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The sharing of research data raises issues of data quality and consistency, and often also of data protection and confidentiality. Where the data contain personal data or are otherwise confidential or sensitive, appropriate security tools will be used and sharing will be limited to those persons who have a legitimate need to handle the data, as specified in the research design and in the information provided to the subjects.

Consider in advance the sharing needs of your research team, consortium or you and your collaborators: do you need to transfer data among you at folder and file level? Do you need to be able to edit files simultaneously across organisational boundaries? After what deadline do your partners return or destroy copies of files?

When sharing material with editing rights, it is important to agree in advance on the version control and documentation of the material: how will versions be documented and named? Are changes and labelling done in a consistent way that is understandable to all, so that information about edits is documented unambiguously?

Sharing of material within JYU

Within JYU, the primary collaboration tools are Microsoft Office365, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams for use with JYU accounts. Teams is the easiest of these to use for data management when a research project has a dedicated team under which research work is done. This way, files can be found in a clear location, rather than in individual users' own accounts.

Nextcloud, and in particular its group work folders, is also great for sharing reserch data. However, Nextcloud does not support simultaneous file editing.

Google tools and commercial cloud services should not be used.

Personal data and data sharing

The sharing (disclosure) of material containing direct or pseudonymised personal data should be based on the description in the privacy notice of the data processing and the data processors or of the transfer to a specific third party for a limited period of time. If the material contains sensitive information, i.e. special categories of personal data or otherwise confidential information, the material must be pseudonymised before sharing, if the material so permits. The recipient shall ensure the sender that, if necessary, copies of the file are kept in a storage location with an appropriate level of security to minimise the risk of third parties gaining access to the material.

Transfer and receipt of material outside the organisation

Where it is only a need to transfer material from one person to another and any editing is done asynchronously, the following solutions are available:

If the material is not sensitive, i.e. contains basic personal data, or is anonymous and otherwise non-confidential, directories and individual files can be easily shared in Nextcloud by sharing links. Different access rights and link durations can be set for different sub-sets of data. You can also set a password for the shared item. The sharing link is sent to the recipient's email. The recipient does not need a Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ login.

In Nextcloud, it is also possible to create a folder and a link that allows another person to send material to Nextcloud. In this way, material can also be received from outside the university directly into Nextcloud. Please see the instructions on the link on this page.

If sharing is more regular and the use of a web browser interface alone is not sufficient or appropriate, it is possible to create visitor accounts for partners and link these accounts to full access to Nextcloud.

JYU OneDrive is suitable for sharing non-sensitive data. When using OneDrive as a sharing solution, it is important to remember that files are mostly stored behind a personal OneDrive account, and access to them will be lost if the original account expires or encounters problems.

Sensitive data (data containing specific personal information that cannot be pseudonymised, data that is otherwise sensitive or confidential) can be shared if the data is encrypted with Cryptomator. In this case, the encryption password should be distributed separately from the data itself, for example by SMS. The recipient must also have the same version of Cryptomator software as the university.

The university staff can use university's secure e-mail (Deltagon). It is suitable for the transfer of small sensitive data.

The Researchvideo may also be useful for sharing AV material. It is not possible to share material directly with external users, but as with Nextcloud, it is possible to create visitor accounts to full access to Researchvideo.
 

Simultaneous editing

JYU MS Teams is the preferred way to handle non-sensitive data, as files remain as group files and do not disappear with individual users.
 

Streaming of material (if view only, no download or editing rights)

It is possible to create a sharing link from Nextcloud that allows the recipient to watch a video or listen to an audio recording, but not to download a copy for themselves. See the instructions at the link on this page.