 Good morning, welcome to our webinar on Secure Lab, Import Requests. My name is James and I'm joined today by my colleague Melissa, certainly by the end of today's webinar you'll get to know the ins and outs of the Import Requests and sort of understand how it works. So give a bit of background, my name's James and I'm a senior youth support and training officer at the UK data service base at the University of Essex and part of the team that deals with sort of support for Secure Lab, do with any sort of Output Requests, Import Requests and any queries you have with Secure Lab and I'm joined by Melissa today. Yeah, hi, I'm Melissa and I'm also part of the support team and I mostly deal with data queries and import requests. So just to start and to get everyone engaged a little bit we're going to start with Mentimeter, be able to see the first question we have so it's also at the top of the screen here as well so if you have a new window open on your computer or you have a mobile device or a tablet you should be able to just go to mental.com and type in that code and you'll get access to these, you'll be given an opportunity to answer these questions which we should hopefully see on the screen as they appear and just to give people a sense of you know what organization are you affiliated with so that's our first question with the data to get a sense of you know where our audience has come from this morning and please answer that. Right, so we've still got I think that's the London School of Economics and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, I think. Always get confused with ISA that we have here at Essex so just the other way around but yeah it's good to have people from other organizations here, a few more seconds for this one and then get moving on to the next question. We have Oxford Brooks as well that's good and we have the University of Reading as well so it's good to see different organizations from all across the country as well. Today we have Birmingham as well and you can see more people are joining as well now the sessions that's good to see and moving on then to the next question which should hopefully refresh on your device so you should see what is your research topic so since you're a lab obviously we have a range of different data sets ranging from controlled business market data to household panel surveys and things like that so it's good to find out you know what research topic you're doing and be using a mix of the two is it you know just on different topics so it's all interesting to find this out and here we have migration secondary data and research support and yeah that's interesting and more coming up here we have regional develop development software engineering it's interesting productivity I've seen such a range of different topics normally we do these are always sort of very similar to each other but I think this morning we've got sort of a different range of topics which is good to see and yeah moving on to the third question now as you might have to get through these a bit quicker so yeah so now we'd like to know what data sets you're looking to import we usually get a wide range of data sets whenever researchers issue import requests so it would be really interesting to see what you guys would like to bring to our secure lab we're not sure yet I will take you through the importing process and the cost of the presentation will let you know what is required especially when you're filling in the import request form I hope you can all see the new question engaging researchers to check if data exists before collecting new data James should we go to the next question or yeah okay so the next one is you'd like to know what data linkage you'd hope to do so we will show you how to account for data linkages whenever you're importing data sets in our secure lab match with information at ALSUA level um I think I've seen something similar to this before yeah can I linkage between different countries oh that's still fine if you're still exploring the data that's available oh that's still fine if you have any queries you can always reach out to us and we can assist you okay thanks everyone for your responses there I think we should move on to uh going through our slides now yes I hope we can all see my screen yeah so I'll just reiterate some of the yeah so I'll just reiterate some of the guidelines that we had mentioned when you are starting so um under the menu bar you'll be able to see the Q&A options so when you expand it you can type in any questions that you have as you may go along uh you will answer them later and I'd also like to let you know that we've enabled a live transcript of the event and this will automatically generate our captions these captions won't be accurate but it'll help in case you have trouble hearing us and before you leave the webinar please make sure that you have completed the evaluation survey that will help us to plan future events so I will start off by letting you know that it's really important for you to know your project ID number and you can get this by logging into the UK DS account into your UK DS account and when you select the data button on the left hand side of your screen you'll be able to see the project the project button and once you select that button you'll be able to see a list of all your projects with their project titles and once you click on the project titles you'll be able to know to see more about your project and next to the the project title you'll see a six digit number and this is your project number so whenever you're you're feeling the import request form or whenever you want to do an import request you'll have to provide us with this project number yeah so there are two types of import requests we have those that require an import request form and we have those that do not so those that require our data sets of any kind it could be a data set that's an open data set one that you created on your own one that's owned by a researcher or one that has a third party license and those that do not require import request documents, R packages, syntax files, Python packages and stator idio files yeah so as I mentioned before there are those that don't require an import request and so I mentioned documents and syntax files for this type of import request you'll just need to send the file by hours into service and while you're doing this you'll need to provide the six digit project number in your Zen 2 submission and without this without this number we won't be able to complete your import request and it'll cause a lot of delays in processing your import request so whenever you're doing an import request that involves syntax it's important for you to ensure that there are no results figures statistics and data in that in that file so dynamic scripting is accepted just ensure that you've not put exact values when you're filling the in your syntax files and it's also important to make sure that there are no files that are associated with the secure lab server in