Use Policy for UD Dataverse

Use Policy for UD Dataverse

Effective as of January 2, 2026. 

Definitions: 

Author(s), Researcher, Dataset Contributor: the author(s) or creator(s) of the dataset

Service, Repository: UD Dataverse

University, We: University of Delaware

User, You: The user accessing data through UD Dataverse 

About the Service

UD Dataverse is an institutional repository to archive, share, and discover research data created by UD researchers, including faculty, students, and staff. UD Dataverse is supported by the Library, Museums and Press and UDIT Research Cyberinfrastructure.

UD Dataverse is an archiving and sharing solution dedicated to research data compliant with many funder and publisher data management and sharing policies (DMSPs) and the FAIR Principles, which ensure that data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. The repository is built on Dataverse, a robust and open-source platform for data preservation and sharing developed by the Institute of Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University.

Your permission to use the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of the terms outlined in this document. If you do not accept all the terms, do not access or use the service. 

For some datasets, you may be required to create a free account to download the data or related materials. This decision is up to individual Dataset Contributors. An account is not required to view records in the Repository or download certain datasets. 

Citation Guidelines

Data deposited to UD Dataverse is assumed to be reused in order to contribute to open scholarship. Users must give appropriate attribution to the Author(s) of the data in any publication that employs resources provided by the Repository. You must follow all license restrictions and terms as given in the dataset. If your use or publication requires permission, you must contact the Author(s) directly; administrators of the Repository cannot respond to requests for permission.

Appropriate Access

The research data provided here are intended only for legitimate scholarly research, barring any special licensing for specific datasets (some datasets may allow commercial use, for example). 

You agree that you will not under any circumstances:

  • interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Service;
  • make any automated use of the Service or the related systems, or take any action that we deem to impose or to potentially impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our servers or network infrastructure;
  • bypass any robot exclusion headers or other measures we take to restrict access to the Service, or use any software, technology, or device to scrape, spider, or crawl the Service or harvest or manipulate data;
  • use any illegitimately harvested or collected data from the Service to train any artificial intelligence, machine learning, large language models, or other similar networks, algorithms, or systems;
  • circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with any security-related features of the Service or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of content, or enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content accessible via the Service; or
  • publish or link to malicious content of any sort, including that intended to damage or disrupt another user’s browser or computer.

Privacy 

When a Researcher deposits data to UD Dataverse, they confirm that they are following any IRB, HIPAA, FERPA [1-link to Abbreviations below?], or related privacy restrictions on the data. As a User, you agree that you will not make any use of the data to identify or otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals discovered inadvertently or intentionally in the data.

You also agree that you will not under any circumstances:

  • collect or harvest any personal data of any user of the Service;
  • use the Service for any unlawful purpose or for the promotion of illegal activities;
  • attempt to, or harass, abuse or harm another person or group;
  • use another user’s account without permission;
  • intentionally allow another user to access your account;
  • provide false or inaccurate information when registering an account

Release of Liability 

If you view or download information from the Service, you agree that services and content therein are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use of content from the Service is at your own risk.

You agree that the Service and its administrator, the University of Delaware, shall have no liability for any consequential, indirect, punitive, special or incidental damages, whether foreseeable or unforeseeable (including, but not limited to, claims for defamation, errors, loss of data, or interruption in availability of data), arising out of or relating to your use of the Service or any resource that you access through the Service.

Abbreviations

FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

IRB: Institutional Review Board

References

UDSpace policy 

UNC Dataverse Policies

ASU Dataverse policies