How to deposit your data into Apollo

Depositing your research outputs in Apollo

Apollo is the University of Cambridge repository. Symplectic Elements account. The team will check all your files and metadata as part of a manual curation process.

It is possible to request a placeholder DOI for your dataset that you can use before the data becomes publicly available. Temporary embargoes are also possible.

Deposit process steps

• Before creating a record for your deposit
• Completing the deposit form
• Uploading your files
• After you've deposited your record

Before creating a record for your deposit

Who can deposit data into Apollo

You can deposit data into Apollo if you are a:

• current member of the University of Cambridge
• former member of the University when the research was conducted

For more information see Apollo’s Terms of Use

Sensitive data

Data that contains research from human participants and/or personal data may only be published in Apollo if the data has been anonymised i.e. where steps have been taken to minimise the risk of re-identification. Consent must be obtained from participants to share their data publicly.

For more information see Apollo Terms of Use and Sensitive data.

How much does it cost to deposit in Apollo

It is free to deposit data up to 20GB in Apollo.

If the total size of your deposit exceeds 20GB, there will be a one-off charge of £4 per GB (e.g. a data of 24GB will cost £96 to deposit). We can advise you how to make payment; we usually require a Purchase Order we can use to invoice you for the amount.

This charge of £4/GB will cover the cost of:

• Storage in a curated and managed server
• Hardware and curation
• Providing a display and search mechanism for your data
• Backing up your data at three different locations
• Protection, storage and sharing of your data for as long as it is required by your funder (or for as long as your data are used by others).

Please note that this price is being regularly reviewed and might change in the future. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Check your funder’s data sharing policy

Some funders require you to use a particular repository, please check your funder's data sharing policy for details. More information can be found on how to choose a repository.

Do you have the right to deposit your data in Apollo

Depositors must confirm that they have the authority or permission to deposit data. You must adhere to:

• any ethical agreements
• what was agreed to in any participant consent forms
• agreements with collaborators, commercial sponsors or industry partners
• any permissions to data from any third parties who might hold rights over the data

For more information see guidance on ownership.

If you have any doubts about your right to deposit and publish your data, please consult (in the given order):

• the Principal Investigator responsible for this study (if this is not you)
• your Departmental Administrator (or equivalent)
• the appropriate Contracts Manager at the Research Operations Office.

Completing the deposit form

How to deposit data in Apollo

You will need to use Symplectic Elements to deposit research outputs into Apollo.

If you have left the University and the work was produced while at Cambridge, please contact us to find out how you can deposit your work.

The Research Information team has some useful guidance on how to use Symplectic Elements.

How to start a new deposit:

1. login to your Symplectic Elements account
2. from the Home Page, click on the 'ADD NEW' button in the ‘Publications’ box at bottom left
3. select the type of research output you are depositing for example 'Dataset', 'Software/Code' or 'Method'
4. if you, or one of your co-authors have already created a record for this research output then you can search for it in the 'Title' search box. If not, you can click 'Skip'.
5. you can now fill out the required information in the form (the metadata).

Information required when depositing data

In the Elements form, you will be asked to enter information about your research output which will describe it (metadata). The fields to complete may vary depending on the research output type you have selected. Fields marked with a red asterisk are required information and may ask you to confirm:

• if your data contains any personal/sensitive, commercially-sensitive or other forms of confidential/restricted – please select the most appropriate option as this will help the Research Data team to best advise you. The Research Data team checks data files for any personal/sensitive information but it is your responsibility to ensure that no identifiable personal or sensitive data are present. You will need to provide us with evidence (e.g. copies of blank consent forms, participant information sheets, privacy statements) to prove that you have the correct permission to publish the data.
• title - name your research output so that it is informative and corresponds to any associated publication.
• list of authors.
• detailed description – this is an important aspect of the dataset to help others discover (Apollo records are indexed by search engines for example), understand and be able to reuse your data appropriately. We also encourage you to upload additional documentation files such as a Readme file to facilitate understanding and reuse of your data. Please avoid copying the abstract of the associated publication here as that does not always describe the data that has been uploaded. Data should be treated as a research output in its own right.
• keywords - choose keywords to make your data discoverable.
• software/usage instructions – information entered here will help others to access and read your files. This is especially important if you have used proprietary, bespoke or uncommon software. If your files use proprietary software, provide details on any open-source or free software available that can be used to access your data.
• file formats – list the formats of your files in your deposit.
• external email address – please provide a non-Cambridge email address. This will not be visible publicly and is only for internal use in case we need to contact you in the future about your research output.
• choose a licence for your deposit - Creative Commons licences are commonly used for data. Other options are available for software/code.
• do you need an embargo? We can temporarily embargo research outputs for example, until an associated article is published. Data files will not be publicly available while an embargo is in place, but the metadata will be publicly visible. If your research may be subject to export control please select the relevant option.
• Status – options for your dataset or software/code:
  • Placeholder record - if you need the DOI for your dataset but want your submission to still be in draft form, you can select this option. For example, if you need a DOI for your data to include in the data access statement in a manuscript but are not ready to upload the final version of your data. You can amend the metadata and files whilst the record is a placeholder. Please note the DOI for your dataset will not be live (the DOI link will not resolve) as a placeholder record. You can change the status in the form to ‘final record’ when you are ready for the DOI to be live.
  • Final record – if you have uploaded the final versions of your data files and metadata and you want the DOI to be live, you can select this option. It is important to note that once datasets are live in Apollo, you cannot make changes to any files. If you need to amend or update anything after the dataset is live then we can create a new DOI version. Your finalised submission will be reviewed by the Research Data team and they may contact you if further information is needed. You will receive an email once your submission has been approved into Apollo and the data and metadata will become publicly available (unless embargoed).

