Data Policy for ZFMK Biodiversity Data Center (ZFMK-BDC)

This data policy declaration is a general clarification of the type, scope and purpose of the processing of all − except personal − research related data within our online offering and the associated websites, functions and content. The personal data are covered in our Privacy Policy. If requirements of individual services operated by the ZFMK-BDC require additional rules to this Data Policy, then these will be regulated separately and made available to the user.

ZFMK-BDC recognizes the fundamental importance of research data and its documentation (hereinafter referred to as “Data”) to maintain high quality research and scientific integrity. It strives to achieve the highest standards in this regard. The ZFMK-BDC further acknowledges that correct and easily retrievable data is an essential basis of any research project. They are necessary for the traceability and reproducibility of research processes and their results. Data has a long-term benefit for research and science and the potential for comprehensive re-use and dissemination in society. ZFMK-BDC is committed to use and provide FAIR Data.

The guiding principle of the ZFMK-BDC is Open Access to its content for the scientific community.

• The ZFMK-BDC is operated by the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig – Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, Bonn, Germany for the benefit of the scientific community, stakeholders and the general public.
• The content is defined as data from species-related biodiversity research.
• Data are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
• Data can be protected for a moratorium period.
• Format and description of data (metadata) must ensure its most widespread and easiest use. Data include a bibliographic citation. Users are urged to properly quote this citation when using data from the system.
• The reliable long-term access to the data is assured by using persistent identifier(s) (DOI).
• The system is open to individual scientists, institutes or projects for data archiving and publication.
• Data up to a limit of 5 GB are free of charge. Costs for data volumes exceeding this volume will be subject to negotiation on the basis of hardware costs.

• Long-term availability (>10 years) of data in ZFMK-BDC is assured through a commitment of the host institute ZFMK.
• The ZFMK-BDC is responsible for the technical quality, operation and consistency of the content.
• Persistent identification, data publication and widespread distribution is performed by the networking functionality and webservices on the internet using international standards.

• With the transfer of data to the ZFMK-BDC, the ZFMK-BDC receives the right to manage the transferred data in accordance with the preservation plan. This includes copying, transforming, and storing the data.
• In the case of data changes or transformations, all steps are saved in the management software via the change history.
• The rights to publish the data and the accompanying licenses are negotiated with the data provider and enforced for each data entry or parts of it.

By submitting content to one of the management systems of ZFMK-BDC the user grants ZFMK-BDC a royalty-free, irrevocable, transferrable, non-exclusive, spatially and temporally unlimited right to use the content with the corresponding metadata - if applicable - for the respective purposes referred to in section 2 and 3 and subject to the Terms of Use. This includes in particular: (1) the right to store the contents on the server and if required to publish them, (2) to process, edit, and reproduce the submitted contents for archive and publication purposes.

The user declares to be entitled to the granting of rights of use (see above) and assures that the content submitted is free of third party rights which are contrary to the use for the purpose of this terms of use. The user releases ZFMK-BDC from all claims of third parties arising from the demands of third parties.

Data provided for processing, archiving and publication at ZFMK-BDC includes:

• Collection and research data from archives, collections, databases including multimedia data
• Metadata like provenance information, references, etc.

Contributors have agreed that:

• Any disclosure of information will comply to the terms and spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
• No information is disclosed which may threaten wild population of plants, fungi and animals protected under CITES.
• ZFMK-BDC does not assume any responsibility for the uploaded contents, research contents and metadata (contents) - no matter what kind. By uploading research content to ZFMK-BDC the user confirms that the content was obtained, generated and otherwise treated in accordance to all applicable regulations for good scientific practice. The user is solely responsible for the contents and undertakes to ZFMK-BDC not to upload any contents which, by its content or its form or design or in any other way violates applicable law, morality or these terms of use, is free form third-party rights, i.e. do not violate the rights of third parties and that the user is authorized to use these contents. In particular, it is not permitted to upload and publish the following contents, which are not to be understood as a final list: (1) contents violate the rights of third parties, in particular personal rights, copyrights, trademark rights and design rights; (2) contents are or contain commercial advertising; (3) contents which are threatening, degrading, insulting, slanderous or untrue; (4) contents which are pornographic, vulgar, obscene, offensive, harassing, discriminatory or glorify violence; (5) contents with depictions of violence; (6) contents which contain propaganda material of unconstitutional organizations or are inflammatory, anti-constitutional, racist or xenophobic.

Data are archived as described in the Dataflow for Preservation of Digital Information at ZFMK-BDC. Any type of data must always be accompanied by metadata allowing future users to understand and process the data at any time. The granularity and format of data sets have to be defined in agreement between the principle investigator (PI) and the data manager.

• Data submitted have to be documented properly. The documentation is archived together with each dataset.
• The scientific quality is always in the responsibility of the PI or the authors of the data.
• Technical quality control, i.e. completeness of metadata, consistence of formats and correctness of download is in the responsibility of the data curators of the ZFMK-BDC.
• After import, the PI/authors is requested to proofread data sets and submit corrections to the data manager.

• The data providers agree that the data archived in the ZFMK-BDC will be made available on the Internet (e.g. portals, search engines, online catalogs) through suitable technical facilities. This is part of the agreement on the use of the data (see above: 5 Transfer of Custody).
• Unpublished data are protected by default (i.e. not accessible by a wider audience or the public).
• Providers may decide to withdraw data from the archive as long as it is not published.
• Metadata are always freely accessible under the CC0 license waiver.
• In accordance with EU data policy and funding requirements, all data collected during a project will be published two years after the end of the project; regulations may differ in agreement between coordinator, partners and funding organization.

• An incremental backup of the data and metadata managed via the ZFMK-BDC is performed daily, and a full backup is performed every 15 weeks.
• The full backups are stored in different buildings on tapes.
• There are 3 generations of full backups available.

See: Technical documentation of long-term archiving solutions at the GFBio collection data centers for technical details.

• No data submitted to ZFMK-BDC and ingested for long-term archiving is deleted. This excludes demands for privacy policies according to DGPR as far as technically possible.
• ZFMK-BDC may delete some or all of the contents the user uploaded without notice. The prerequisite for this is that there are concrete indications that you have violated applicable law, good morals, the Terms of Use or third party rights, such as copyrights.