FIU Research Data Portal General Terms of Use

Acceptance of Terms

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the FIU Research Data Portal application (the Site) and the services available on or at the Site (the Site and the services taken together, the Service) by you and any third parties who use your account. Use of the Service is offered subject to acceptance of and compliance with all of the terms and conditions contained herein (the General Terms of Use) and all other applicable operating rules, policies and procedures of the Service. By clicking “I accept” and/or by your use of the Service, you agree and accept all the terms in this General Terms of Use document (“Agreement”).

Modification of Terms

FIU Research Data Portal reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any of the terms in this Agreement at any time without prior notice to Users. It is your responsibility to check the Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes.

Definitions

Account – A User-controlled means of access to FIU Research Data Portal that is protected by a User-created login username and password, with which Users can obtain access to FIU Research Data Portal uploading and downloading functionalities.

Administrator – The User who created, controls and is the main organizer, curator, and manager of a particular dataverse.

Agreement – The General Terms of Use in its entirety.

Author – The person(s) from whom the data within the dataset originated; the person(s) who conducted the research that led to the creation of the dataset. This person can but need not be the same as the Depositor.

Content – Any information, data, text, software, scripts, graphics, and interactive features found on the FIU Research Data Portal application.

Curation – The actions of any User on the FIU Research Data Portal application that organize, shape, or otherwise edit the state, status, configuration, or content of any datasets or dataverses.

Data Use Agreement – This is the restricted data usage license agreement option that FIU Research Data Portal offers. If applied to a User Submission, the Data Use Agreement will be a legally-binding license contract between the Depositor and any Downloader of that User Submission.

Data Usage License Agreement – The license agreement between a Depositor and a Downloader governing the limits and restrictions (or lack thereof) of how the downloaded User Submissions can be used.

Dataset – A study, experiment, set of observations, or publication that is uploaded by a User. A dataset can comprise a single file or multiple files.

Dataverse – A virtual container with which to store research data studies (including datasets and other dataverses) that can be customized and managed by its owner.

Depositor – The User who uploads a collection of data files as a dataset to a dataverse on the application.

Download Data – Information collected whenever a dataset is downloaded, including but not limited to user account name, time of download, and downloaded file name.

FIU Research Data Portal – The repository application server as a whole, including all Services, Content, and related features, but not including any separate Dataverse sites created using FIU Research Data Portal source code and managed by independent outside parties who are unaffiliated with FIU Research Data Portal.

Metadata – Accompanying information, either in a separate file or otherwise included in the dataset materials, about a particular dataset or dataverse, including but not limited to Author’s name, publishing date, title of data contents, description of contents, and other such related information.

Publish – A function available for User Submissions by which Users can make their dataverse and/or their dataset containing data files publicly available and publicly searchable on the FIU Research Data Portal application search engine and third-party search engines (e.g., Google Search or Bing Search).

Registration Information – Information required to register for an Account, including but not limited to name, email, institution, position, and phone number. Restricted User Submissions – Any User Submissions that are published with either FIU Research Data Portal’s Data Use Agreement or with a customized data usage license agreement that the Depositor drafts and/or designates for the Submission.

Service – the FIU Research Data Portal application and all of the available services, functions, and capabilities afforded on the application.

Site – the FIU Research Data Portal application and server.

Spamming – Any unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk e-mail, messages, comments, or other communications directly or indirectly stemming from use of the FIU Research Data Portal application, including but not limited to comments posted to Author’s dataset pages and messages or other communications sent to User’s email addresses, accounts, or other means of contact.

sufficient length of time – Any period of time as obligated by any pre-existing legal contract, such as with the subjects concerned in the research data, or with the institution that is sponsoring or that sponsored the research undertaking. If no such obligation exists, then the requisite length shall be any reasonable amount of time as designated by FIU Research Data Portal’s administrators in its sole discretion.

Unpublished Dataset – An uploaded dataset that has not yet been made available to the public and is viewable only to the Depositor or other users to whom the Depositor has granted access.

Unrestricted User Submissions – Any User Submissions that are published with a default CC0 default public domain dedication waiver agreement.

Use of Service – Any access to, use of, or other action involving the FIU Research Data Portal application’s functions, services, resources, and repository of datasets, including but not limited to any uploading, posting, submitting, storing, searching for, downloading, distributing, facilitating distributions, and otherwise utilizing any Content found on the FIU Research Data Portal application.

