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Back to How to deposit data

Curated data repository: Licensing and access framework

For each data collection made available in the curated repository data depositors or their nominees must sign a Deposit Licence Agreement (PDF). Besides determining the responsibilities of both the depositor and the Service Provider the licence agreement establishes:

the access conditions under which the data collection is made available for secondary use; and
the copyright owner(s) for the data collection.

At the UK Data Service, data are classified according to their level of detail, sensitivity and confidentiality. Appropriate data handling and access safeguards are put in place and we provide a spectrum of data access options.

Open data

Suitable for data that are neither classified as Personal Data nor Personal Information and with no residual risk of disclosure or where consent to share Personal Data or Personal Information as Open Access is in place.
These are made available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access.
Usual licences for reuse are the Open Government Licence and Creative Commons variations.

Safeguarded data

Suitable for data that are neither classified as Personal Data nor Personal Information and where the risk of identification is considered sufficiently remote. These data are effectively anonymised (PDF).
Use of data is subject to the End User Licence Agreement (PDF).
These data are made available to registered, authenticated users, and where appropriate, additional conditions and agreements are put in place.

Controlled data

Suitable for data classified as Personal Information or Personal Data and data that are particularly sensitive, commercially or otherwise.
Use of data is subject to the End User Licence Agreement (PDF) and facilitated via the Five Safes framework.
These data are made available to registered, authenticated, trained and accredited researchers, with projects approved by the data owner(s) through a secure connection method.

Seek your department’s or organisation’s guidance on the appropriate level of detail to be included in the deposited data and the relevant access level or contact the Collections Development team for advice.

We are unable to receive data until a deposit agreement has been signed, but we are able to receive documentation such as data dictionaries.

You may wish to consider making different versions of the same data available under different access arrangements to enable wider access to data.

Please ensure that all rights owners are defined in the licence. If the deposit includes data from other sources, please ensure that permission to deposit has been sought and granted. If in doubt refer to our guidance on the role of copyright and intellectual property rights in data and contact the Collections Development team for advice.