Yoda data manager tasks

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

Examples of data manager tasks are (but not limited to):

Managing and monitoring access rights to Yoda

As a Yoda data manager, you will be able to create new research groups when desired, grant people access to those groups and assign their roles. Note that a research group in Yoda is nothing more than a parent-folder that is assigned to a project or research. You can have multiple research groups (i.e. multiple parent folders) used for the same project or research. A research group in Yoda is not to be confused with a general research group as it might exist within a University department or Chair Group, in Yoda it indicates a parent folder assigned to certain Yoda users that work with research data. There is no limit of research groups to 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 going to your Yoda environment and clicking on Group Manager in the black bar. Click on Add group in the Group Manager section:

Fill in the information in the pop-up screen. Note that the group name should not contain any odd signs, nor should there be space between the signs. It should be clear. It is advised that the research group names follow a certain structure such as: research-chairgroup-project (the word ‘research’ is filled in by default). Abbreviations are allowed to avoid making the name too long. The structure can be changed as desired to your own specifications (such as adding the researcher name), but try to keep it as consistent as possible. 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.

Once a research group has been created, you can add and manage roles to the research group. To add a new user, click on Click here to add a new user to this group:

Add the entire email address of the new user and click on Add. If you are an employee at Utrecht University and are using your solis email address (e.g., j.h.smith@uu.nl), users will be able to login with their solis password. Users from other universities or institutes without a Utrecht University solis account will receive an email from the Yoda system requesting to  to set their password, followed by confirmation of setting the password.

To change the role of a user, click on the user in the list of group member and click on the yellow arrows to elevate or demote user rights. A tower icon indicates group-manager rights, a person icon indicates read-write rights, and an eye icon indicate read-only rights.

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 yoda@uu.nl. The same goes for any other change in financial handling of Yoda.  Please check with your own faculty 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 on this page.

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 safeguarded / archived and cannot be overwritten or changed. Users are not limited on 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. Note that at present, you as a data manager will not be notified of any pending requests. The Yoda users have to inform the data manager that they made a request.
To evaluate a submission request, go to the Yoda webportal of your environment. Click on Research in the black bar. In the search bar, select from the drop-down menu Search by status and select the status Submitted for vault in the drop-down menu to the right.

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 reject or approve the data package:

Note that as of now, the Yoda User will not be notified of your decision. Therefore, please manually notify the researcher of your decision.

Submission for publication

Yoda users can publish their data if they want to. In order for a user to publish their data, they first need to submit the data 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 as 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 then complete description of the data or a less well-structured data packaged as it may not have been intended for publication at that time-point, this should not be the case for publication. A data package to be published must be self-descriptive and well-structured so that people 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 on how to use the files is given. Preferred formats of files should be used where possible.

A very important attention point is that there should 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 [link to the Yoda checklist]. Note that at present, you as a data manager will not be notified of any pending requests. The Yoda users have to inform the data manager that they made a request.

To evaluate a publication request, go to the Yoda webportal of your environment. Click on Research in the black bar. In the search bar, select from the drop-down menu Search by status and select the status Submitted for publication in the drop-down menu to the right.

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 the 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. Please see the contact section for contact information. In addition, the RDM website contains much information on a variety of data management topics.