User – Any individual or entity who owns and/or controls a registered account on FIU Research Data Portal.

User Submissions – Uploaded dataverses and datasets.

User Uploads – Any uploaded, submitted, disclosed, distributed, or otherwise posted content by a User, including but not limited to new dataverses, new datasets, Metadata information, custom data usage license agreements, descriptive information for dataset download pages, user guides, and other contributions either originating from the User or originating from a third-party author who gave permission to the User to disseminate on the FIU Research Data Portal application.

General Rules of Conduct

In using the Service, you represent that:

  1. you have read and understood the Site’s Community Norms (“http://best-practices.dataverse.org/harvard-policies/community-norms.html”); and

You shall abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations in your Use of the Service, and your Use of Service shall not:

  1. infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other right of any other person or entity;
  2. be unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, or otherwise offensive or unlawful;
  3. constitute Spamming;
  4. cause, introduce into the Service, or otherwise use software viruses or any other computer codes, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, limit or interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment, or that are designed or intended to damage or obtain unauthorized access to any system, data files or other information of FIU Research Data Portal or any third party;
  5. impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on FIU Research Data Portal’s (or its third party providers’) infrastructure (to be determined by FIU Research Data Portal in its sole discretion);
  6. interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Service or any activities conducted on the Service; or
  7. bypass any measures FIU Research Data Portal may use to prevent or restrict access to the Service (or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service).

Conduct Requirements

As both a registered User and an unregistered Guest, you are able to download publicly available Content from FIU Research Data Portal. As a condition to your gaining full Use of Service, you are required to register for and be logged into an Account on FIU Research Data Portal. You shall provide FIU Research Data Portal with accurate and complete Registration Information and regularly update such information to maintain its completeness and accuracy. Failure to do so may result in immediate termination of your Account. FIU Research Data Portal reserves the right to refuse registration of or cancel an Account in its sole discretion.

You are solely responsible for activity that occurs on your Account and shall be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Account password. You shall never use another user’s account without the other user’s express permission. You will immediately notify FIU Research Data Portal in writing of any unauthorized use of your account, or other account related security breach of which you are aware.

In having an account on the Service, you acknowledge that:

  1. your account details (including first name, last name, email address, and username) are searchable by other Users;
  2. your account details may be recorded when you download datasets, and that information can then be viewed by the owner of the User Upload; and
  3. your first name, last name, and affiliation will be displayed on the Service in connection with your User Uploads.

In your access to, use of, or obtaining of an authentication key with the purpose of accessing or using, the Dataverse API (whether through Dataverse’s own API application software or through a third-party application), you acknowledge that you have fully read and accepted the Dataverse API Terms of Use (http://best-practices.dataverse.org/harvard-policies/harvard-api-tou.html) in addition to this Agreement.

User Uploads

Services

The Service provides you with the ability to post User Uploads and display, organize, accept and distribute User Uploads by creating a dataverse. The Service provides you with the ability to post User Uploads to other dataverses administered by other Users. The Service also allows you to share datasets and dataverses with other Users by searching for their first name, last name, email address, or username.

The Service also gives each Administrator the ability to change dataset access/download restrictions by designating User Uploads as Restricted User Submissions. Datasets are by default unpublished, but Administrators can modify the access restrictions and Publish or deaccession any User Uploads at any time. Depending on the permissions granted by the Administrator of the Dataverse in question, Depositors may also change dataset access/download restrictions by designating User Uploads as Restricted User Submissions.

FIU Research Data Portal has no obligation to monitor the Site, Service, Content, or User Uploads. FIU Research Data Portal may remove any User Upload at any time for any reason (including, but not limited to, upon receipt of claims or allegations from third parties or authorities relating to such User Upload), or for no reason at all.

You acknowledge that FIU Research Data Portal does not endorse, take responsibility for, or make any representations or warranties for any User Uploads, and will not be liable for 1) User Upload content, format, Metadata, or lack thereof; 2) representations or warranties made by the User about the User Uploads; and 3) any loss of or damage to User Uploads, either in whole or in part, from whatever cause.

