Pre-Deposit Considerations

Datasets are complex objects, and understanding how copyright law applies to datasets is similarly complex.
For more background on Research Data Copyright and Licensing, review our help section on the topic: Research Data Copyright and Licensing
Your dataset license options in Illinois Data Bank are:

CC0

CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication

CC BY

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Other License

A license.txt file must be uploaded as part of dataset.

Derivative works are allowed

Most open license with no restriction.

Attribution a legal requirement

Partially open license with restriction.

Other CC licenses may create reuse difficulties

CC NC, CC SA, and CC ND impose restrictions that may create incompatibilities and licensing difficulties for the reuse of research data.
More restrictions depending on which license is chosen.

Request for attribution

Attribution is not required but creators can ask for it by including citation requests or other attribution information in the documentation of the dataset.

May create reuse difficulties

Known as "attribution stacking", which is an unwieldy accumulation of citations and authors.

Custom licensing considerations

Writing a custom license requires legal expertise and non-standard licenses complicate reuse.

Find out more about CCO
Find out more about CC BY
If you choose to use a license.txt file, upload it with your other dataset files.

Uploading lots and lots of files in a single dataset can make it more difficult to curate, upload/download, understand, and reuse your data.

See our guide on File Grouping for tips.

The Data Bank lets you upload files but not entire folders.

If your data is organized in folders, and you want to preserve that structure, you will need to zip or tar your files before uploading them.

See our Data Nudge on Common zipped file formats used in research for tips.

Select one of the authors from the author list to be the long-term primary contact. This person generally carries ultimate responsibility for the validity of dataset and is most often a faculty member or Principal Investigator (“PI") of the project under which the dataset originated. If there is only one author, select that author.

You will need to provide an email address for every author. When the dataset is deposited, you and all authors will receive a confirmation email.

Due to publisher or other requirements, researchers may need to deposit their dataset but make it temporarily unavailable for download.
For more guidance, review our help section on the topic: Delaying Publication of/embargoing your dataset

By default, there is no publication delay. Your other options are:

File Only Publication Delay

Metadata and File Publication Delay

You receive an active DOI.

You will receive a DOI, and the link will forward to the Illinois Data Bank page for your dataset.

Your DOI is saved, but the link will fail.

You will receive a DOI link to place in your publication, but the link will fail until the release date you selected.

Your dataset record is discoverable.

Information for your dataset in the Illinois Data Bank will be publicly visible through several search engines and other sources.

Your dataset record is not discoverable.

Your dataset will be stored in the Illinois Data Bank, but is not discoverable or visible until the release date you selected.

Dataset files cannot be accessed or seen.

Although the record for your dataset is publicly visible, your data files will not be made available until the release date you selected.

Dataset files cannot be accessed or seen.

The record for your dataset is not visible, nor are your data files available until the release date you selected.


The Research Data Service has data publishing experts and we're here to help!

Guidance will continue to be available to you throughout this process. To contact us, or to review any of this information, open the Help menu at the top of each page.

For context-specific help, look for what's this? links near form elements.