Account Creation + Management

Account Information

As a registered user, you can:

Create your own Dataverse collection, if permitted, and customize it.
Add datasets to Dataverse collections, if permitted.
Contribute to existing datasets, if permitted.
Request access to restricted files, if permitted.

Account Log In Options

The Dataverse installation has been configured for one or more of the following log in options:

Username/Email and Password
Institutional Log In
ORCID
Microsoft Azure AD
GitHub
Google

Please note that once you create your Dataverse installation account, it will be associated with only one of the log in options above.

The Institutional Log In, ORCID, Microsoft, GitHub, and Google options are described in more detail below under “Remote Authentication.”

To create a Dataverse installation account with the Username/Email log in option, use the “Sign Up” page. Fill out the fields, and then click the ‘Create Account’ button. Please note that the Username field does not support email addresses but will allow the following characters: a-Z, 0-9, _ (underscores), - (hyphens), and . (periods).

To create a Dataverse installation account associated with the log in option for your institution, ORCID, GitHub, or Google, use the “Log In” page and select one of the authentication providers. See the “Remote Authentication” section below for details.

Edit Account

To edit your account after you have logged in, click on your account name in the header on the right hand side and click on Account Information.
On the top right of your account page, click on the “Edit Account” button and from there you can select to edit either your Account Information or your Account Password.
Select “Save Changes” when you are done.

Please note that you cannot edit your account information within the Dataverse installation if you use the Institutional Log In option. Instead, you should contact your institution to change your name, email, etc. Once the change is made by your institution, it will be reflected in the Dataverse installation the next time you log in. Users of the Institutional Log In option are not required to verify their email address because the institution providing the email address is trusted.

Convert Account

If more than one log in option is available, you can convert from one to another and use the new option from now on.

If you are converting from the Email/Username log in option you will need to have your password ready to complete the conversion process. Click Log In, select the new log in option, and go through the log in process. When you return to the Dataverse installation, look for an option allowing you to convert and enter your password to complete the conversion. The section on Remote Authentication below has more specific information on converting to Institutional Log In, ORCID, GitHub, and Google.

If you need to perform any other conversion (i.e. from Google to GitHub), use the Support link at the top of the page for assistance.

Reset Account Password

Only Dataverse installation accounts using the Username/Email log in option have an associated password stored (securely!) in the Dataverse installation. If you cannot remember this password, click on Log In in the top right corner of any page and click the “Forgot Password?” link below where you would enter your username/email and password. Enter your email address and click “Submit Password Request” to receive an email with a link to reset your password.

Please note that if you have forgotten your username, you can use this same process to receive your username in an email.

Remote Authentication

Too many passwords? You can set up your Dataverse installation account to use log in credentials from one of the following remote authentication providers. This way, you can log in using your existing credentials from another service.

Institutional Log In

Institutional log in allows you to use your log in information for your university (e.g. HarvardKey at Harvard) to log in to your Dataverse installation account.

Create a Dataverse installation account using Institutional Log In

Click the “Log In” link in the navbar.
Select the “Your Institution” button under the “Other options” header
Using the dropdown menu, select your institution then click the Continue button to go to your institution’s log in page.
After you put in your institutional credentials successfully, you will be brought back to the Dataverse installation to confirm your account information, and click “Create Account”.
A username has been selected for you. You won’t use this username to log in but it will appear next to your name when other users search for you to assign permissions within the system. To see what you username is, click on your name in the top right corner and click Account Information.

If you can’t find your institution in a long list, you may need to request for it to be added to the “Research & Scholarship” category of an identity federation. See Troubleshooting Federated Institutional Log In.

If your institution is listed but you get login error (“eppn was null” or similar), it may mean your institution has declared itself part of the “Research & Scholarship” category of an identity federation but it is not releasing required attributes (often email) as it should. To resolve this, see Troubleshooting Federated Institutional Log In.

Convert your Dataverse installation account to use your Institutional Log In

If you already have a Dataverse installation account associated with the Username/Email log in option, but you want to convert it to use your institutional log in, you can easily do so as long as your account uses an email address from that institution.

Go to the Account Information page to confirm that your account email address is the same as your institutional email address. If not, you will need to update your Dataverse installation account to make them match.
Log out of the Dataverse installation.
Click the “Log In” link in the navbar.
Select the “Your Institution” button under the “Other options” header.
Using the dropdown menu, select your institution then click the Continue button to go to your institution’s log in page.
After you put in your institutional credentials successfully, you will be brought back to the Dataverse installation to confirm your account information.
Enter your current password for your Dataverse installation account and click “Convert Account”.
Now you have finished converting your Dataverse installation account to use your institutional log in.

Note that you cannot go through this conversion process if your Dataverse installation account associated with the Username/Email log in option has been deactivated.

Convert your Dataverse installation account away from your Institutional Log In

If you are leaving your institution and need to convert your Dataverse installation account to the Dataverse Username/Email log in option, you will need to contact support for the Dataverse installation you are using. On your account page, there is a link that will open a popup form to contact support for assistance.

Troubleshooting Federated Institutional Log In

Dataverse can be configured to allow institutional log in from a worldwide federation (eduGAIN) but for a successful log in, the following Research & Scholarship (R&S) attributes must be released:

Shib-Identity-Provider
eppn
givenName
sn
email

If you have attempted to log in but are seeing an error such as The SAML assertion for "eppn" was null, you will need to contact the people who run the log in system (Identity Provider or IdP) for your organization and explain that the attributes above must be released. You can link them to this document, of course, as well as https://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship and Identity Federation in the Installation Guide.

