ScienceBank Data Sharing Community Guidelines

Who may apply

  • Researchers affiliated with a recognized university, research institute or other legitimate research organization.
  • Applicants must have a verifiable institutional email and, preferably, an ORCID iD.
  • Applications from students must be co-signed by a supervising faculty member.
  • The applicant's institution may be required to co-sign the NDA, as determined by the Data Originator.

Application process

  1. Account: the applicant registers or logs in on ScienceBank and selects the dataset of interest.
  2. Application: the applicant submits the request form (see Required application information).
  3. Completeness check: the Editor confirms eligibility and completeness, normally within 7 working days.
  4. Review: the Editor forwards the application to the Data Originator, who evaluates it against the criteria in section 8, normally within 15 working days.
  5. Decision: the applicant is notified of approval, a request for changes, or refusal, with reasons.
  6. NDA: if approved, the applicant receives the NDA from the originating university and must sign it before any access is granted. An NDA is never replaced by a ScienceBank agreement.
  7. Access: the data is released under the conditions stated in the NDA and the approval letter.
  8. Closure: at the end of the access period, the applicant confirms deletion or return of the data.

Required application information

  • Applicant name, affiliation, institutional email, ORCID iD.
  • Dataset requested.
  • Research question, objectives and brief protocol (maximum 1000 words).
  • Justification for why this dataset is needed.
  • Data management and security plan (storage location, who has access, safeguards).
  • Evidence of ethics approval or an exemption statement, where applicable.
  • Planned duration of access.
  • Disclosure of funding and any conflicts of interest.
  • Statement of intended outputs (publications, presentations, software).

Review criteria

  • Legitimate research purpose and scientific merit.
  • Compatibility of the proposed use with the original consent, data use restrictions and applicable law.
  • Adequacy of data security and privacy safeguards.
  • Applicant's qualifications and institutional standing.
  • Absence of unmanaged conflicts of interest.
  • Minimum necessary data: access may be limited to the variables or subset required.

Confidentiality and NDA conditions

  • Access is conditional on a signed NDA from the university where the data originated. Terms in that NDA take precedence over this policy.
  • Applicants must not share, copy, transfer or disclose the data, or any information that could identify individuals or institutions, to anyone not named in the approved application.
  • Re-identification of individuals, or attempts to do so, is strictly prohibited.
  • Data may be used only for the purpose approved.
  • Any suspected breach must be reported to the Editor and the Data Originator within 48 hours.
  • Confidentiality obligations continue after the access period ends for the term set in the NDA.

Applicants and originators are responsible for compliance with applicable data protection and research regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and institutional and national requirements. ScienceBank processes only the application records needed to run this process and does not receive the confidential data itself.

Outputs and acknowledgment

  • This community does not publish outputs. Researchers remain free to publish results in a venue of their choice, subject to the NDA and any pre-publication review requirement set by the Data Originator.
  • Outputs must acknowledge the Data Originator and the dataset and cite the dataset DOI, if one exists elsewhere.
  • Applicants are encouraged to notify the Editor when outputs resulting from the access are published.

12. Conflicts of interest

The Editor and any reviewers must declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from applications in which they have a personal, financial or institutional interest. In such cases, the application is handled by another member of the editorial board.

Monitoring, suspension and revocation

Access may be suspended or revoked, and the applicant's institution notified, in cases of breach of the NDA or this policy, misuse of the data, or loss of eligibility. Serious breaches may be reported to the applicant's institution and, where applicable, to the relevant authorities. A record of all access decisions is retained by ScienceBank for 2 years.

Appeals

Applicants may appeal a refusal once, in writing, within 30 days of the decision, providing additional information. Appeals are considered by the Editor together with a member of the Editorial Board not previously involved.

Fees

No fee is charged by ScienceBank for processing applications.

16. Contact

Head of Publishing: Tábata Barbosa Email: tabata.barbosa@sciencebank.com