Restrictions

In contributing Content to the site, you must ensure that the Content complies with the Terms of Use. If your User Upload does not comply with the Terms of Use, FIU Research Data Portal has the right in its sole discretion to take down your User Upload. FIU Research Data Portal does not review all User Uploads before they are made available on the Site, or before they are Published. Therefore, you will be held legally and financially responsible for all damages if Content you contribute violates anything in this Agreement.

By posting User Uploads to your dataverse or other dataverses, or by allowing others to do so, you make the following representations and warranties to FIU Research Data Portal:

  1. User Uploads do not infringe upon the copyrights or other intellectual property rights, including, but not limited to patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other right of any third party;
  2. User Uploads do not violate any laws;
  3. in the event you become aware of any issues after submitting a User Upload, you will promptly notify FIU Research Data Portal and the relevant dataverse Administrator(s) of any confidentiality, privacy or data protection, licensing, or intellectual property issues regarding the User Uploads;
  4. User Uploads do not contain software viruses or any other computer codes, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, limit or interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or to damage or obtain unauthorized access to any system, data files, or other information of FIU Research Data Portal or any third party;
  5. User Uploads have been given all relevant, obligatory, and applicable approvals for posting such materials with the content included and in the format uploaded, including but not limited to approvals from the Institutional Review Board and third parties with whom Users have relevant contractual obligations; and
  6. User Uploads must be void of all identifiable information, such that re-identification of any subjects from the amalgamation of the information available from all of the materials (across datasets and dataverses) uploaded under any one author and/or User should not be possible. Specifically, User Uploads cannot contain social security numbers; credit card numbers; medical record numbers; health plan numbers; other account numbers of individuals; or biometric identifiers (fingerprints, retina, voice print, DNA, etc.). The only exceptions for when identifiable information is allowed are when:
  1. the information has been previously released to the public;
  2. the information describes public figures, where the data relates to their public roles or other non-sensitive subjects;
  3. a sufficient length of time has passed since the collection of the information;
  4. all identified subjects have given explicit informed consent allowing the public release of the information in the dataset; or
  5. all identified subjects are deceased and no federal statute explicitly restricts the release of the data (this exception is only for federal records where data is created by a U.S. federal government agency or under a federal contract).

Licenses and Permissions to FIU Research Data Portal

You grant to FIU Research Data Portal all necessary permissions and required licenses to make the Content you submit or deposit available for archiving, preservation and access.

You also grant to FIU Research Data Portal all necessary permissions, waivers and required licenses to share any Published Content’s metadata you submit or deposit with DataCite ( http://datacite.org ).

You represent and warrant that you are lawfully entitled and have full authority to license to FIU Research Data Portal the Content you submit or deposit in the ways described in these Terms of Use; and you are not under any obligation or restriction created by law, contract or otherwise that would prevent you from entering into and fully performing these Terms of Use.

None of the above supersedes any prior contractual obligations with third parties that require any information to be kept confidential. Nothing in this Agreement obligates you to disclose information to FIU Research Data Portal if such information is otherwise confidential or proprietary. FIU Research Data Portal does not approve User Uploads before they are posted; therefore, you are solely responsible for the User Submissions you post on or through the Service and all possible confidentiality or other privacy issues that may arise from your posting any User Uploads.

User Submission Data Usage License Agreement

You acknowledge that FIU Research Data Portal default data usage license agreement for all uploaded materials is a Creative Commons Zero (“CC0”) Public Domain Dedication Waiver. For more information, please visit Creative Commons Zero Full Legal Text (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode).

Users also have the option of drafting a custom data usage license agreement. By choosing to draft a custom data usage license agreement for a particular dataset, users represent that:

  1. they have written themselves or have permission to use the language of the data usage license agreement they choose;
  2. the data usage license agreement covers all restrictions and protections they wish to retain and will not rely on the Site to provide any further protections or restrictions;
  3. they are solely responsible for ensuring the data usage license agreement is legally sound and that the Site is not responsible for anything included; and
  4. nothing in the data usage license agreement conflicts with, supersedes, or limits any prior contractual obligations on the part of the User, any third parties, downloaders, or the Site.

