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Can I find a Data Management Plan template somewhere?

See research funders' open science requirements and Aalto instructions. If you need help with any data management plan, contact researchdata@aalto.fi.

What is personal and sensitive data?

According to GDPR, personal data is any information which are related to an identified or identifiable natural person (more information can be found ). Personal data is considered to be under EU’s law protection when data is related to religion, politics, health, etc. Check the formalities which one should follow while working with personal data.

Does my project need an ethical review by the university Research Ethics Committee?

An ethical review is needed when specific criteria are fulfilled. Please find more information here.

I submitted my manuscript to a journal, but it was not accepted because no ethical review was done. What should I do?

The solution can be different depending on the particular case. In general, you should contact the ethics committee so that they will provide a statement. You can also ask for consent from participants.

I will work with personal data. What documents should be prepared before I will start? 

You must, in the minimum, prepare documents related to data protection. These documents include the Privacy Notice which explains how the personal data of the research participants will be processed. Moreover, you may need to conduct the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). More information can be found here. In any data-related questions please contact the Legal Counsel of your school.

Do I need a Privacy Notice if my data are collected anonymously?

Yes, you do. Using the Privacy Notice, explain how the personal data of the survey respondents will be processed. Even if collected anonymously, survey data can form an identifiable personal profile through, for instance, professional, age-related or educational information. Even email addresses count as personal data.  

I want to reuse data owned by a company, but they have some doubts about sharing those data with me. What should I do?

You should make an agreement with the data provider (i.e. the company) and in this agreement, describe questions related todata ownership, reuse etc. Please ask the legal counsel of your school to prepare an agreement. More information here. 

How does Aalto compensate participants in research projects?

Research participants are usually not compensated. However, participation can be acknowledged through a reasonable gift (e.g. movie tickets, products packages etc.). Also, reasonable travel- and meal expenses can be reimbursed. More information (in Finnish) at: ).

What should I do if I need more space for my research data?

Contact servicedesk@aalto.fi to get more space. More information about storage solutions can be found here.

What if I have a huge amount of data or need significant computation power to go along with it?

Aalto has the computer cluster Triton for free. The computer cluster  (check the link) has a large capacity and large computation power in the same place.

What if I want to share my data, but only to certain approved people?

Contact servicedesk@aalto.fi if you use Aalto network drives (sharing is possible only within Aalto (TeamWork) and department (Work)). In case of cloud providers, you do not have limitations in sharing your data and can set it up by yourself.

How should I store and share sensitive or confidential data?

Storage of sensitive and confidential data requires a careful and responsible approach. First, according to GDPR, use of personal data should be minimized. Plan the handling of personal data before starting the research (more information here). Personal data has to be anonymized prior to publishing data allowing flexible sharing (more information on anonymization ). In general, Aalto recommends using Aalto network drives for storing personal/sensitive/confidential data (more information is here).

If you need to share the data, use service, Microsoft Teams or OneDrive for Business. Please follow these security procedures:

• Restrict access carefully only to the people involved in the project. Verify that you have correct e-mail address for collaborators.
• Do not use shared links that are public or open to anyone in Aalto University. Instead of sharing a link in the e-mail, just mention where to find the file and let the collaborators login to the shared folder.

For alternative solutions, look at the list of permitted IT systems for classified information, maintained by the Cyber Security team. If you have questions or your system is not listed, please ask servicedesk@aalto.fi for getting the necessary safety advice and security procedures.

We need to collaborate with our partner organization, but keep the data confidential. What service should we use?

Microsoft Teams or are recommended for collaboration with confidential data. 

For alternative solutions, look at the list of permitted IT systems for classified information, maintained by the Cyber Security team. If you have questions or your system is not listed, please ask servicedesk@aalto.fi for getting the necessary safety advice and security procedures.

What will happen with my data if I will leave Aalto University?

It depends on where you store the data. If you use a shared folder in Aalto network drive, the data will stay at the same location and remain accessible to other users of the folder. If you use cloud services, your data will be removed after you leave Aalto and you have to transfer it to someone else in Aalto prior to leaving. The data in Microsoft Teams will stay as long as there are active Aalto users in the team. If you own any groups in Microsoft Teams, make another person as an owner or the team will have limited functionality after you leave Aalto.

Can I define access to TeamWork drive? For example, I do not want that all of my group members will access some folders.

Yes, you can define different access to the folders in TeamWork and also Work drives. Please, ask servicedesk@aalto.fi to implement it. 

Is there any guideline for eDuuni?

To get started, Aalto has published overall description of the service and deployment instructions. More detailed training materials are provided by CSC (eDuuni provider in Finland):  (video only in Finnish).

What does the term metadata mean related to my research data?

Metadata are data about data. Having rich metadata to accompany the data is essential for efficient data reuse. From a researcher perspective, there are two main considerations: (1) the description of the research data (commonly, a README file); (2) bibliographic and other kinds of information. You can read more about metadata here.

Which repository do you recommend for publishing datasets? 

Aalto recommends unless you know about a field-specific repository (you can check to find a repository for your field).

For example, (FSD) provided by Tampere University is a major resource centre for the humanities and social science research and teaching.

How do I upload a dataset to Zenodo?

Check out the short demo video.

How can I publish data which is expanding or changing over time? How can it be cited?

How this is technically done depends on the data repository where the data are shared. Many repositories allow for the data and metadata to be updated, which enables for the compiling of new versions of the dataset as more data are added. Some repositories, like Zenodo, allow for a single persistent identifier (a DOI) to represent different versions of the dataset. More information about Zenodo: .

Where can I look for help with managing, sharing, and publishing my research data?

Any data-related requests may be sent to researchdata@aalto.fi, which is read by a team of data experts (IT specialists, legal counsels, researchers, information specialists) who can answer your questions or forward the questions to the right specialists.

Am I allowed to put a license on my data?  Who do I have to ask for permission?

Yes, you are allowed to choose a license for your data and you do not need explicit permission for that.

However, authors have to check if there are ethical or legal issues preventing open access: personal data, protection of trade secrets, other intellectual property, agreements, funders’ requirements, and publishers’ data availability policies. If you need any help, contact legal counsel at your school: /en/services/legal-services.

Can I open the data before publishing original paper or only after?

It is up to the researchers to decide when to publish the data. Data is usually published at the same time as the original paper or after to benefit from the use of the data. One can publish the data when the manuscript is accepted for publication and then add the link to the publication (for example, see  - Footnotes - Data deposition). Some repositories (for example, Zenodo, B2SHARE, Fairdata) allow having embargo for the dataset so that one can upload the data, set embargo, and make it openly available after the publication is out.

What does FAIR data mean?

FAIR data means that research data or metadata is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. More information: .