Create Guestbook

A Dataverse Guestbook is a record of users who download files and serves as a digital logbook for BSC Dataverse datasets. This way, we can recollect information of users (e.g. Name email, affiliation, purpose to use the data…). This matters because guestbooks deliver a sense of who is using BSC work, or how they plan to use it. We will be better able to assess the impact of BSC Dataverse datasets, foster openness in BSC research processes, and ultimately build stronger relationships within the academic community by tracking data use and understanding user intent.

All BSC users can connect their datasets to the "BSC Guestbook," it is a simple formulary designed to gather essential information about dataset usage.

The “BSC Guestbook” collects the following details:

• Account information:
  • Name (Required)
  • Email (Required)
  • Institution (Required)
  • Position (Optional)
• Custom Questions
  • What do you want to use this data for (Required)

Dataverse provides standard guestbook functionality, but Stewards also have the option to create their own custom guestbooks for collecting more specific information about how their department’s data is being used. To do so, follow these steps:

1) Log in to the BSC Dataverse and navigate to your department’s Dataverse collection.

Figure 1: Department Collection

2) Select the Dataverse collection “Dataset Guestbooks” to proceed with adding a guestbook.

Figure 2: Department's collection menu: Dataset Guestbook

3) Select “Create Dataset Guestbook”.

Figure 3: Create Dataset Guestbook button

4) Add a name to your new guestbook, and select which data is going to be collected, as well as write any custom question. Click “Create Dataset Guestbook” to confirm.

Figure 4: Form to create a new guestbook

Guestbook stats

Thanks to the guestbook you can check who is downloading the data in your Department’s collection. To do that, please follow these steps:

1) Log in to the BSC Dataverse and navigate to your department’s Dataverse collection (Figure 1).

2) Select the Dataverse collection “Dataset Guestbooks” to proceed with adding a guestbook (Figure 2).

3) Click on the View Responses.

Figure 5: Dataset Guestbook > View Responses button.

4) You can see all the information on this page. Moreover, you can download the table in a csv format.

Figure 6: Table with all responses for a collection's dataset guestbook

⚠️ You can only check guestbook usage for datasets within a specific collection. If your collection contains sub-collections, you must navigate to each sub-collection and select the guestbook to view its stats. Thus, if your department's collection includes sub-collections, you cannot view guestbook stats for the entire department at once.