As a non-profit, public data repository, ScienceDB hosts a dedicated data management team who will conduct a formal review of all submission for publishing. The data publishing process consists of the following steps:

1) User registration and login

2) Metadata and data submission

3) Data review: at this stage, your datas can only be accessed and downloaded by our data managers and designated reviewers. The data curation team reviews each submission and sends you conclusion via email within 5 working days.

4) Online data publishing: publish your data openly for public access under a specific data reusing license.

At ScienceDB, we welcome submissions of data in any format, subject, or size.

However, we do have preferred data formats in consideration of optimal data reusability. For details, please refer to Notes on recommended data formats

Additionally, we provide different ways to upload different sized datas, browsers or FTP clients. Please refer to Data publishing procedure for details.

To encourage participation in open data sharing, we do not charge individual users at present. All fees incurred throughout the publishing process will be waived. However, we reserve the rights to charge users for data storage, review and publishing, and do not guarantee life-long free services.

For collaborative services of academic journals, please Contact us.

We provide free DOI registration for all data accepted to publish on ScienceDB.

A unique DOI will be assigned to each data submission, with its prefix being “10.11922/sciencedb.”(e.g., “10.11922/sciencedb.00053”).

However, a DOI will only be activated when we have it registered, after the data is formally accepted for publishing on ScienceDB. An unregistered DOI is inactive and cannot be used to locate data resources.

It usually takes one or two working days for us to register a DOI after a data is formally published. A DOI link (i.e.,http://www.doi.org/[DOI]) will be provided and activated for locating and accessing the data. A DOI link (e.g.,http://www.doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.00053) corresponds to a data (i.e.,“10.11922/sciencedb.00053”) on ScienceDB.

Additionally, each data submission will be assigned a CSTR with the prefix being “31253.11.sciencedb.” and CSTR is also the unique identifiers of a data that works approximately the same as a DOI.

* CSTR – Science and Technology resource identification, GB/T 32843-2016.

At ScienceDB, we support data protection when a data is considered as not ready for open sharing.

During the process of creating a data submission, data depositors can set the data protection period (embargo) and select the specific time for open access to the data files. The maximum embargo period can be set to 1 year. During this period, visitors can only access the metadata of the data, but cannot download the data files. After this period, the data is automatically converted to open access status and its metadata & data files are accessible to all visitors.

In addition, ScienceDB provides 2 types of private links (namely “private access link” and “anonymous private link”) for each data, and data depositors can choose a private link to submit to the editorial office of contribution as needed. The two types of private links are described as follows:

(1) Private access link. Any visitor (including anonymous visitors) can access the metadata and data files through this link. The private access link is in the form of https://www.scidb.cn/en/s/[random code].

(2) Anonymous private link. Through this link, visitors will not be able to see the names, affiliations, email addresses and other personally identifiable information of data authors and data depositors, but can access the metadata and data files of this data anonymously. This link satisfies the journal’s double-blind review requirements for papers. The anonymous private link is in the form of https://www.scidb.cn/anonymous/[random code].

Data depositors can obtain the abovementioned links in “My data hub”.

Yes. ScienceDB provides “anonymous private link” to data. Data depositors can obtain this link in “My data hub”.

On the anonymous private link page, visitors will not be able to see the content of personally identifiable information such as the names, affiliations and email addresses of data authors and data depositors, but can access the metadata and data files of this data anonymously.

Data depositors could submit an anonymous private link to the journal editorial office on demand for double-blind review.

Please note that when you upload a data file, the name and content of the data file should not contain personal information (name, organization, etc.).

ScienceDB provides various data license agreements, including 7 general license agreements: CC0, CC-BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-NC 4.0, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, CC BY-ND 4.0, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, and 3 licenses for database: PDDL, ODC-By, ODbL, as well as 12 software license agreements: MIT, Apache-2.0, AGPL-3.0, LGPL-2.1, GPL-2.0, GPL-3.0, BSD-2-Clause, BSD-3-Clause, MPL-2.0, BSL-1.0, EPL-2.0 and The Unlicense. For the selection of software license agreement, you may refer to: https://choosealicense.com/appendix/. In addition, ScienceDB provides Restricted Access mode to data files. Data depositors can customize data access conditions.

At ScienceDB, all depositors are allowed to update their published data. To do so, depositors need to make an online request on “My Datasets” page. An updated version will be published once it is approved by our data managers.

Please note that no new DOI will be assigned for an updated data. All historical versions of the data will be retained and are open for public assess.

ScienceDB supports a variety of data citation format such as GB/T 7714-2015. Users can choose the citation format by themselves.

ScienceDB provides relevant published paper information and related citation recommendations for the published data. ScienceDB does not require users to cite related publications while citing data, but users are requested to cite relevant publications according to actual conditions and academic practice to show respect and recognition for the data authors’ contributions.

Established on FAIR principles, ScienceDB provides permanent access to all data accepted for publishing on this site, unless the data violates relevant rules or regulations.

Once published online, data cannot be retracted in principle. Depositors who want to make modifications have the option to update their data version. At ScienceDB, we allow depositors to upload new versions of their previously published data (please refer to Data updates for more information), as a way to support data updates. After a new version is published, the old version will still be open for public access and download.

However, if your data contains substantial deficiencies such as major data errors which may seriously impact the research of your data users, please do not hesitate to contact us and follow our steps for data retraction:

Depositors shall fill out the two forms (Request for Data retraction and Statement on Data retraction) and send to: sciencedb@cnic.cn.

Your request will soon be forwarded to our staff for review and evaluation. If we decide that your data should be retracted as per your request, data depositors will be asked to sign the Statement and send a scanned copy to our email. A retraction will be proceeded once we receive the copy.

A retraction, however, does not eliminate your option to submit and publish an updated version of the data retracted. For submitting a new version, please click “update” in “My Datasets” page.

Notes: the updated version shares the same DOI/CSTR with the original version. The access link of the original version remains valid even if the data has been retracted, in which case metadata are retained and the data files are substituted by a Statement on Data Retraction.

ScienceDB allows you to harvest the open content via the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI- PMH). All the open metadata on ScienceDB is licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Please click the following link for ScienceDB OAI-PMH Service: https://www.scidb.cn/oai?verb=Identify.

And the ScienceDB OPEN-API allows you to request open services programmatically. Its documentation is available at https://www.scidb.cn/open-api/swagger-ui.html.