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Institutional Research Repository

Embargo & Restricted Access

Usually when you publish your items in IRR, your files are made publicly accessible for download and re-use by other researchers. However, sometimes there may be good reasons to impose restrictions and not allowing everyone to freely download your files, e.g. if you want to control who uses your files and why. IRR allows you to publish your items under a variety of conditions - public, embargo and restricted access.

To add an embargo or restrict access, select the Add embargo and restricted access option on the right-hand side.

 

See the sections below on how to set up access restrictions to your items.

Embargo Period & Type

First, you have to decide how long will the access restrictions apply:

  • You can select a time period or a specific date for the embargo to end. Once the embargo period ends, your files or the entire content will automatically be made publicly available. Here is an example of an embargoed record.
  • You may also choose to restrict access forever by selecting Permanent Embargo under Embargo period. Here is an example of a permanent embargoed record.

Next, you need to decide the content will be set under restricted access.

IRR offers two types of embargo:

  • An embargo on the file(s) only, meaning that the metadata (description) will be publicly visible but the files themselves will not be.
  • An embargo on the entire content, meaning that both the metadata (description) and the files will not be publicly available until the embargo has expired.

There are two levels of restriction available when you are deciding who can access your items uploaded on IRR:

  • Nobody: Nobody will have access to your files or metadata record until the embargo period expires. During the embargo period, only you will be able to view.

 

  • Custom: Under this option, you can restrict access to either:
    • SIT Academic Staff, Research Staff and Postgraduate Research Students, who have logged in to IRR; or
    • Selected group(s) of SIT Academic Staff, Research Staff and Postgraduate Research Students, who have logged in to IRR, e.g. Academic Staff of the Engineering Cluster.

Enter a reason for the embargo in the field (e.g. NDA, publisher policy, etc.) if required. This is useful for people who are viewing the public metadata record.

If users can contact you about your research during the embargo, provide access request details, such as the Principal Investigator's contact information.

Creating Private Links

IRR allows you to create a private link to your unpublished item. This can be useful if you want to share your unpublished item with collaborators or peer reviewers. The recipient of the link can view the item without having to log in to IRR.

To create and share a private link:

  • On the record, click on the Share with private link option on the right-hand side. This will open up a window containing the link, and the expiry date.

  • Copy the link and send the link externally (e.g. via email).
  • If you want to disable the private sharing link at a later date (before it expires), just come back to the record in My Data, click on Private link, then in the new window click on Disable private link. If you want to share again in the future you will need to generate a new link.

Note: The link is temporary and should NOT be published or cited in a publication. Once the item is ready for publication, simply go back to the record in the My data and publish it.

Adding Publisher's DOI

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) acts as a persistent link to your research. When you create and publish a new record in IRR, a DataCite DOI will be automatically allocated.

If your item has already been published (for example in a journal or conference proceedings), it is best to use the publisher's DOI. This will ensure your IRR record identifier is consistent with other instances of your research elsewhere.

You can usually find this DOI on the full text pdf, or on the publisher's citation record of your research.

To add the publisher's DOI, click on Manage Identifiers on the right-hand side of the record, then select the Preexisting option in the pop-up window.

Reserving DOI

If you need a DOI for your unpublished item in IRR, you can reserve a DOI to use in a publication or other application. A reserved DOI is inactive and reserved for your item. It will only be active and citable when the item is published in IRR. This can be useful for the peer review part of the journal publishing process. For instance, you may provide the reserved DOI link to your dataset in the related publication, and activate the link only when you are ready to publish your data.

To reserve a DOI:

  • In a draft item record, click on the Manage Identifiers option on the right-hand side.
  • In the new window, make sure Reserve DOI is selected, then click on Reserve.
  • A DOI will then be generated immediately. You can supply this DOI to publisher for inclusion in an upcoming paper, if the publisher requests it. For example, you can create a data access statement in your publication about where your dataset is held.