How to share data/code underlying the thesis?

How to share your PhD research outputs?

TU Delft Research Data Framework Policy requires all PhD students who started on or after 1 January 2019 to deposit research data (and code) supporting their theses before they can graduate.

For more information on what data you should share, please see the what data should be shared post.

Share data/code underlying the article

Ideally, you will share the data/code at the same time as you share the preprint or publish your article. This way, all your research outputs are connected with each other and you will not have to go back to organise ‘old’ data/code.

• Example of data underlying an article

• Example of raw data underying an article

Share everything together

You can also choose to bundle everything together in one upload. Ensure that the name of the upload is linked to your thesis (example title: data/code underlying title thesis).

• Example QN 1 / 2

• Example BT

If you already shared data/code before, it is better to link to the older uploads instead of re-uploading the same data (unless you made any changes). You can do so in the metadata fields and in the README file.

I still want to publish my thesis chapter!

In that case you can still share the data/code when you publish the rest of the research outputs connected to your dissertation (because you will get a time stamp and DOI with the data/code that you can later connect to the article)

OR

You can choose to wait with publishing the data/code and do so when you publish the article (as described above for sharing the data/code underlying an article). When you reserve a DOI for the data/code, you can still link to these research outputs in your dissertation. You can also still share a private link so that your promotor(s) and promotion committee can access the files.

OR

You can choose to publish under embargo or restricted access. This would allow for data access requests (when choosing restricted access) before you publish the chapter. When the data can be publicly accessible you can contact 4TU.ResearchData to change the access permissions.

How?

Pending on how complex your dataset is in terms of size or amount of files, there are several solutions on how to organise your data:

• Have all the files in one directory together with a README file, if you do not have a lot of files

  • example 1, example 2

• Separate the files per measurement technique

  • either in separate directories or

  • in zip files - see example here

• You can arrange the data/code per chapter

  • example 1, example 2

  • example for simulation data

• Software (example 1)

  • See here how you can integrate 4TU.ResearchData and GitHub/Lab

See the how to share data post for more information on how and where to share data.

Where?

TU Delft has a dedicated data repository, 4TU.ResearchData, where all TU Delft researchers can deposit up to 1TB of data per year (per researcher) free of charge. Discipline specific repositories might also be suitable (the Data Steward can advise). See also the 4TU.ResearchData’s guidelines for README files (pdf).

If your group/project is using Zenodo you can also tag a project ‘community’. See for example SAMOSAFER and BatteryNL.

Link between data/code and your dissertation

Make sure that you link the ‘DOI’ from the data/code in your dissertation, and mention the DOI/title of your dissertation in your data/code upload (in the metadata fields of de upload and the README file).

More information

• How to use 4TU.ResearchData
• Guidance for doctoral candidates completing their studies