Scope and purpose

This policy describes the standards and procedures that apply to all submissions to the USI Zenodo community. Its purpose is to ensure that deposited materials are in line with FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability), and that they meet the minimum quality requirements for transparency and reproducibility.

Data preparation requirements

Before depositing, submitters are expected to prepare their data according to the following minimum standards:

• File formats: data should preferably be provided in open, non-proprietary formats where possible (e.g. CSV, TXT, JSON).
• Variable documentation: tabular datasets must include a codebook or data dictionary describing each variable — name, type, unit of measurement, coding scheme, and collection method.
• README file: every submission must include a README file describing the research context, data collection methods, folder and file structure, and any software or version dependencies required to reuse the data.
• Data cleaning: submitted data should be free of duplicates, encoding errors, and unexplained missing values. Any processing steps applied to the raw data must be documented.
• Privacy and anonymisation: data containing personal or sensitive information must be carefully anonymised or, where appropriate, pseudonymised prior to deposit. Anonymisation or pseudonymisation procedures must be made in compliance with the applicable data protection legal framework (e.g., USI policies, the Canton of Ticino Data Protection Act, and the Federal Data Protection Act).
• License: a license must be assigned to every submission. The appropriate license depends on the nature of the data, any contractual obligations, and the funding context, and should be determined on a case-by-case basis. Guidance is available from the USI Research Data Manager.

Access levels

Submissions should follow the principle of as open as possible, as closed as necessary. Restricted or embargoed access may be justified in the following cases:

• pre-publication embargo (maximum 12 months, renewable upon request);
• contractual obligations with industrial or third-party partners;
• licensing restrictions on third-party data incorporated in the research;
• sensitivity of ecological, archaeological, or security-related information.

In all restricted-access cases, the submitter must provide a brief justification and indicate, where applicable, the conditions under which access may be granted.

Curation process

All submissions undergo a curation review by the USI Research Data Manager before being accepted into the community. The review verifies:

• completeness of metadata (title, description, keywords, license, related publications or grants);
• presence of a README file;
• use of open file formats, or documented justification for exceptions;
• basic consistency between the deposited files and the described content.

Submissions that do not meet the minimum requirements will be returned to the depositor with a request for revision. The Research Data Manager may also suggest improvements to metadata or documentation after a record has been accepted.