Terms of Use

Before depositing data, please review the Borealis Terms of Use and any policies established by your institution. It is your responsibility, as the owner/depositor, to ensure you meet these terms and conditions before you upload any data files to the platform. Please contact your institution for questions about depositing datasets.

Please note, if the data you are uploading requires any of the following, Borealis is not a suitable choice for a repository:

• High-volume computational processing infrastructure.
• Storage of personal or confidential information.
• Large file size upload capacity (e.g., big data projects).

If you believe you have violated any of the Terms of Use, contact your institution immediately.

Sensitive or Confidential Data

Borealis does not accept content that contains confidential or sensitive information. Files must be anonymized or de-identified before deposit.

As per the Terms of Use, uploaded content must not contain information that could directly or indirectly identify a subject, except where the release of such identifying information has no potential for constituting an unwarranted invasion of privacy and/or breach of confidentiality. Personally-identifiable information is only permitted if it meets one or more of the following conditions:

• The information has been previously released publicly.
• The information is about public figures and their public roles.
• The information is considered historic because a sufficient length of time has passed since it was collected.
• The information has explicit informed consent from participants to be released publicly.
• The information has been collected with an explicit statement that said it would be made public.

Participating Institutions

Anyone can create a Borealis account and view/download data, but only users affiliated with a participating institution (or given permission by a participating institution) are able to deposit data. Each participating institution manages its own Institutional Collection in which their students, staff, faculty, and researchers can deposit data.

Institutional Collections

While the Borealis team manages the Dataverse repository from a technical perspective, each participating institution manages their own collection in terms of policies and procedures. The procedures outlined in this guide are general in nature and may not apply to your institution.

Before depositing your files, review your institution’s policies and procedures.by navigating to your institutional collection. In some cases, your institution may have added information to the top of their collection’s main page, including links to their library’s research data management website and/or links to applicable policies and procedures.

Use the Contact link to send an email to your institution for additional support.

Institutional Library Websites

Another way to find more information about your institution’s collection policies and procedures is to go to your institution’s library website. The website may have a section supporting “research data management” with information about their digital repositories, policies and procedures, and support contact information.

Your institution’s library website may also have a chat feature where you can ask your questions and get a live response. If you cannot locate your library’s research data management webpage, use the chat feature to ask where you can find that information or receive additional support.