page, click the Customise homepage tab. Here you will see a section at the top called Featured Collections comprised of various topical sections on your institution’s homepage.

The main body of the page displays the contents of the Featured sections. These sections appear as separate areas on your institution’s homepage. Each section has within it a list of collections which include the Collection name, Owner, and Last updated date.

How do I manage a featured / topical section on my institution’s homepage?

You can determine whether or not to display a particular section by clicking the toggle button to make it either Hidden or Public. You can also determine how a section is displayed by making a selection from the Display drop-down menu to have it appear either as a Card or Title. To allocate a position on the homepage, select a number from the Position drop-down menu.

To add a featured section to your institution’s homepage, click New featured section. The Create featured section dialogue box opens, prompting you to add a Section title and click Create. The newly added section will display, and you can now add collections to it.

To add collections to a featured section, go to the featured section to which you want to make an addition, and click Add collection. The Collections to be added dialogue box opens, prompting you to Find research data. Refer to help article How do I create a collection? and go to the section labeled How do I add a dataset to a collection? for instructions.

To edit a featured section, click Edit (pencil icon) next to the section name. The Edit [section name] dialogue box opens, prompting you to edit the Section title and click Save.

To delete a featured section, click Delete. A dialogue box opens, asking you to confirm the deletion. Click Delete to confirm.

To delete a collection from within a featured section, click Remove.

Note: A dialogue box asking you to confirm the deletion DOES NOT APPEAR. So, be sure you want to remove the collection beforehand!

After logging to your institution’s Digital Commons Data repository instance, in the My Data click Collections. This is the point from which you can add a new collection. To add a new collection, click the + New Collection button. The New Collection dialogue box opens, prompting you to enter a Name and Description for the new collection. Then, click Create collection.

How do I add a dataset to a collection?

Now you will add items to your collection. Mainly you will add datasets, but you can also add articles or even other collections. To add a dataset, click + Add Dataset. This opens a Add datasets to [collection name] dialogue box, prompting you to enter keywords into the Find research data field.

Note: By default, the check box to only show results from your institution is checked. You can uncheck this if you choose to include datasets from sources outside your institution.

From the left panel, you can filter your search results by Data Types, Source Types, and Sources if you opted to deselect the default setting to only show datasets from your institution.

Note: If you need to perform and advanced search, simply click Advanced search help beneath the search field. This will reference the FAQ associated with this topic that will help you complete the advanced search.

Search results appear on the right panel of the window. To view more detailed information and to preview its files, click the title of a dataset. To add the dataset to your collection, click + Add to collection. This selection is now added to your new collection. Click the 'x' at the top right of the window to close it.

How do I edit a collection’s metadata?

You have the option to edit the metadata of your collection. Click Edit Metadata. The Edit Collection information dialogue box opens, allowing you to do the following:

Edit the name
Add or remove contributors
Add or remove categories and institutions
Edit the description

Note: Collections are not required to have any contributors.

Once you have made your edits, click Save. You may also add additional datasets or delete a dataset by clicking x Remove next to the dataset you want to delete.

How do I publish a collection?

Once you have created the collection, added datasets to it, and made any necessary edits, if you are ready to publish it, simply click Publish. A dialogue box appears, prompting you to confirm that you want to publish the collection. Click Publish to confirm.

Your collection now appears as a line item in the search results panel on the Collections page with a status of Published. Collections are also searchable and will appear on your institution's Digital Commons Data homepage.

Mendeley Data

Executable files or archives that are not accompanied by individually detailed file descriptions
Copyrighted content (audio, video, image, etc) to which you do not own the copyright
Sensitive information (for example, but not limited to, patient details, dates of birth, etc.)

What are the maximum size and types of files that can be uploaded to Mendeley Data?

You can upload files of any format, up to a maximum of 10GB per dataset. The types of files you can upload include individual and zipped files as well as folders. If your Institution has a data repository with Digital Commons refer to What are the requirements for datasets? in the Digital Commons Data FAQ section for more information.

