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ZivaHub Data Sharing and Publishing: Publishing Videos

This guide details all the information needed when using UCT's Institutional Repository ZivaHub

Publishing Videos

Video Depositing on ZivaHub | Open Data UCT

ZivaHub: Open Data UCT is powered by Figshare for Institutions, an online repository platform for discovering, citing and sharing research data. The purpose of this guide is to assist first-time depositors of research data held in video formats. It will help you consider some ethical, legal and technological aspects of openly publishing your videos on ZivaHub.

Key questions to consider before publishing your videos:

  1. Are the participants of the video aware that it will be published online (release forms)?

  2. If you had a third party create the videos, do you have ownership of the videos (SLA)?

  3. Are you satisfied with the implications of the default ZivaHub license, CC BY 4.0: ‘This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.’ 

  4. Be aware that once the video is published: 

    1. a permanent link is created which should not be broken.

    2. viewers will be able to download the video as well as view it.

    3. The video may be embedded within websites.

  5. NB: Clicking the ‘publish’ button sends your publication request to the DLS data curator’s queue. The final publication happens once the data curator approves your publication.

Size - How large should you make your video? 

The largest single file that ZivaHub can host is 5GB. In the majority of cases, this means that the SOURCE video footage must be compressed. We generally aim to make the files .mp4 with 1080p HD resolution (with a bitrate of 5 Mbps for videos over 2 hrs). This is more than suitable for viewing on mobile devices, PC screens and even classroom projectors. While compressed videos are technically less suitable for re-editing, the loss of raw data is not really noticeable to the human eye.

Metadata - How best can you describe your video?

One of ZivaHub’s main objectives is to make data findable. For this reason, you need to create an ‘item record’ to describe the data. It captures such information as the author, title, keywords etc. A generic template is provided for you, and any further assistance can be sought from our Data Curation Officers; e.g. prior to publishing, they review your metadata to ensure that it is appropriate.

Sharing vs publishing - Who needs to have access?

While ZivaHub’s overall objective is to make data freely available, it is also possible for researchers and collaborators to save and share their data privately before they are published, by creating private links. It is also possible to create projects for a group of collaborators to view each other’s videos before publishing them. ZivaHub can also publish items as confidential, meaning that users will be aware of a video existing, but will only be able to view it on request.

 

Additional Resources