Linking your research output to funding

After completing the deposit form, you will have the option to acknowledge any funders and sponsors by linking your deposit record to specific grants listed in Elements.

The Research Information team has more detailed information on Grants in Elements.

Uploading your files

After you have linked your research output to funding, click on the 'Done' button (or in the 'More actions' box click on 'Not externally funded' or 'Grant not listed' as relevant). You will then be taken to the 'Thank you' page where you should click on the 'Deposit to Apollo' button. This will take you to the 'Deposit publication' page.

Upload the data files that support your research findings. Data files must be well-organised and well-documented to maximise understanding and reuse potential.

Only submit files that are the final versions for publication as you will not be able to delete files. If you need to delete or replace any files, please contact us.

Please see the information below on file formats and size, and file naming and organisation, before depositing your files.

When you are ready to deposit your record remember to click the 'Deposit' button!

File formats

To ensure long-term preservation and access to your data, it is recommended to use open file formats. Open file formats can help:

• your data be more accessible to others, who might not have the software to read your files
• reduce the likelihood of the files becoming obsolete in the future

Where data files are in proprietary formats, if possible, convert to open file formats and upload both versions. If this is not feasible then instructions should be provided on how to access the data ideally with open or free software. There is more information on choosing file formats.

File format size

When uploading files to your record, the maximum file size for individual files that can be uploaded via Symplectic Elements is 2GB. In addition, you will only be able to deposit up to a total of 2GB at a time. To deposit more data than this, you will need to return to the deposit record and redeposit additional files.

If you need to upload individual files larger than 2GB you can email us with a link to your data files (we recommend using your University OneDrive account) and we will deposit the files for you.

File naming and organisation

The Apollo record for your deposit will display a list of the file names you upload so it is important that the file name is concise but informative.

If you are uploading multiple files, please compress these for example, into a zip file. This will also retain the folder structure.

Provide a list of file names and a description of the associated contents in the ‘Detailed description’ metadata and/or in a separate Readme file.

After you’ve deposited your Elements record

The Research Data team aims to contact you within three working days from receipt of your submission:

• It may take longer for the Research Data team to review larger datasets or those with many files.

• It may also take us longer to publish your submission into Apollo if we require more information from you. We advise that you plan your submission well in advance.

• If you have specified that your data contains sensitive information, or if we suspect sensitive content is present based on the information provided, we will contact you for more information.

If you have submitted your output as a placeholder record

We will contact you and confirm the DOI and provide instructions on how to finalise your deposit. We will wait for you to finalise your data but please note that we expect data to be finalised prior to, or in time with the release of the associated manuscript by the publisher. If the record is not finalised and the DOI is cited in the publication, anyone trying to access the DOI will get an error message.

If you have submitted your output as a final record(or when you have finalised a placeholder record)

The Research Data team will check your files and metadata. You will be contacted if there are any problems or if further information is needed from you. We will review your data submission before publishing it in Apollo at which point the DOI will become live.

Updating your data after publication in in Apollo

Our DOI policy states that data cannot be changed (e.g. files added, removed or amended) after they have been approved into the repository. If you want to update any files to a record that has been published in Apollo, then you can do this with DOI versioning. Please email us and send the updated files and a description of how this differs from the original version. We will create the new DOI version which will be linked to the original version.

Citing your dataset

You should cite your data in the data access statement or anywhere else you would like to reference your data. Include the same information as you would for a publication such as Author(s), Publication date, Title, Place of publication, DOI. There is more information on How to reuse data.