DMP Assistant Terms of Use

The following document sets forth the Terms of Use for use of the DMP Assistant website (the Site), dmp-pgd.ca, and the services available on or at the Site (taken together, the Service). The Service is offered by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) and the University of Alberta Library (taken together, the Service Providers). The Service is offered subject to acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein (the Terms of Use) and all other operating rules, policies and procedures that may be published from time to time on the Site by the Service Providers. Use of the Service denotes agreement with the following terms.

1.0 Definitions

Administrator (Admin): A User of the Service with administrative permissions to edit basic organizational information, implement local customization and guidance, view usage statistics, and manage templates, plans, and users at their institution.

Content : Data submitted to the Service by Users and Admin, including information entered as part of Plans, Templates, and Profiles (User and Organization).

Data Management Plan (DMP; Plan): A formal document that details the strategies and tools to be implemented to effectively manage data both during a research project and after its completion. Users create Plans using the Service by choosing a DMP Template and answering questions, supported by Guidance and examples.

DMP Assistant: DMP Assistant is a bilingual, web-based tool for preparing data management plans (DMPs). The tool follows international best practices in data stewardship and guides researchers step-by-step through key data management questions. DMP Assistant (the Service) is powered by an open source application called DMPonline, which is developed by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and shared under an AGPL license.

DMP Template (Template): A series of key data management questions organized into sections and phases to be answered by the User in order to create a Plan.

Personal Information (PI): Personal information is any recorded information that identifies an individual.

Sensitive Data: Information that must be safeguarded against unwarranted access or disclosure, including but not limited to: Personal Information (PI); Personal Health Information (PHI); Educational records; Customer records; Criminal information; Geographic information (e.g., detailed locations of endangered species); Confidential personnel information; Information that is deemed confidential, information entrusted to a person, organization, or entity with the intent that it be kept private and access be controlled or restricted; Information that is protected by institutional policy from unauthorized access. Includes any information related to an identified or identifiable natural person, organization or entity.

Service: The DMP Assistant website (the Site), dmp-pgd.ca, and the services available on or at the Site (taken together, the Service), offered under partnership between the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) and host institution the University of Alberta Library (taken together, the Service Providers).

Service Providers : The legal entities responsible for offering the Service, being the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) and the University of Alberta Library (taken together, the Service Providers).

Service Support : Staff member(s) employed by the Service Providers who provide support for Service Users, answer User queries and work to resolve User issues.

Site : DMP Assistant website (the Site), dmp-pgd.ca.

User : An individual who makes use of the Service by creating, sharing and downloading Plans, and otherwise adds Content. Users include Admin Users (see above definition for Administrator).

2.0 User Agreement

Users of the Service agree to the following:

• The User certifies that they are legally permitted to use the Service, create Content using the Service, and takes full responsibility for the selection and use of the Service.
• The User is responsible for ensuring that Content is appropriately suitable for dissemination and sharing (e.g., beyond the immediate project or research team), and that it complies with these Terms of Use, the DMP Assistant Privacy Policy, any relevant research ethics policies or approvals, any relevant institutional policies or obligations, and applicable laws, including, copyrights or other intellectual property rights, including, but not limited to patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other right of any other of any third party; laws related to defamation or obscenity; and privacy laws. However, the Service Providers shall not be responsible for ensuring that Content submitted to the Service adheres to these conditions. If Personal Information, not previously identified, is discovered in Content submitted to the Service, Service Support will undertake reasonable efforts to notify the Submitter.
• At the time of creation, Users may decide if their Content will be public, private, visible to their organization or specifically for test purposes, unless otherwise mandated by information access and privacy law. Visibility settings of Content may be modified at any time.
• Users should be aware that Public Content is openly accessible, available via the References section of the Site (Public DMPs and DMP Templates), and discoverable through search of the platform.
• Users are responsible for recognizing when the Content they are submitting may be deemed sensitive in nature, either on its own or in combination with other information, and taking the necessary security precautions, such as ensuring visibility settings are set to private (which is the default setting for all Content submitted to the Service). Users should not submit any personally identifiable information or personal health information (Please refer to section 3.6 of the Privacy Policy).
• Users are responsible for ensuring any Content submitted does not violate any ethical or contractual requirements pertaining to their research, nor these Terms of Use or any institutional policies to which they are bound.
• Users are responsible for ensuring that administrative and project-specific content submitted is both accurate and easily understood by others with approved access.
• Service Providers retain no ownership of Content.
• After creation of Content using the Service, Users may continue to directly edit, alter, augment, or to potentially remove the Content. Any Content that is removed may still be visible to collaborators that the Content has been shared with, and does not constitute permanent destruction. If there are legal, ethical, or other reasons that any Content needs to be permanently destroyed, Users must contact Service Providers to request permanent destruction.
• The Service Providers reserve the right, without notice, at their discretion and without liability, to alter or delete Content that violates these Terms of Use or applicable laws.
• The User will respect applicable license conditions for Content provided by the service or made Public by other Users. By default, templates and associated guidance provided by the Service are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC 4.0) license. Download and use of Content does not transfer any intellectual property rights in the content to the User.
• The User is exclusively responsible for their use of the Content, and shall hold the Service Providers free and harmless in connection with their download and/or use.

