Guidance for doctoral candidates completing their studies

Well done! You are about to complete your PhD studies at TU Delft. Before you do this and leave TU Delft, you need to publish your research data and code, so that others can reproduce your findings and re-use your research outcomes. In accordance with the TU Delft Research Data Framework Policy, all doctoral candidates who started on, or after 1 January 2019, are required to upload their research data to 4TU.Centre for Research Data (or another suitable data archive) before their defence ceremony. PhD candidates and their supervisors are advised to consult the Research Data Archiving Checklist before signing Form B

All doctoral candidates who started before 1 January 2019 are strongly encouraged to upload their data.

What exactly do I need to do?

You need to:

1. Gather and organise the research data (and code) which support the results described in your PhD thesis
2. Ensure that your data is not confidential
3. Describe your data and code
4. Upload your research data (and code) and the description of your data to 4TU.Centre for Research Data
5. Add the DOI hyperlink to your data (and code) into your thesis
6. Submit your thesis for examination

1. Gather and organise research data (and code) which support findings described in your PhD thesis

Gather all research data (and code) which are needed to validate your research findings. Afterwards, organise and name your files in a meaningful way, so that the readers of your theses (and your examiners!) know what is what.

2. Ensure that your data is not confidential

Most of the time, research done by doctoral candidates at TU Delft is not confidential and therefore suitable for public sharing.

However, there might be some exceptions. The following types of data (or code) might need access restriction:

• Personal data - any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person - for example, location data, IP addresses, banking data, dates of birth, student ID numbers, MAC addresses
• Commercially confidential data - data which will be subject to commercialisation, for example, patenting, or other forms of Intellectual Property protection
• Data belonging to third parties - for example, data which you have received from external companies, which are not yours to share

If your data is confidential, contact your faculty Data Steward to discuss the next steps.

3. Describe your data

The next step is to describe your data and code in a README file. 4TU.Centre for Research Data has prepared a dedicated guidance document to help you create a README file.

4. Upload your research data (and code) and the description of your data to 4TU.Centre for Research Data

Once you have all your data (and code) organised and the README file ready, you can upload your data to 4TU.Centre for Research Data. Every PhD candidate at TU Delft can upload up to 1TB of data free of charge per year.

The upload form is quite easy to follow, but if you have any problems, the 4TU.Centre for Research Data prepared a step-by-step guidance for uploading data.

5. Add the DOI hyperlink to your data (and code) into your thesis

After you have uploaded your data into 4TU.Centre for Research Data (or reserved a DOI for your data in preparation), you will receive an email with the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) link to your data. Now add the DOI link to a Supplementary Information section in your thesis. You can adapt the statement below:

All research data and code supporting the findings described in this thesis are available in 4TU.Centre for Research Data at: [insert the DOI link].

6. Submit your thesis for examination

Now your thesis is ready to be sent to the examiners. Good luck!