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Back to Registration

Registration and login FAQs

If you are based at a UK institution of higher or further education (UK HE/FE), you can register using the username and password provided by your institution from our login page.

If your institution is part of the UK Access Management Federation (UKAMF) and is on this Federation Identity Providers Asserting User Accountability list, you can register using the username and password provided by your institution from our login page.

Only if your institution is not a member of the UKAMF or you are a personal user, you need to apply for a username.

If you are still unable to find the answer you are looking for, please contact our Helpdesk using our online help form for other queries.

If you are based at a UK institution of higher or further education (UK HE/FE), you will need to contact your library, IT helpdesk or e-resources administrator. Your institutional web pages or intranet may also contain useful information on how to obtain a username and password.

If you are not at a UK HE/FE institution, or are not associated with any organisation, you can apply for a username.

If you entered an incorrect email address, you can change this using the ‘Edit details’ option in the ‘Details’ section of your account.

From any UK Data Service page:

Click the login page found on the top right of every page on this website.
Select your organisation or start typing the name of your organisation where indicated on the login page. If we have issued you a username (beginning ‘ukd’), enter ‘UK Data Archive’ as your organisation.
If your organisation is not found, apply for a username’, then follow the instructions.
Enter your username and password.
If you have already registered with the UK Data Service, you will then be logged into your account. From here you can access your personal details, your project details, and order history. If you have not yet registered, you will be prompted to do so at this point.

If you are trying to log in using a username beginning ‘ukd’, you will need to select ‘UK Data Archive’ as your organisation from our login page.

You can only log in to the SecureLab if you are an approved and trained researcher with a current research project and been provided with a username and password specifically for SecureLab.

Watch our video tutorial, How to log in to UKDS SecureLab, once you have applied and been granted access to controlled data.

First time depositors or users of ReShare must first register with the UK Data Service using federated access management user authentication. Use your UK HE/FE institutional login credentials (institutional username and password), after selecting your institution from the drop-down list.

If your institution is not a member of the UKAMF or you are a personal user, apply for a username from the UK Data Service.

Use this username to log in to ReShare using federated access management user authentication, selecting the UK Data Archive as your institution from our login page.

After registration you can go and log in to the ReShare repository.

This can be either when you want to deposit a data collection or want to download a data collection. If you get stuck in a loop from ReShare to the UK Data Service registration page, please close your browser (all tabs), clear your history and cache. Then try to login again. If this doesn’t work, please try a different browser.

Yes. If you are outside the UK, you will need to apply for a username and then register with the UK Data Service. However, some data collections are not available for non UK users, so check the catalogue record ‘Access’ tab for any access restrictions.

Note: If you are not at a UK HE/FE institution, a username issued by the UK Data Service will not entitle you to access certain data, e.g. the International Energy Agency (IEA) datasets.

Visit the various Registration and Access help pages for answers to common difficulties.

If you are using a username and password issued by your organisation, contact your local IT helpdesk, library, or e-resources administrator for help. If you are using a username issued by the UK Data Service, and beginning with ‘ukd’, you can ask for a reminder from the ‘UK Data Archive’ login screen. This screen will be displayed after you have entered ‘UK Data Archive’ as your organisation during the login process. If you have problems requesting these details, contact the helpdesk and we will send you a reminder.

Your registration with the UK Data Service will not expire if you log in regularly. If you don’t log in for two years, your account will be deactivated and you will need to reregister. We will email you a reminder before your account is deactivated.

You need to accept cookies to use the UK Data Service and UK Data Archive. The most common reason for not being able to log in is that cookies are blocked on your PC.

To check whether your computer is set up to accept cookies, or to change the current settings:

Firefox: Go to Options -> Privacy. Under History, select Firefox will: ‘Use custom settings for history’ -> Accept cookies from sites.
Internet Explorer: Go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy -> Advanced, and ‘Accept’ cookies.
Opera: Go to Settings -> Quick Preferences -> Enable cookies.

Federated access management (e.g. Shibboleth) allows users to securely access external services using the same username and password they use to access local services at their own organisation.

In order to use federated access management, an organisation must join the UK Access Management Federation and either implement Identity Provider (IdP) software, or outsource that provision to a third party (e.g. Eduserv using OpenAthens).

Federated access management user authentication (Shibboleth) has been implemented for UK Data Service and UK Data Archive services.

User accountability:

Organisations within the UK federation have the opportunity to assert that, where unique persistent attributes are associated with a user, they will make sure these attribute values are not re-issued to another user for at least 24 months after the last possible use by the previous user.

The UK Data Service and the UK Data Archive provide a one-stop registration service for multiple distributed service providers which requires knowledge of the identity of a user in case there is a breach of its terms and conditions. Also some data collections require an agreement to special conditions before we can allow access. Only users attached to Federation Identity Providers Asserting User Accountability can gain access to any service which relies on the assertion of user accountability.

