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Privacy Statement

What is this privacy statement for?

This privacy statement applies to the online Research Software Directory (the "RSD"). The RSD is an online service hosted and maintained by Stichting Netherlands eScience Center ("eScience Center", or also "us", "we" and the like) in the Netherlands.

The eScience Center is the national centre for innovative software solutions in academic research in the Netherlands, with the mission to bridge the gap in knowledge and expertise between digital technologies and academic inquiry.

The RSD is an online content management system for research software ("Research Software"), through which organizations ("Organizations") and individual users ("Users") can present their Research Software in its academic context. This improves the findability of this Research Software to visitors of the RSD ("Visitors") by linking the software to research projects (Projects), research outcomes (Mentions) and research teams (Contributors).

Organizations and individual Users can get access to the RSD by registering an account (an "Account") on the RSD’s website. Organizations and Users must agree to the Terms of Service, in which they agree to only use the personal data for the same purposes as those set out in this privacy statement, or purposes that are compatible with those purposes.

Whose personal data are included in the RSD?

The RSD contains personal data of:

  • persons who have contributed to the development of the Research Software as project team members or as software contributors (developers) (each a Contributor);
  • persons who have published about the Research Software itself or about results produced using the Research Software, e.g. in papers, books, journals, blogs, video’s etc. (each also a Contributor);
  • Users of the RSD, including users who are appointed as maintainers of an Organization’s account ("Maintainers").

Visitors of the RSD can view the personal data of Contributors that is shared as part of the academic context of Research Software and projects. Visitors and Users cannot view the personal data of other Users, unless this personal data has intentionally been published to indicate this User is also a Contributor.

What purposes are the personal data in the RSD used for?

The personal data of Contributors are used in the RSD to:

  • Show Visitors which Contributors contributed to the relevant Research Software and Projects;
  • Show Visitors relevant publications about the Research Software and to show the Contributor’s of such publications;
  • Direct Visitors to more information about a Contributor, i.e., through an ORCID-ID;
  • Allow Users to add Contributors to the relevant Research Software and/or Project entry;

Please find more information about which personal data are shown in the RSD, below in the description of the data sources from which we obtain your personal data (‘From which sources do we obtain your personal data?’).

We process these personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, and that of our Users, to be able to provide meaningful information about the Research Software as well as that of the Contributors themselves, to allow them to be named as contributors.

The personal data of Users are used by us to:

  • Allow Users to create, use and manage their Account;
  • Verify their authorization to create and use an Account;
  • Verify their access to the Account and, where required, to take appropriate actions, e.g. block the Account in case of unauthorized access;
  • Allow us to create and manage Accounts of Organization Maintainers;
  • Keep an administration with respect to the Users;
  • Enforce the Terms of Service;

We process these personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, and that of our Users and the Organizations, to allow the Users to access the RSD, as well as our legitimate interest to secure, manage and administrate the RSD including the Accounts. We also process the personal data to be able to perform the agreement with the relevant User.

How do we use personal data of visitors of the RSD’s website?

We use the Matomo web analysis tool to anonymously record page visits. Matomo is an open-source and self-hosted web analytics platform that allows us to collect information about visits to our web site. The collected data is only accessible to us and not shared with any commercial organization. We use this data to track which pages are the most popular and see how visitors move around the site. This allows us to estimate the impact of the research software listed on our site, as well as helping us improve the overall website performance.

We ask Visitors and Users for their consent to being tracked when they first visit. If they decline, no information will be recorded.

From which sources do we obtain your personal data?

Contributors’ personal data

We obtain Contributors’ personal data from the following sources:

  • ORCID is a non-profit organization that seeks to support open access to information for the research community. If you have created an ORCID account and if you are a Contributor with respect to specific Research Software included in the RSD, we import personal data from your ORCID profile (name, ORDIC ID, organization you work for) which you have qualified in ORCID as public data. Users can add that data to the Research Software’s entry in the RSD to list someone as a Contributor. Your ORCID ID is included in the RSD so that Visitors can easily find your ORCID profile. Please find ORCID’s privacy policy here.

  • Crossref is a not-for-profit membership organization that exists to make scholarly communications better and makes research objects easy to find, cite, link, assess, and reuse. Crossref members can add metadata with respect to their publications to the Crossref database. To add Mentions to Research Software and Projects, Users can import metadata from Crossref, specifically the publication title, date, venue, and the names and affiliations of Contributors. Please find Crossref’s privacy policy here.