Note that while Identity Providers (IdPs) who have joined R&S are required to release the attributes above to all Service Providers (SPs) who have joined R&S (Harvard Dataverse or UNC Dataverse, for example), for a successful login to a Dataverse installation, the IdP could decide to release attributes to just that individual installation.

ORCID Log In

You can set up your Dataverse installation account to allow you to log in using your ORCID credentials. ORCID® is an independent non-profit effort to provide an open registry of unique researcher identifiers and open services to link research activities and organizations to these identifiers. Learn more at orcid.org.

Create a Dataverse installation account using ORCID

Click the “Log In” link in the navbar.
Click the “ORCID” button under the “Other options” header.
Click the “Log In with ORCID” button to go to the ORCID website.
If you do not already have an ORCID account, you can create one on this page. If you already have an ORCID account, click on “Sign in” and then enter your login under the “Personal account” tab.
After you put in your ORCID credentials successfully, you will be brought back to Dataverse installation to confirm the creation of your Dataverse installation account. If your ORCID account’s privacy settings permit it, the email address you’ve linked to your ORCID account will be suggested to you as an option. You can use this email if you like, or you can use any other email you might wish. If you have entered employment information within your ORCID account, the name of your employer will be suggested for the “Affiliation” field.

Convert your Dataverse installation account to use ORCID for log in

If you already have a Dataverse installation account associated with the Username/Email log in option, but you want to convert it to use ORCID for log in, follow these steps:

Log out of the Dataverse installation.
Click the “Log In” link in the navbar.
Click the “ORCID” button under the “Other options” header.
Click the “Log In with ORCID” button to go to the ORCID website.
If you do not already have an ORCID account, you can create one on this page. If you already have an ORCID account, click on “Sign in” and then enter your login under the “Personal account” tab.
After you put in your ORCID credentials successfully, you will be brought back to the Dataverse installation. Click the “convert your account” link.
Enter your username and password for your Dataverse installation account and click “Convert Account”.
Now you have finished converting your Dataverse installation account to use ORCID for log in.

Note that you cannot go through this conversion process if your Dataverse installation account associated with the Username/Email log in option has been deactivated.

Convert your Dataverse installation account away from ORCID for log in

If you don’t want to log in to the Dataverse installation using ORCID any more, you will want to convert your Dataverse installation account to the Dataverse installation Username/Email log in option. To do this, you will need to contact support for the Dataverse installation you are using. On your account page, there is a link that will open a popup form to contact support for assistance.

Microsoft Azure AD, GitHub, and Google Log In

You can also convert your Dataverse installation account to use authentication provided by GitHub, Microsoft, or Google. These options may be found in the “Other options” section of the log in page, and function similarly to how ORCID is outlined above. If you would like to convert your account away from using one of these services for log in, then you can follow the same steps as listed above for converting away from the ORCID log in.

My Data

The My Data section of your account page displays a listing of all the Dataverse collections, datasets, and files you have either created, uploaded or that you have a role assigned on. You are able to filter through all the Dataverse collections, datasets, and files listed on your My Data page using the filter box. You may also use the facets on the left side to only view a specific Publication Status or Role.

Note

If you see unexpected Dataverse collections or datasets in your My Data page, it might be because someone has assigned your account a role on those Dataverse collections or datasets. For example, some institutions automatically assign the “File Downloader” role on their datasets to all accounts using their institutional login.

You can use the Add Data button to create a new Dataverse collection or dataset. By default, the new Dataverse collection or dataset will be created in the root Dataverse collection, but from the create form you can use the Host Dataverse collection dropdown menu to choose a different Dataverse collection, for which you have the proper access privileges. However, you will not be able to change this selection after you create your Dataverse collection or dataset.

Notifications

Notifications appear in the notifications tab on your account page and are also displayed as a number next to your account name. You also receive notifications via email.

If your admin has enabled the option to change the notification settings, you will find an overview of the notification and email settings in the notifications tab. There, you can select which notifications and/or emails you wish to receive. If certain notification or email options are greyed out, you can’t change the setting for this notification because the admin has set these as never to be muted by the user. You control the in-app and the email notifications separately in the two lists.

You will typically receive a notification or email when:

You’ve created your account.
You’ve created a Dataverse collection or added a dataset.
Another Dataverse installation user has requested access to restricted files in a dataset that you published. (If you submitted your dataset for review, and it was published by a curator, the curators of the Dataverse collection that contains your dataset will get a notification about requests to access your restricted files.)
A file in one of your datasets has finished the ingest process.

There are other notification types that you can receive, e.g., notification on granted roles, API key generation, etc. These types of notifications are less common and are not described here. Some other notifications are limited to specific roles. For example, if the installation has a curation workflow, reviewers get notified when a new dataset is submitted for review.

Notifications will only be emailed once, even if you haven’t read the in-app notification.

It’s possible to manage notifications via API. See Notifications in the API Guide.

API Token

What APIs Are and Why They Are Useful

API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and the Dataverse Software APIs allow you to take advantage of integrations with other software that may have been set up by admins of your Dataverse installation. See the External Tools and Integrations sections of the Admin Guide for examples of software that is commonly integrated with a Dataverse installation.

Additionally, if you are willing to write a little code (or find someone to write it for you), APIs provide a way to automate parts of your workflow. See the Getting Started with APIs section of the API Guide for details.

How Your API Token Is Like a Password

In many cases, such as when depositing data, an API Token is required to interact with Dataverse Software APIs. The word “token” indicates a series of letters and numbers such as c6527048-5bdc-48b0-a1d5-ed1b62c8113b. Anyone who has your API Token can add and delete data as you so you should treat it with the same care as a password.