in your syntax or document yes James you'll take us through the next few slides yeah so the next few slides we're going to talk about software packages and how you use them in secure lab and import any new ones into secure lab so within secure lab there's this area called references drive and in this you'll have sort of shared resources maybe geography shape files or postcode lookups you'll also see folders for different software packages for example there's one for R packages so there's a folder called R packages in the references drive that just has loads of different R packages in there so there's two two sort of methods that you can install and use R packages within secure lab this first one here you might be familiar with is you can manually install packages using that R packages folder there's a guide on how to do that found within the user guides folder in the references drive the second way sort of a newly developed way is called this sort of UK DA CRAN which is sort of a local R repository and it sort of aims to mirror how CRAN is online so CRAN is just the sort of online R repository for for R packages so if you're a user of R you're probably familiar with that it just has loads of different packages available on the website so this is a newly developed way there is a guide and some codes that let you sort of use this method that's also in the user guides folder on the references drive so if there's a an R package that's not one either of these two methods that's not available but you want to be added so you can use it within secure lab and then you can submit an import request and let us know there are some things we have to consider so if the package is available on CRAN we can sort of say that CRAN is considered a sort of safe source so usually there's not too much issue with installing packages from CRAN and if your package comes from outside of CRAN or if it's available on Github or a third-party site it's a lot harder to import as there's more checks we need to do we need to check snow hidden data any malicious code and things like that and it's really helpful that if you are submitting that sort of request that you do provide information as to why you need that package and why a package that is on CRAN already why that package isn't sufficient for your research so that's all helpful so generally with our packages you'll find the guides within the references library on secure lab on how to use them and generally we like to see imports that are from CRAN but you can import packages outside of CRAN but just get in touch and let us know so moving on to Python packages we are assigned to see some more users in secure lab using Python so similar to our you'll see a folder within the references drive called R packages and you can use the commands pip install or condor install to sort of add them in user and secure lab so unlike CRAN the online repositories for Python like PyPI condo and condor forge aren't considered as safe so generally we have to have follow this this sort of system where we any imports for new packages we have to ensure that there's no malware anything malicious in the package there's no data hidden in the package at all and it generally doesn't pose any threat to secure lab so but that's when you want to add a new package into that references drive folder but there's guides on how to how to use Python how to use Python packages in in secure lab user guide folder and again if there's anything that's not available just get in touch and we can assist you with that moving on to the Stata ADO files so if you're familiar with Stata ADO just sort of the package and format for that again we also have a folder and within the references drive just for Stata ADO files at alphabeticalized so you can have all your packages there within the secure lab user guide there is a piece of code that basically tells you how to call the packages from that folder and use them within your version of Stata in secure lab so please do take a look at that and that's also available in the reference drive folder as well so of course if there's a if there's packaging this folder that is not there and you want it to be added and you can just submit an import request or email us at support at ukdataservice.ac.uk and we would check the folder reference drive and if the package isn't there then we'll go and install it. The main important thing with Stata ADO files is that we can only install new packages that are available on the official repository so that is the Boston College Department of Economics statistical software components website so just that link there if the package isn't available on the website then unfortunately we can't we can't install it for you but if you do have something that is really really important for your research and you feel like you do require that package in order to carry out your research in secure lab then do get in touch and we can certainly take a look at that for you there. Okay moving on then next we're going to sort of look at parts where an import request form is required so as Melissa said earlier that's generally all data sets all data and so to do that you need to find the import request form on the website so I'm just going to show you in a second this is how you do it so basically on the the import request website home page you'll see a contact under the login button at the top right and if you click on contact scroll down to get in touch you'll see a hyperlink there which takes you to the secure lab data import data request page and so you can select the link for the data import request there and so I'm just going to put that link in the chat because I think you might find it helpful to have a copy of the form as we go through the next slides because we will be going through the sections on the form as we go through so it might be helpful to have a copy of the form open as we go through there and talk through them so so just that link there and it's I've put it in the chat as well so you may find that helpful just to just to sort of go go on that link and so if you can it might be helpful to have a copy of the form open so I think we're going to move on now to going through the different sections of the form which might be a bit different if you've seen the form in the past before so it's really important thank you James so I'll take you through the first few sections of the import request form so the first section is the secure lab user details so in this section you need to provide us with your institution or organization your institutional email address and the full project title and and your project number so it's very important for you to ensure that this information matches what you had put in the original research application form and I had I explained to you how you can find your project number so it's important for you to ensure that the project number that you've put that you've put on your filling the form is the correct one yeah so the second section is on the information about the data set