Data Policy

• Embargo: A period in which data is not publicly available in JGI systems or outside repositories. Full access is granted to proposal PIs, Co-PIs, and collaborators of any given proposal. Third parties (often referred to as “data users”) cannot see this data.
• Use-Restriction: A period in which data is publicly visible and available in JGI systems. Users not involved with the proposal under which the data were generated (e.g. not PIs or co-PIs) who wish to include use-restricted data in publications, or who wish to redistribute data in any way are required to contact the proposal PI and receive permission for their planned work.  

For sequencing or metabolomics projects: data are subject to a one-year embargo. 

• For each data or analysis product (raw or processed), the embargo starts at completion of standard deliverables as described in the product offerings. 

• At the end of the embargo period data will be made publicly available on relevant JGI portals (i.e. JGI Genome/Data Portal, MycoCosm, PhycoCosom, Phytozome, or IMG) and outside repositories (e.g. NCBI SRA or GenBank; GNPS2) as described in the product offerings and are unrestricted for use.

For DNA synthesis projects: data are subject to a two-year embargo starting at construct or strain delivery. 

• Detailed sequence information for constructs are made publicly available through outside repositories (e.g. the Inventory of Composable Elements (ICE) repository and/or DNASU Plasmid Repository) at the end of the embargo period.

During the embargo, proposal PIs, Co-PIs, and collaborators of any given proposal have full access to their data and may request full release to the public, ending the embargo at any point after data generation. The data will not be publicly available in JGI portals or outside repositories until the earliest of three points: 

1. (1) publication of the data (including, but not limited to, publication or citation of accession numbers in a peer-reviewed journal, or any public deposition of the data at outside repositories), 

2. (2) PI request to list data publicly,

3. (3) at the end of the embargo period. If data or analyses of the data are made publicly available in any format by the PI or collaborator during the embargo period, JGI will consider the embargo nullified. After the embargo period, JGI places no further restrictions on data availability or utilization except as outlined in the Publication Policy.

Legacy JGI Data Release & Utilization Policies may be read in full here. 

The following is a summary and explanation of policies in place during the transition to the above JGI Data Policy.

Pre-FY22 proposals: Proposals accepted before FY22 are transitioning away from producing use-restricted data. JGI proposals typically include multiple projects of different types which can span several years. Projects are defined at proposal acceptance and may also be added during the proposal lifecycle based on scientific need. Proposals are considered complete when all agreed-upon projects are complete. This policy is applied at the project level to expedite the change in data policy. Data from projects for which JGI has not yet received samples as of Sep 30, 2021 are subject to a 2-year embargo to maintain the timeline for unrestricted data availability agreed to at proposal initiation. Data from projects that received samples before Sep 30, 2021 and are ongoing are subject to the 2-year use-restriction policy as described here. No single project has data under both use-restriction and embargo policies.

Use-restricted data: In past data policies, data were publicly visible in JGI systems only but use-restricted until publication by PIs or at a set time (most recently, two years after release to JGI portals). JGI will no longer produce use-restricted data except in already active projects as described above, but JGI portals will still host use-restricted data until the period of use-restriction expires. All use-restricted data have an associated date of use-restriction expiration. Use-restrictions are also lifted at publication of the data. In short, those users not involved with the proposal under which the data were generated who wish to include use-restricted data in publications, or who wish to redistribute data in any way are required to contact the proposal PI and receive permission for their planned work. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure they have taken all appropriate steps before publishing or otherwise making publicly available use-restricted data.