Attributes:

For access to UK Data Service/UK Data Archive resources, organisations must release the following attributes to https://safari.data-archive.ac.uk//shibboleth-sp:

eduPersonScopedAffiliation: a user’s organisational affiliation. The unscoped value of eduPersonScopedAffiliation must be member or equivalent (i.e. student, staff, faculty or employee)
eduPersonTargetedID: a persistent user pseudonym for personalisation

WAYFless URLs:

The UK Access Management Federation login page is known as the ‘Where Are You From (WAYF)’ page. Organisations using the UK Access Management Federation can bypass both the UK Data Service login page and the WAYF page. The following example shows the WAYFless URLs for the University of Sheffield. These can be adapted for other organisations by replacing the reference to ‘idp.shef.ac.uk’ as appropriate for your organisation:

Example of WAYFless access to the UK Data Service via Sheffield University

https://vosp.data-archive.ac.uk/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp.shef.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https%3A%2F%2Fvosp.data-archive.ac.uk%2Fidp%2Fproxy.jsp%3Ftarget=https%3A%2F%2Fsp.ukdataservice.ac.uk%2Fsecure%2Fproxy.asp?target=https%3A%2F%2Fbeta.ukdataservice.ac.uk%%202FUmbraco%2FSurface%2FLogin%2FAuthenticateUser?redirect=/MyAccount

If you get this message it means the organisation supplying your login credentials is not authorised. Organisations in the UK Access Management Federation have the opportunity to assert that, where unique persistent attributes are associated with a user, they will make sure these attribute values are not re-issued to another user for at least 24 months after the last possible use by the previous user.

This acceptance of ‘user accountability’ is a requirement for access to UK Data Service/UK Data Archive resources. It appears that your organisation does not assert user accountability and is therefore not permitted access.

If your organisation is listed at Federation Identity Providers Asserting User Accountability, contact our Helpdesk to request access for your organisation. If your organisation is not listed, contact your library, IT helpdesk or e-resources administrator to ask if they are able to assert user accountability.

For access to UK Data Service/UK Data Archive resources, your organisation must provide you the following credentials, in the correct format:

eduPersonTargetedID
eduPersonScopedAffiliation

You can check which attributes are being released for your account by your organisation at the TEST website. Select your organisation from the relevant dropdown list and log in using your institutional details.

Check that the ‘TargetedID’ details are ‘released’.

If the required attributes are not being released, contact your IT helpdesk or e-resources administrator for further assistance.

Users from organisations that have recently upgraded may have problems if their institution is not releasing the correct form of the eduPersonTargetedID. To check that the correct attributes are being released use the TEST website, as described above.

Single Sign On (SSO) allows you to enter user credentials only once to gain subsequent access to a number of disparate resources. Once logged in, you may access any SSO services that you are entitled to without logging in again in any one browser session. A browser session lasts for eight hours or until you close your browser window.

You need to accept cookies to use Single Sign On. The most common reason for not being able to log in is that cookies are blocked on your PC. Check our cookie information to see whether cookies are enabled.

Some studies have restrictions on access, so you may receive a message such as: “Access to these resources is only available to academic users from Higher and Further Education in the United Kingdom.” If you think you are receiving this message in error, contact the Helpdesk.

You may see an error message, or a blank screen, when trying to log in, due to the way in which some institutions have set up their federated access management system. Because Nesstar uses frames, and the frame containing the login dialogue comes from a server other than the surrounding site, some web browsers treat this as a third party site and don’t accept cookies. We suggest using Firefox, or, if you use Internet Explorer, to get permission from your IT helpdesk and change IE’s settings as follows:

Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy -> Advanced -> Override automatic cookie handling -> Always allow session cookies

As mentioned above, the Nesstar product is built using ‘frames’ and due to added security measures at certain institutions, users may receive the following error message when logging in: ‘This content cannot be displayed in a frame’. In this case, registered users need to log in to the UK Data Service website before searching the Nesstar pages.

This site uses cookies

Necessary cookies

Cookies that measure website use

Registration and login FAQs

How do I obtain a username and password?

I entered an incorrect email address when registering, what should I do?

How do I log into the UK Data Service?

When I try to log in or register, my organisation does not appear on the list, what should I do?

How do I log in to the SecureLab?

How do I login or register to ReShare?

When I try to login to ReShare, I am sent to the UK Data Service registration page, although I have already registered, what do I do?

I am outside the UK, can I use your data?

Is there a guide to registering?

What should I do if I forget my username and/or password?

How do I renew my UK Data Service registration?

My browser is not set up to allow cookies, can I still use this service?

What is federated access management?

Federated access management – technical information for identity providers/institutions

User accountability:

Attributes:

WAYFless URLs:

Why do I get an ‘Unauthorised organisation’ message?

Why do I get an ‘Authorisation failed’ message?

What is Single Sign On?

Why am I unable to log into your services or get transferred to the login prompt several times?

Why do I get a ‘No access’ message?

Why do I get an error message/blank screen when trying to log into Nesstar?

More help in 'Registration'