that you wish to import so you in in this section you'll give us our your data set data set title and it's also important for you to make sure that the data set title that you've given us is the same as the one that has been given by the owner or producer of the data set in this section you you should also provide us with a brief description of the data set that you would like to import and also in this section you will need to give us the variable list so you can give us the variable list in the you can fill it in the import request form or you can provide it separately in our Word document or an Excel file so our variable list is a detailed description of the variables that are in the data set that you wish to import so both of this file the import request form and the variable list need to be submitted via our Zen2 service and if you've listed the variables in the form please make sure that you've you've told us in the Zen2 notes section while you are filling the while you're sending the import request over to us yes so the second section involves open data so open data is a data set that is freely available in the internet so when you're when you're requesting to import a data set that's of this type it's important for you to provide the URL for more from other data is obtained so please make sure that the URL is complete and it's and it's working while you're doing this and you should also give us a brief summary of the licensing conditions and also a link to terms and conditions of use so under section three we need to know the use of the imported data set so you'll just give us brief information of how the data set is within the aims of the project as you had outlined in the original research application and you should also tell us how you will use this data set within SecureLab so while we were on running the Mentimeter questions we had a question on linkages so if you're if you're doing any link if you are if you want to link any data within with our with the data that we have within the SecureLab you need to you need to show us you need to give us a brief description of the disaster sources that you need to be linked and you'll need to give us a brief summary or a brief summary and the linking methodology and the justification for the linkage that you would wish to do and in this section if you also need to do the following three linking services whether it's you wish to do the UK you wish to you wish to you wish the UKDS to match IDBR numbers onto business data or the UKDS to generate pseudonymized IDs for business data or the NS to or NS to link IDBR numbers onto business data it's important for you to specify that in this section Yes and also use of important the next still under section three we have the use of imported imported data set in DEAR projects so we should only complete this section if you have a DEA accredited project and you should also indicate whether the use of this data set was specified on your approved research project application application if not you need to provide information as to why you need access to this additional data and you need to also give us information as to why this request is being done retrospectively rather than at the time of the project approval Yes so we're done with section three James will take us through the next two sections of the input request form. Great thank you so from section four we asked you to sort of outline the copyright and licensing information for the data set you wish to import so basically it engages with the application to use that data set within secure land we find that in the past this is the section of the form that we have you know spend the most time on going back to researchers to make amendments to and it has the most feedback on so it does cause a some delay to your input request if this information isn't provided correctly or insufficient detail at the start the main things we see is no section is not filled in properly or there's no you know evidence of permission provided so we'll just mention what those things are in the next few slides so yeah it's really important that you provide as much detail as you can not just for this section though but for the whole of the form because anytime you have to go back and ask for more information obviously that will cause delay for your input request which we don't want so moving on then to what this section does so at the start of this section you'll see sort of three tick boxes and basically they have three different types classes your data into three types based on how the copyright ownership is based so you're either the sole owner of the copyright so an example of this being if this is a data set you've created entirely yourself you've not used any other data sources you've not had any help from other researchers this is a data set that you've generated yourself and you're the sole owner of the copyright the second box here is where you are the joint owner of the copyright of the data set so an example being this is a data set you've worked collaboratively with other researchers on to create you've taken might be an open data source or another data source and you've sort of taken it and derived some variables made some changes to it and done some extra work on it and in that case it's not a you've certainly jointly owned the copyright because it's not a completely open data set because you've added to it it's partly yours so that's a joint owner copyright data set now the third part is where you aren't the copyright holder so this is essentially someone else's data that they're given you permission to use so this could either be a completely open part open data source that you've just taken and haven't changed it at all and you want to import that straight in that's not your data that's an open data source but you have permission to use it because it's open data another example might be if it's a sort of a third party maybe another research team maybe at a different organization or a company have given you permission to use their data and import it into secure lab that's another example as you can imagine for this third one where you're not the joint owner of the copyright we wouldn't need to see that permission from the data owner that you can use the data within secure lab so to continue on from this I believe it's still under section four so section 4.1 if you do have another copyright holder that isn't you so if you have a jointly owned copyright data set um or the data set is from somebody else somebody else holds the copyright or owns the data set you do need to provide information on who that person is obviously as this first bullet point points out if you're the sole copyright holder of the data set you also don't need to provide any further permission or evidence because you're given permission by submitting the request because it's your data but if it's come from other sources you'd also need to provide the details of the data owner we need to see the name of the data owner their position if they're