The User hereby represents and warrants that they are lawfully entitled and have full authority to license the Service Providers to use the Content in the ways described in these Terms and Conditions; and are not under any obligation or restriction created by law, contract or otherwise that would prevent them from entering into and fully performing these Terms and Conditions.

3.0 Service Provider Agreement

The Service Providers agree to:

• Undertake development procedures to maintain the integrity and availability of Content submitted to the Service over the long term, contingent upon the availability of funding and support of the Service.
• Make reasonable efforts to transfer Content to another suitable host server location in the event of discontinuation of the Service.
• Make reasonable efforts to ensure that the Service is available, notwithstanding interruptions due to scheduled maintenance, upgrades, and/or repairs of telecommunications links and equipment. The Service Providers will not be liable in the event of any suspension, modification, discontinuance or lack of availability of the Service or the Content.
• Endeavour to honour the restrictions placed on the Content as specified by the User, subject to applicable laws including information and privacy law.
• Make reasonable efforts to support metadata standards in use across a range of academic disciplines and international best practices.
• Where reasonable, in a timely manner advise Users of any privacy breaches or security breaches which may impact them.

System Templates and associated guidance onthe Service (but not the Plans themselves) are under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC 4.0) license. Licenses are not automatically applied to Organizational Templates and their associated Guidance, and may be under their own license terms. Contact individual institutions for more details.

4.0 Requests for Retraction, Removal, or Alteration of Content

Once Content has been submitted to the Service, Users may continue to edit, alter, augment, or remove any Content, with the exception of User accounts and Organization profiles.

Anyone wishing to have Content removed from the Service, either for copyright infringement, or for other legitimate causes, should contact dmp-assistant@tech.alliancecan.ca.

Anyone wishing to have Content containing Personal Information edited, amended, or removed from the Service should contact dmp-assistant@tech.alliancecan.ca.

5.0 Privacy

The Service Providers respect the privacy of Users and Content and will only collect, use, and disclose Personal Information in keeping with information access and privacy law. Further information about privacy protocols may be found in the DMP Assistant Privacy Policy.

5.1 Plan Content

Users are responsible for the Content they submit to the Service. Users should consult the appropriate regulators, support staff, or individuals or departments responsible for policy or legal interpretation or compliance within their institutions to ensure that relevant legal, research ethics, privacy, research contract, intellectual property, or any other relevant considerations or obligations do not conflict with the Users proposed or intended use of the Service.

Content added to the Service is only accessible to the User and those with whom the User chooses to share access. Plans are private by default. Administrators of the Service are only able to view select administrative details of a Plan, including:

• Project Title;
• Template the Plan was based on;
• Organization the Plan is affiliated with;
• Plan Owner name;
• Plan Owner email address;
• Date the Plan was last updated; and
• Visibility setting applied to the Plan

Administrators have no access to any other information in Users' Plans, unless:

• User has chosen to share the Plan directly with the Administrator (by adding them as a collaborator);
• User has requested feedback (where the Organization has feedback enabled); or
• User has selected Public or Organization under Plan's visibility settings.

5.2 User Information

DMP Assistant keeps limited information about Users. In order to help identify and administer accounts, the Service Providers need to store profile information and email address. Personal Information collected by the Service Providers will be stored on secure servers located in Alberta, Canada.

The Service Providers may use email addresses to contact Users to obtain feedback on use of the tool or to inform them of the latest developments or releases. The information may be transferred between the Portage partner institutions but only for legitimate internal purposes. The Service Providers will not sell, rent or trade any Personal Information provided.

For security and version control purposes, DMP Assistant records the User's last login time, as well as information on when responses were saved and by whom. No other session information is stored nor is clickstream data tracked or retained in the DMP Assistant. The web hosting service (provided by University of Alberta) does collect clickstream data, but this information is captured anonymously and cannot be linked to a specific user. See the University of Alberta Privacy Policy.

In the event of a privacy breach, (unauthorized access to or collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Information) authorized persons at Alliance and the University of Alberta will follow a Privacy Breach Protocol to assess and contain the breach about the relevant details and mitigation of the breach.