Users also have the option of choosing to use FIU Research Data Portal’s restricted data usage license agreement (“Data Use Agreement”). By choosing to use the Data Use Agreement, users acknowledge and agree that:

  1. FIU Research Data Portal owes no obligation or responsibility and makes no representations with regards to the legality, enforceability, accuracy, or desirability of the Data Use Agreement;
  2. FIU Research Data Portal is not a party to the Data Use Agreement and cannot be held accountable for any terms found within the Data Use Agreement; and

FIU Research Data Portal has no obligation to aid or support either party of the Agreement in the execution or enforcement of the Data Use Agreement’s terms. Users are responsible for establishing, maintaining, and enforcing the license terms they wish to use for access to and use of User Uploads. FIU Research Data Portal is not responsible for any inaccuracies, unenforceable terms, or liabilities that may arise from choosing any of the options afforded in this Agreement, and FIU Research Data Portal will not be responsible for reviewing or enforcing compliance of any terms the User may choose to employ.

Downloading User Submissions

The Site represents that it will use all reasonable efforts to maintain open access to datasets for users to download, subject to Depositors’ restrictions and any applicable legal restrictions. The Site collects and stores Download Data from each download for all users (both registered and guest), which can then be downloaded and accessed by the Depositor. Downloaders must be registered Users of the Site or agree to the Guest Terms of Use in order to take advantage of the Site’s Services, including downloading any materials or datasets.

Downloaders represent that, in downloading any material from the Site, they:

  1. have read and understood the Site’s Community Norms (http://best-practices.dataverse.org/harvard-policies/community-norms.html);
  2. will abide by the applicable data usage license agreement attached to the dataset;
  3. acknowledge that their account information (for Users) or temporary site identification information (for Guests) may be recorded upon download, which can then be viewed by the owner of the User Upload; and
  4. have done their due diligence in ensuring that they do not download and use any datasets or other materials where prohibited by applicable law.

Termination

FIU Research Data Portal may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate your account, you may notify FIU Research Data Portal at jkrefft @ fiu . edu .

All provisions of the Terms of Use which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

WARRANTIES

THE SERVICE (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ALL CONTENT AND USER UPLOADS) IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTIES IMPLIED BY ANY COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR USAGE OF TRADE, ALL OF WHICH ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, HARVARD DATAVERSE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT: (A) THE CONTENT OR USER UPLOADS ARE TIMELY, ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE OR CORRECT IN THEIR POSTED FORMS ON THE SERVICE; (B) THE SERVICE WILL BE SECURE ; (C) THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; (D) ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; (E) THE SITE, CONTENT OR ANY USER UPLOADS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; OR (F) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE AND ANY CONTENT IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL HARVARD DATAVERSE AND ITS AFFILIATES, OR THEIR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS, OR SUPPLIERS, BE LIABLE UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, NEGLIGENCE OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY CONTENT OR USER SUBMISSIONS (I) FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES, OR (II) FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER.

Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold FIU Research Data Portal harmless from and against any and all loss, cost, expense, liability, or damage, including, without limitation, all reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs, arising from i) your use or misuse of the Service; (ii) your access to the Site; (iii) your violation of the Terms of Use; or (iv) infringement by you, or any third party using your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity, including but not limited to infringements upon any and all representations made by you in this Agreement. Such losses, costs, expenses, damages, or liabilities shall include, without limitation, all actual, general, special, and consequential damages.

Dispute Resolution

You and FIU Research Data Portal agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the Service must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

These Terms of Use shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (excluding the conflict of laws rules thereof). All disputes under these Terms of Use will be resolved in the applicable state or federal courts of Massachusetts. You consent to the jurisdiction of such courts and waive any jurisdictional or venue defenses otherwise available.

Integration and Severability

This Agreement is the entire agreement between you and FIU Research Data Portal with respect to the Service and use of this Site, and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals (whether oral, written or electronic) between you and FIU Research Data Portal with respect to this Site (but excluding the use of any third-party software, widgets, and applications that may be subject to a separate end-user license agreement). If any provision of the Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms of Use will otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.

Miscellaneous

FIU Research Data Portal may assign, transfer or delegate any of its rights and obligations hereunder without consent. No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship is created as a result of the Terms of Use and neither party has any authority of any kind to bind the other in any respect outside the specified terms of this Agreement. In any action or proceeding to enforce rights under the Terms of Use, the prevailing party will be entitled to recover costs and attorneys’ fees.