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Digital Commons Data @ USF

How to Create an Account

Account Creation

Digital Commons Data Homepage Create Account

  • Select "Sign in via you institution", type in and select University of South Florida Libraries, click Continue, and then select "Access through University of South Florida Libraries"

DCD Sign In via Institution     DCD Find Your Institution     DCD Access through institution

  • You will then be taken to a USF Sign in page, where you can then log in using your USF NetID. Once you log in, you can then register to create a Digital Commons Data account through Elsevier. Type in your preferred first name in 'Given Name' and last name in 'Family name'.

USF Log in Page          DCD registration through Elsevier

  • Once logged in, you will be taken to your data homepage. Here you can create projects, datasets, and collections.  

DCD Account homepage

 

Uploading & Publishing Data

Using DCD

With Digital Commons Data you can upload research data of various types, annotate data with detailed, subject-specific metadata, create projects to collaborate and organize your data in a manner best-suited to your needs, create collections of published data that and publish data so that others can access and re-use your data. In DCD you can share data privately and securely with your research group, including collaborators outside the institution, and selectively publish the data or even metadata only records.

  • Datasets: To create a dataset, on your project's homepage select "Create new dataset", add a title, and select dataset. This will take you to your dataset page, where you can edit the dataset title, add a description and other contributors, upload pertinent files, decide on your license, add any other affiliated institutions, create tags, add funders, and create steps for reproducibility.
    • In each dataset you can upload multiple files (including documentation, e.g., codebooks, guides, etc.) and organize files into folders.
    • After confirming the datasets follow all guidelines, select publish to submit your dataset for review by the data management team.
      • Once published, your dataset will be added to our queue. After approval, published datasets cannot be altered or deleted.
    • Licenses: You have three license options for your data: CC0 1.0, CC BY 4.0, and CC BY NC 3.0.
    • Embargoes/Access restrictions: You can select a time period of 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year, or you can select a publication date. You can also restrict all access to files so they will be kept private and only users with permission will see them. With restricted access, all other metadata will be publicly available (and searchable) allowing researchers to find your data and request access.
  • Projects: To create a project, on your project's homepage select "Create new project". Create a project title and description and select create project. This will take you to your project's main page where you can upload a new dataset or import dataset that have already been uploaded. You can add both draft and already published datasets to your projects.