Note: Zipped files preview is not supported.

Yes, datasets posted to Mendeley Data go into a moderation period to verify that requirements are met. Datasets that meet the requirements become publicly visible on the dataset index and are archived with Data Archiving and Network Services (DANS). You may contact our Support team if your dataset remains in moderation for more than a week. Please note that we do not currently validate or curate the contents of valid research datasets. After your dataset has been reviewed, you will receive an email to tell you whether it has been accepted and is publicly visible with an active DOI, or it has been flagged for not complying with the requirements for Mendeley Data datasets. Datasets that do not meet the requirements will not become publicly visible. If you spot a dataset that you think doesn’t meet our requirements, please notify us by clicking the “report” button on the dataset.

We aim to moderate all datasets within 2 business days from submission (excluding UK holidays).

The Framework for Scholarly Link Exchange, known as Scholix, is an initiative to create an open global information ecosystem to collect and exchange links between research data and literature. As a contributor to Scholix, Mendeley Data sends its metadata, including links to associated articles, to DataCite, one of Scholix’s hubs that aggregates information on the links between datasets and articles. This enables broad visibility and findability of these links by anyone.

To measure the impact of research data each dataset in Mendeley Data Repository displays a basket of different usage metrics.

Reuse metrics

Altmetrics

We display metrics capturing social media attention, media & policy mentions powered by PlumX.

To begin, go to data.mendeley.com and click Sign In in the top right section of the page. Upon logging in, you the Mendeley Data homepage appears.

What are the options for initially drafting a dataset?

Option A: From the Mendeley Data homepage, click Create a Dataset. The New Dataset window opens, prompting you to enter a name. Then click Create Dataset.

Option B: Alternatively, also from the Mendeley Data homepage, you can click My Data, and then click the New Dataset button in the top left section of the page.

How do I add or remove contributors?

How do I add metadata to my newly drafted dataset?

Once you have taken the preliminary step to create a dataset, you then must enter pertinent metadata. From the top of the new dataset page, you can edit the title.

Enter a description into the Description field.

To add data into the My files field of the dataset navigate to the section Drag files or folders here and drop off your files in that area or click Click here to upload. The latter prompts you to either upload a file from your computer by navigating to, selecting a file, and clicking Open from the Windows explorer window. Once the file upload is complete it will appear in the My files field. You can add a file or an entire folder, including zip files. For more information about file size limits refer to the section What are the maximum size and types of files that can be uploaded to Mendeley Data? in FAQ What are the requirements for datasets?

The Institution field is optional. To populate it, enter an institution name.

You are required to add at least one category in the Category field before you publish a dataset. To do so, start typing in the Category field and then you can select from the list that populates as you type. You are not able to add a custom category so choose one that is closest to describing the category you need.

Note: At this point, after having added data, you have effectively drafted your dataset and it is automatically saved into the system. If necessary, you can stop at this point and return to it later to edit or delete it. Refer to the help article How do I edit or delete a draft dataset?. Otherwise, you can continue completing the information.

Optionally, you may add details about how to reproduce the research represented in your dataset by entering these steps in the Steps to reproduce field.

You can also add additional metadata by adding details in the Date the data was collected and Nature of the data fields, respectively.

The License field defaults to ‘CC BY 4.0’ but you can change that by clicking Change and making a selection from the drop-down menu, and then clicking Change License. The All tab is displayed by default, but you can further specify the license type to be changed by selecting the Data,Software, or Hardware tab and then selecting the license type and clicking Change License.

If appropriate you can also add a Related link to your dataset by clicking the Add a related link button at the bottom of the page. A dialogue box opens, prompting you to indicate a link type by selecting the Article, Dataset, or Software radio button, entering a URL link, and making a selection from the Relationship drop-down menu. You will then click Add link. The newly added link appears in the Related Links field near the bottom of the page of your published dataset.

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