Yoda data manager tasks

As a Yoda data manager, you have an important role in making sure research data is properly handled in Yoda.

The main tasks of a Yoda data manager are:

• Managing and monitoring access to Yoda

• Correct cost handling in Yoda

• Evaluating submissions to the Vault

• Evaluating submissions for publication

• Providing data management support for Yoda users

• Contributing to further developing Yoda and Yoda-related policies

Managing and monitoring access rights to Yoda

As a Yoda data manager, you can create new research groups in a specific category and subcategory, grant people access to those groups and assign their roles. You can have multiple research groups (i.e. multiple parent folders) used for the same project or research. There is no limit in the amount of research groups that can be created. When managing access to Yoda it is advised to always have at least 2 people assigned the role of group manager within the research group (preferably at least one is the data manager).

You can create a new research group by logging into the Yoda web portal and clicking on Group Manager. Click “Add group” in the Group Manager section:

Fill in the information in the pop-up screen. Specifically, select in which category and subcategory of the Yoda instance the group should be created, which metadata schema should be used, and if already known, how sensitive the data will be in the data package (Data classification). 

Group name

The group name:

• may contain only lower-case letters, numbers and hyphens, and there should be no spaces.should preferably follow a consistent structure such as: research-chairgroup-project (the word ‘research’ is filled in by default) 
• may contain abbreviations to avoid making the name too long.  

Once a research group has been created, the name cannot be changed anymore. If a new name is desired, then create a new research group and copy all the data to the new research group.

Managing access to the research group

Once a research group has been created, you can add and manage roles to the research group. How this is done is described in the guide Collaborating in Yoda. The steps for the data manager are the same as for any other Yoda user. At present there is no easy way to monitor the access rights in Yoda. A statistics report may be developed in the near future to see the number of people with certain access rights.

Correct cost handling of Yoda

If a new community has been created, the correct WBS number needs to be relayed to info.rdm@uu.nl. The same goes for any other change in financial handling of Yoda. Please check with your own faculty IT department or institution IT department to determine whether arrangements have been made to handle the costs of Yoda within your research group / department / faculty / university. If the IT department indicates that there are no department / faculty / university wide solutions, please contact info.rdm@uu.nl. Read more about the costs of Yoda.

Evaluate submission requests to the Vault or for publication

Submission to the Vault

Yoda users can submit a copy of their data to the Yoda Vault. Once data is placed in the Vault, the data is archived and cannot be overwritten or changed. Users are not limited with respect to how many times they can submit their data to the Vault. However, it is recommended to only submit data at certain milestones in the research such as at several stages of raw data collection, analysis completion, and project completion. At each submission, a new copy of the data at that time-point will be placed next to the previous copies of the data in the Vault (nothing can be overwritten in the Vault, only new copies are added). Therefore, although no limitations are placed on the number of submission requests to the Vault, it can lead to a high storage volume attained with many submission requests (especially with big data).  

Once a user has made a submission request to the vault, you as a data manager evaluate that request and approve or reject the request. Note that the Yoda user (e.g. researcher) makes the submission requests, not the data manager. The data manager only evaluates the request, but is not responsible for the content of the data (see Data responsibility). Approving the submission request is based on:

• Is the data well organized?  

• Are (elaborate) descriptions available of the data package?  

• Type of data  

• Type of files  

• Number of files  

• Explanation of folder structure  

• Codebook explaining variables, column names, abbreviations, etc  

• Is the metadata form completed (the more descriptions, the better)?

You can use the FAIR principles and the checklist for Yoda data managers to help evaluate the data package. If there is reason to reject the submission request, the data manager will have to provide guidelines to the Yoda user for improving the data package. Once adjustments have been made by the user, the user can submit the data again after which the data manager evaluates and approves (or rejects) the request. Upon approval, the data is transferred to the Vault by the Yoda system. If the data package will not be used in the future, it is good practice to remind the researchers to remove their copy in the Research environment to prevent unnecessary duplicates. 
To evaluate a submission request, go to the Yoda web portal of your Yoda instance. You can either go to your Notifications and select data packages that have been submitted for the Vault, or use the search bar to Search by status “Submitted for vault”.

Click on the folder of the respective Yoda user that made the request. Evaluate the data package and the metadata form. Once done, click on actions to either Reject or Accept the data package for archiving:

Submission for publication

Once archived, Yoda users can publish their data as well. To publish data packages, a data package first needs to be submitted to the Vault. Data can only be submitted for publication from the vault by the Yoda user. Note again that the Yoda user (e.g. researcher) makes the submission requests, not the data manager. The data manager only evaluates the request, but is not responsible for the content of the data (see 3 Data responsibility). Handling of this request is similar to the handling of the request for submission to the Vault. However, please give even more careful attention to the data to make sure it meets the requirements. Where you may have accepted a less than complete description of the data or a less well-structured data packaged as it may not have been intended for publication at that time, this should not be the case for publication. When reviewing a data package to be published, please pay attention to the following:

• The data package must be self-descriptive and well-structured so that people who reuse the data package can fully understand and use the data for years to come. Therefore, please give special attention towards the descriptions of the data and files present and make sure that all abbreviations are explained, and that a well-defined explanation of how to use the files is given.

• Preferred formats of files should be used where possible.

• There should not be any privacy-sensitive information in the data package. If there are, the access level in the metadata should be set to Restricted or Closed, and it should be made certain that making the dataset available for reuse is legal (i.e. data subjects were informed about potential reuse, possibly have provided consent, etc.).not be any privacy sensitive information present (GDPR legislation does not allow publication of identifying data). You can use the FAIR principles and the checklist for Yoda data managers to help you evaluate the data package.

To evaluate a publication request, go to the web portal of your Yoda instance. You can either go to your Notifications and select data packages that have been submitted for publication, or use the search bar to Search by status “Submitted for publication”.

Click on the folder of the respective Yoda user that made the request. Evaluate the data package and metadata form. Once done, click on Actions to either cancel or approve the data package for publication:

As a final note, the responsibility of the data lies with the Yoda users / researchers themselves. Although you as the data manager approve or reject a publication, you do not have the final word in whether something is published.  If you have concerns regarding the data (for example GDPR issues) and the Yoda users / researchers do not think changes are required, you may consult the head of the department for which the Yoda users / researchers work to relay the concerns. If your concerns are not thought to be credible, there is no reason to withhold publication.

Providing data management support to Yoda users

As a Yoda data manager, you have the opportunity to support Yoda users with their data where possible or required using data management principles. This can become very challenging as complicated questions may arise concerning batch jobs, very large file transfers, command line interface, GDPR issues, legal issues, etc.  As a Yoda data manager, you are not alone and you have access to a large network of specialists willing to help you with IT, research engineering, data management, privacy and security, and legal issues.

For Utrecht University employees: if you are not yet part of the data support network (Utrecht Digital Competence Center), please reach out to the UDCC support team to get in touch with your colleagues within the university.

Contributing to further developing Yoda and Yoda-related policies

As a Yoda data manager, you are in the perfect position to signal potential points for improvement. For example, maybe you are missing a feature in Yoda, or feel that a policy regarding a specific topic surrounding Yoda should be put in place. As a support community, we count on you to help signal what is needed to further improve Yoda and its policies. If you have a GitHub account, you can raise ideas for new features to be implement in the Yoda GitHub repository. Additionally, there are regular meetings with other Yoda data managers in which suggestions and concerns can be discussed. You are warmly invited to join these meetings to provide your input.