5.3 Freedom of Information

The Alberta Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (" FOIP") generally applies to any records that are collected, used or disclosed in the course of the operations of the university (subject to some limited exceptions). FOIP imposes obligations on the university to:

1. provide access to records under the custody or control of the university, subject to limited exceptions; and
2. protect the personal information that is under its custody or control by making reasonable security arrangements against risks such as unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure or destruction.

5.4 Passwords

Passwords of registered users are stored in encrypted form and cannot be retrieved. Forgotten passwords must be reset. Passwords are not stored for users registering and logging in using CAF Authentication.

5.5 Google Analytics Opt-Out

This website uses Google Analytics to capture and analyze usage statistics, but it doesn't link to specific users, and information remains anonymous. Users may choose to opt-out of having website activity tracked by Google Analytics. To do so, visit the Google Analytics opt-out page and install the add-on for your browser.

5.6 Third Party APIs and Cookies

The DMP Assistant does not currently use third-party APIs. Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your web browser by a website you visit. They are stored in your web browser and allow the website to improve your user experience. Cookies cannot be used to identify you personally. DMP Assistant uses session cookies to keep the session information so that the User's interaction with the application is persistent on their visit. The cookie will be automatically created when the User starts browsing the site and will be expired when the browsing session ends. DMP Assistant also uses cookies for analytics purposes with Google Analytics. A set of cookies may be used to collect and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors, so we can understand how visitors are engaged with the application.

6.0 General Provisions 6.1 Termination

The Service Providers reserve the right to suspend use by any party (User) if that party engages in, or is suspected of engaging in, activities that violate applicable copyright or privacy laws, or in any other way breaches these Terms of Use.

6.2 Disclaimer

The Content in the Service is made available to Users on an "AS IS" basis. Except as set forth herein, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service Providers make no representations or warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, (i) implied warranties of accuracy, quality, performance, compatibility, merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose, (ii) that any such Content or other material is free from personally identifiable, sensitive, infringing or illegal data or material, and (iii) that any such Content not suffer loss, corruption or destruction. While the Service Providers will try to ensure that the Service, the Site and its software, are safe from bugs, viruses, disruptions and delays, we do not represent or warrant that they will always be so.

6.3 Indemnity

In agreeing to these Terms of Use, you indemnify and hold the Service Providers harmless from and against any and all loss, cost, expense, liability, or damage, including, without limitation, all reasonable attorneys' fees and court costs, arising from the i) use or misuse of the Service; (ii) your access to the Site, use of the Services, violation of the Terms of Use by you; or, (iii) the infringement by you, or any third party using your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. Such losses, costs, expenses, damages, or liabilities shall include, without limitation, all actual, general, special, and consequential damages.

6.4 Dispute Resolution

A printed version of the Terms of Use and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to the Terms of Use to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. You and the Service Providers agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the Service must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the applicable provincial and/or federal laws of Canada. All disputes under these Terms and Conditions will be resolved in the applicable provincial or federal courts of Canada. You consent to the jurisdiction of such courts and waive any jurisdictional or venue defenses otherwise available. Use of the Service is not authorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of the Terms of Use, including without limitation, this section.

6.5 Integration and Severability

The Terms of Use are the entire agreement between you and the Service Providers with respect to the Service and use of this Site, and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals (whether oral, written or electronic) between you and the Service Providers with respect to this Site (but excluding the use of any software which may be subject to a separate end-user license agreement). If any provision of the Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms of Use will otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.

6.6 Changes to Terms of Use

The Service Providers reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to modify or replace any of the Terms of Use at any time.

Any changes to the collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Information, or changes to the Privacy Policy, will be posted on the DMP Assistant website.

It is the User's responsibility to check the Terms of Use periodically for changes. The User's continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the Terms of Use constitutes acceptance of those changes.

6.7 Contacting Us

If you have any questions or comments with respect to the Service, or if you are unsure whether your intended use is in line with these Terms of Use, or if you seek permission for a use that does not fall within these Terms of Use, please contact dmp-assistant@tech.alliancecan.ca.

If you have any questions or concerns about the collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Information as regards DMP Assistant, please view the Privacy Policy or contact us at dmp-assistant@tech.alliancecan.ca.

6.8 Copyright and Trademark Notices

You acknowledge that the copyright in any additional data added by the Service Providers to the user materials, and any search software, user guides, documentation and any other intellectual property that is prepared by the Service Providers to assist Users in using the Service, including the submission of Content, will belong to the Service Providers.

This Terms of Use document is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) License.