  • DataCite is a global non-profit organization that provides persistent digital object identifiers (DOIs) for research data and other research outputs. DataCite members can add DOIs and metadata with respect to their publications to the DataCite database. The database is made publicly available. To add Mentions to Research Software and Projects, Users can import metadata from Datacite, specifically the publication title, date, venue, and the names and affiliations of Contributors. Please find DataCite’s privacy policy here.

  • Zenodo is a repository that helps researchers receive credit by making the research results citable via a DOI. The Zenodo database is made publicly available. Through OpenAIRE, these results are integrated into existing reporting lines of funding agencies like the European Commission. When adding Research Software, Users may add the DOI of the Software Releases the have archived in Zenodo. Using this DOI, Users can then import metadata about the software from Zenodo, such as the list of Contributors (including their name and, -if available-, ORCID), Software License, and Keywords. In addition, the RSD will automatically create an up-to-date list of software releases, and present those to Visitors, including proper citation information. Please find the Zenodo privacy policy here.

  • Github is an online software development platform which provides version control, continuous integration, issues, etc. When adding Research Software, Users may add the GitHub repository URL to the Research Software Entry. Besides showing this URL to visitors, the RSD will also use it to retrieve public information about the software development from GitHub, including the programming languages used, the licence, and the development activity (such as commits.) Although publicly displayed user names of developers will be imported through this GitHub feed, only aggregated data on development activity will be shown to Visitors. Please find the Github privacy policy here.

  • GitLab in an online software development platform which provides version control, continuous integration, issues, etc. When adding Research Software, Users may add the GitLab repository URL to the Research Software Entry. Besides showing this URL to visitors, the RSD will also use it to retrieve public information about the software development from GitLab, including the programming languages used, the licence, and the development activity (such as commits). Although publicly displayed user names of developers will be imported through this GitLab feed, only aggregated data on development activity will be shown to Visitors. Please find the GitLab privacy policy
    here.

Users personal data

We obtain Users’ personal data from the Users themselves or their Idenity Provider. When a User uses an Identity Provider to log into the RSD, we will receive the necessary data from that service, namely your name, email address, affiliation, and a unique Identity Provider ID.

With whom are your personal data shared?

The Contributors’ personal data are shared with Visitors of the RSD, including other Users and Maintainers of Organizations. We use a hosting service provider located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) that hosts the personal data of Contributors and Users. We may be obliged by law to share certain personal data, e.g. with a government authority or with a third party on the basis of a court order.

Where are your personal data stored?

The personal data in the RSD are stored in the European Economic Area / EEA (Germany). If a User accesses the RSD from outside the EEA, in as far as this is regarded as a transfer of personal data to outside the EER, the User agrees to be bound by the Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to outside the EER.

How long are your personal data stored?

Contributors’ personal data

Contributors’ personal data are stored in the RSD for the duration that the Research Software or project entry exists. This entry is included in the RSD as long as the Research Software is relevant for the RSD, this depends on the Research Software itself and its relevance for the development / research community. If the entry is removed from the RSD, the personal data in the entry is also removed.

Users’ personal data

Users’ personal data are stored for the duration of the Users’ Account and a period of one year after the Account is closed. After a period of two years of inactivity in the Account, we will send the User a notification, asking them whether they wish to keep their Account or to delete it. Personal data that are stored in our financial administration are stored for a period of seven years from the relevant fiscal year.

What rights to do you have with respect to your personal data?

Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • the right to request access to your personal data;
  • the right to receive information about the processing of your personal data;
  • the right to have incorrect personal data rectified;
  • under certain conditions to have your personal data erased;
  • under certain conditions to have the processing of your personal data restricted;
  • under certain conditions to object to the processing of your personal data – however when we use your personal data for direct marketing purposes, you can object to this unconditionally;
  • if you have given consent for the processing of your personal data, to revoke that consent (this applies to future use of your personal data);
  • the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, where it concerns personal data (i) you have submitted to us and (ii) we process based on your consent or required for the performance of our contract with you and (iii) that is processed by automated means; in that case you may also ask us to transfer your personal data to another processor, where technically feasible;
  • the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority.

If you want to exercise your rights, please send a request with respect to your personal data, detailing your request and using the contact details under ‘Contacting Us’ below. We may ask you to provide additional information in order for us to verify that your request relates to your personal data.

Please note that we may be entitled under applicable laws to refuse certain requests.

Contacting Us

If there are any questions regarding this Privacy Statement or about your personal data, you may contact us using the information below.
Stichting Netherlands eScience Center:

Science Park 402 (Matrix III)
1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
rsd@esciencecenter.nl

Can this Privacy Statement be altered?

Yes, we reserve the right to alter this Privacy Statement. You will be notified of material changes, e.g. through a notice on the website.