sort of a researcher another organization the institutional organization and the email contact as well so that information needs needs to be provided if you if the copyright is from from somebody else who isn't yourself and then for if you have an open data set or a derived open data set where you've taken an open data set from a website and you've added to it you've derived some variables and you'll jointly the copyright holder of that data set we just need to see and make sure that data set is an open licensed source so I think as Melissa mentioned earlier under section two we're submitting an open data set we need to see the URL copy of the licensing terms and conditions make sure that all that information is completed and once we have that information under section two we can sufficiently say well yeah that that data is is open source therefore it's an open license then you are licensed and have permission to use that data set within secure lab and the the part that you've added to it is obviously your copyright so obviously you're given your permission to use that so that's if you've derived open data moving on then to if there are any other data types so this is mainly for those of the way you don't own the data set at all you don't have any ownership on the copyright so if someone else's data set we normally call them third party data sets and we need to see that evidence that you've been given permission to use that data set within secure lab if it's maybe if it's from another researcher's another researcher team another university what we normally tend to see is just an email saying I grant this individual and all other members on the project um listed by name that they have permission to use their data in secure lab um so it can be something as simple as that um if you're taking the data from um maybe an organization um or a business uh we do tend to see more contract type uh permission so it might be a contract that you've had to sign in the whole secure lab project team have had to sign uh we do see those as well it's important then uh to note that if you are submitting these types of request um we call third party license data requests that the um it is a responsibility of the project lead to sue um provide the evidence for this so if the project leave responsibility to make sure the contract is provided and sufficient all of that a copy of the email is provided as well um so that's really important for um those types of requests uh so moving on um to the final section of the form uh which is section five uh is basically the signature it's the sign of section so once you're happy that you're fielding the form correctly and double checked all the information all the details are correct uh please can you just sign it and send it to us via our zenti service uh the form can either be signed electronically or if you want you can print it off sign it by hand and scan it back in but we do accept the easier electronic signature method um it's important that uh when you send the form to us please do not send the data set to us because we do need to um carry out checks um in order to make sure that all the permissions um from the external data owner and also all the permissions from the controlled data owners from insecure lab as well you have permission to bring that data in so there's some so certain checks we need to do uh which can take some some time depending on how many data owners are involved um but we will let you know and give you any updates we'll let you know when you can send the data set to us um yeah so please don't send the data set at the same time you're sending the form to us we will let you know when you can do that that brings us to the end of of the form um and Amnesty's going to take you through some of the help and FAQ guidance we have available yes um so i'll take you through um where you can find some answers to the queries or help whenever you're you're stuck um so i'll just take you to this page that we have linked here just switch my screen so that you can see how it looks so this is where you find the import request form i'll just switch tabs to the next to where you can find the help starveys yeah so um when you're on the landing page of our website at the top right corner there's a help button so when you click on it you'll be able to see various queries various um answers to queries that that um that users of the uk ds service might might need help with and um here under the secure lab section we have a general secure lab if it is uh section where most of the queries most of the the queries that the most common queries that users have are here so um before you reach out to us it would be helpful if you'd looked at this page because there's a there's a huge chance that our query that you have has already been answered here yeah so um in case in case you in case you still have you still need further help or feel free to reach out to us via our email that uh yeah so i'll give you the link of the faqs the chat so that you can look at it so just added this slide here um on a secure lab drop-in session so this is a new uh sort of system that we've done as a secure lab team so we have one session every month um so it's for one hour and then you can book a 15 minute slot so there's four slots per session um so there's two left for this year so that's the 7th of November and the 12th of December you can it doesn't have to be about import requests so anything to do with secure lab if you or you want to know how um submit an output request or you want more specific guidance or um yeah for example that data query you had about linking sources you can come to one of our secure lab sessions and we can talk to you face to face about it so they're just sort of zoom sessions like this and then two members of staff would be there and you can come in and join ask us anything and we'll be there to assist you um sort of in a face to face way um so the links are there so they're hyperlinked there i'll also share the links in the chat um they'll take to an event bright page and all you need to do is type in the password secure lab and it will allow you to go on there and book a ticket for a certain slot if the slot you want's taken or full slots are taken up um email asset support at UKJ's service and it will create more time slots for you um so i'm just going to share the sort of the event bright links um if if those were of interest to you um you can go ahead and book a session yeah i think that pretty much covers our webinar so thank you for your time um um i put our email address in the chat so feel free to email us with any query that you may have and yeah yeah thank you everyone for coming and sticking through i hope you've gained some just helped you a bit and understanding how the important quest process works of course if there's anything further you need assistance with um or is on hand so just get in touch via the help via the help form or email us at that email address there so yeah thank you very much and have a good day