To enable a secure and easy-to-use workflow for any user working with data in Research Drive, a Project Folder Owner can set up a folder structure that allows access to individual users or one or more groups of users which can have different functions and permissions.

For more information and guidance, see Project folder structures at the Research Drive wiki.

Provide access

Select the folder and click the sharing icon.

Open

In the area that appears, you can add individual users or groups and alternatively, create sharing links (URLs) with non-Research Drive users. Giving access to a folder means providing that selected access for all subfolders below the shared folder too.

Preferably never give anyone sharing rights (unless strictly necessary), because that person can give others more rights than they themselves have. This causes you to lose sight of who can access the data.

Custom groups

Give Research Drive users access via personal access groups (Settings > Custom groups). Members in such a group all receive the same rights when added to a folder.

Open

The group owner is the only one who can add and remove access group members and see the members of the group. However, all access group names are visible for the entire Research Drive, so aptly name the groups according to the following format: Department_ProjectName_Accesslevel. If a new person needs access, they can be added to the relevant access group and automatically gains access to the same files/folders as the other group members.

Individual users

Add users to folders individually if they should not have the same permissions as the custom groups. This could for example be outside researchers. Please note that users of SURFdrive do not necessarily need a new Research Drive account, you can simply share the relevant files/folders with their Federated cloud ID.

Students and outside users

Generally, when sharing data with students or outsiders, stick to the following guidelines:

• Share data only when the sharing serves a scientific goal

• Keep the amount of data shared to a minimum

• Pseudonymize or, if possible, anonymize data before sharing

• Students should sign a non-disclosure agreement and stick to the working guidelines for students

Give students and outside users access via access links that allow Download/View/Upload (edit only if it concerns a separate (Students) folder). Make use of the password and end-date functions: students and outside users should not have access to the data after their internships / the agreement have/has ended and the password will give extra protection against non-authorized use. Alternatively, you could add the external users or students as new Research Drive users (Dashboard > Add user), although for large amounts of users, this is not recommended.

How to organize your data (for Project Folder Owner)

• Folders

• Storage quota

• Considerations to make before you start

• Create folder structure - examples

Slides for Project Folder Owners