How are my data and supporting documentation checked?

  1. How to deposit data with the EIDC
  2. How are my data and supporting documentation checked?

When you upload your data and supporting documentation to the EIDC, a member of the team will review your deposit to ensure it meets our standard for publication and that it matches the details in your Service Agreement (SA).

If you have prepared your data and supporting documentation in line with our guidance, these resource acceptance checks can be completed rapidly and your data will be assigned a DOI and published within a short space of time.

If we detect issues with the data and/or supporting documentation, we will contact you to rectify the problems.  We may ask you to upload amended files which will then need to be re-checked. This can hold up the deposit process.

It is a good idea to check your files are as described in your SA and you have reviewed our guidance prior to uploading them.

Below is a list of the checks we complete for each deposit before the data can be published.

For all data deposits:

  • Are all files the correct size, as detailed in the SA?
  • Have the correct number of files been uploaded?
  • Are the files named correctly, as detailed in the SA?
  • Are the files in the correct format, as detailed in the SA?
  • Do the files open correctly?
  • Do the files contain appropriate content?
  • Do the files contain information which may contravene UK Data Protection laws (e.g. names, email addresses or images of individuals)?

For tabular data (e.g. csv):

  • Is there only one table in each data file?
  • Are tables organised appropriately? For example, variables in columns and observations in rows, variable names in the first row only, no spaces in variable names, etc.
  • Are tables concise - no superfluous text, no empty columns, no columns of data that are not important for re-using the data?

For spatial data (e.g. geoTiff):

  • Is the projection information provided (either within files themselves OR in supporting documentation)?
  • For raster formats, does the grid/spatial resolution of the file match that provided in the supporting documentation?
  • For raster formats, if more than one band or layer is present, are they all defined in the supporting documentation?
  • For raster formats, are there bands or layers defined in the supporting documentation that do not appear in the data files?
  • For vector formats, are there no spaces in names of attribute tables and are all attributes defined in the supporting documentation?
  • When the data are plotted, do they appear in the correct position against a reference base map?

For netCDF:

  • Do all the variables defined in the supporting documentation correspond with those in the files?
  • Do all the variables have names and units defined within the file?
  • Do all the dimensions have names and units defined within the file?
  • If time is included as a dimension, do the values correspond with the time interval described in the supporting documentation?
  • Global attributes do not contain the DOI for the dataset or information that contradicts that in the catalogue record (e.g., publisher)?
  • When an example spatial data frame is plotted, do the data appear in the correct position against a reference base map?

For supporting documentation:

  • Is the supporting documentation sufficient to allow re-use of the data? For example, are files, methods, column names, codes, units, etc. all described?
  • Does the supporting documentation pass basic spelling and grammar checks?
  • If the supporting documentation contains references in the text, is an appropriate reference list included?
  • Does the supporting documentation describe the actual data files deposited?
  • Do hyperlinks contained within the supporting documentation resolve correctly?
  • Does the supporting documentation refer to data/spreadsheets/database tables, etc., that are not part of the ingestion?