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B2SHARE Community Agreement

Introduction

This document outlines the community management of B2SHARE user and customer communities, defining the responsibilities of communities and the service providers.

Requesting a community

When requesting a community for the B2SHARE service through the EUDAT helpdesk at https://eudat.eu/contact-support-request or through the Premium customer's contact person, at least the following information should be provided:

  • Community administrator name and contact information
    • Please note that the administrator must already have an existing user account in B2SHARE (they must have logged in to the service at least once)
  • Alternative administrator names and contact information
  • Community name
  • Community visibility
    • Public (the community is publicly accessible and shows up in search results)
    • Restricted (the community is restricted to users with access)

After the community has been created, the community administrator can add the following information:

  • Description and logo
  • Community manager names and contact information

Community roles and permissions

B2SHARE community users can be assigned to one of four different roles, described below. Each role inherits all the permissions of the previous role. For example, a Manager has all the rights of a Curator and a Member.

  • A Member has permission to
    • View public community pages.
    • View restricted records.
    • Submit records to communities.
  • In review-based communities, a Curator has permission to
    • Preview submitted records.
    • Communicate with submitters.
    • Edit and refine metadata.
    • Accept or decline submissions.
  • A Manager has permission to
    • Invite new users and handle invitations.
    • Assign and manage the following roles: Manager, Curator, and Member.
  • A community administrator (Admin) has permission to
    • Edit the community's name, description, and logo.
    • Configure publication policies (e.g., review-based or direct publication).
    • Manage permissions and assign roles for Admin, Manager, Curator, and Member.
    • Update visibility settings (public or restricted).

Community responsibilities 

  • Community administrator responsibilities
    • A community must always have a named community administrator. A community can also have a backup contact person or a mailing list/service contact in case the community administrator is absent. The community administrator is responsible for keeping community contact information up-to-date and informing the service provider about any changes. 
    • The community administrator is the primary point of contact for EUDAT service providers for any issues related to the community and their use of the service.
    • The community administrator is responsible for handling any contractual or funding issues related to their community towards EUDAT service providers.
  • Access management
    • Community administrators are responsible for ensuring that the access rights are correct in access-managed communities. EUDAT service providers are responsible for ensuring the technical functionality of the access management features.
    • Communities can operate in either review-based or direct-publication mode. In review-based communities, submissions must be reviewed by community curators, managers or administrators before being published. In direct-publication communities, eligible users can publish directly without moderation.
  • Terms of use
    • Community administrators are responsible for ensuring that their end users understand the terms of use of the service, and if necessary, provide support for EUDAT services in cases of service abuse by their members. EUDAT service providers are responsible for ensuring the terms of use are documented and available.
    • Community administrators are responsible for ensuring that licensing or other legal issues of records in B2SHARE are addressed by researchers publishing individual records.
    • The record owners are responsible for ensuring that ownership-related issues are properly addressed. Every record must have a valid owner at all times. Ownership may need to be transferred in situations such as when the original owner moves to a new organization or wishes to relinquish ownership of the record.
      • If the record owner is unable to ensure the continuity of valid ownership, community managers are responsible for resolving the issue.
    • If record ownership issues cannot be resolved, or if the service terms of use are violated, the record may be removed from the service at the discretion of the service provider.
    • Community lifespan
      • A community is responsible for planning its lifespan, similarly to a research project's data management plan, which is required by research funders.
      • The community should have an exit plan in case the service is terminated, or a public community becomes inactive, runs out of project funding or otherwise cannot maintain its responsibilities.

User support

  • Community administrators are responsible for providing user support within their own community, including help with day-to-day questions and other minor issues, to ensure that the community’s data management plans and principles are followed.
  • Community administrators are responsible for ensuring the community's Data Management Plan and guidelines are up-to-date.
  • Communities may also provide additional guidance/documentation and more specific terms of use to their community, particularly in relation to other services used in their research processes and workflows.
  • EUDAT service providers are responsible for providing technical support through https://eudat.eu/contact-support-request for any technical problems or issues with the service.
    • For Premium services, more extensive support can be provided through dedicated support channels, if so agreed in customer contracts.
  • EUDAT service providers are responsible for providing general end-user documentation through https://eudat.eu and https://docs.eudat.eu/.
    • For Premium services, additional documentation can be provided if so agreed in customer contracts.

 

This document was last modified on: 28.10.2025
This document was last reviewed on: 28.10.2025