Grant Data Preservation Options (for use associated with NSF Data Management Plans and Other Sponsored Research)
To address improvements to preservation/archiving storage solutions for research, the University of San Diego Information Technology Services unit suggests that Principal Investigators (PI’s) consider the following options for data archiving/preservation associated with research:
Dropbox Storage:
Dropbox is a service and application that is commonly used to share documents. At the University of San Diego, Information Technology Services obtained a limited number of Dropbox licenses for sharing of documents, storage, and for preservation of data. Our Dropbox agreement is an annual subscription model and offered services are dependent on the contract terms of Dropbox’s annual renewal contract. A fee of $200 per year is required to acquire a Dropbox Business Plan license and provides up to 5TB of cloud storage.
To request a Business Dropbox Account for your externally funded project *, you can access and submit the Software Request Form. Note that the listed Software Name is Dropbox Enterprise.
*Dropbox accounts are only available to those with active externally funded projects or with special projects approved by ITS.
Should the sponsor-approved grant budget permit, or with permission from your respective budget administrator, please provide your GRT/budget Worktag to create the Dropbox account. The CSS Software Team will work with OSP and Grants Accounting to confirm any external funding information. Upon approval, the CSS Software Team will create a Dropbox account, and you will receive an automated invite from Business Dropbox.
Note that DropBox differs from other data preservation methods in that it is a file synchronization and sharing service rather than a file storage service. While Dropbox provides a 5TB storage maximum, you must also retain a copy of your files on your local computer and must have sufficient storage to hold all of your files. Note that the amount of actual storage available in your Dropbox is limited by the storage available on your computer.
Please be aware that there is no additional support from the University of San Diego ITS for this service. For support, users may contact Dropbox support directly via https://help.dropbox.com/.
Some of the Dropbox Features:
- Data Retention
- External sharing with non-USD individuals
- Live Document Editing
- Administration and Account Management by an ITS Administrator
- Cost: $200 for 5 TB of storage
- For additional information please visit https://www.dropbox.com/
1. Requesting faculty must complete the Software Request Form and select the Dropbox Enterprise option from the Software Name dropdown menu.
Note: This software is available only for faculty requesting NSF Grant Business Dropbox access with active externally funded projects or with special projects approved by ITS.
2. Should the sponsor-approved grant budget permit, or with permission from the respective budget officer/administrator, the requesting faculty provides the required GRT/budget Worktag to the CSS Software team. The CSS Software Team will then work with OSP and Grants Accounting to confirm any external funding information before proceeding.
Note: OSP will request the number of years required to keep the account; 3 years, 5 years, or 7 years are the grant limits.
3. After OSP and Grants Accounting approve access, the designated CSS Dropbox Admin will create the account.
4. CSS will then send an email informing the requester of the Dropbox account creation.
5. CSS will keep track of the account termination and/or payment charging annually to the GRT/budget Worktag provided for the duration of the grant.
6. Beyond the expiration of the grant term, it will need to be determined who is responsible for funding the account annually beyond the grants terms. E.g It will be decided whether the faculty member or their department will continue to cover the cost.
7. Otherwise, the business Dropbox account will be suspended/moved/deleted
8. For support, beyond account request, creation, and termination timeline, users may contact Dropbox support directly via https://help.dropbox.com/ (There is no additional support from USD-ITS for this service.)
Before you begin your transfer, please consider:
File size and storage Space: Ensure you have enough storage space to accommodate the files you are transferring.
Note: If you have a large number of files, it may take some time to transfer them, so please consider transferring your files in smaller batches.
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Download Files from Dropbox
Open Dropbox: Go to the Dropbox website (www.dropbox.com) and log in with your USD authentication.
Select Files: Navigate to the files/folders you want to transfer and select them.
Download: Click the "Download" button to download the selected files or folders as a zip file to your computer.
Step 2: Unzip the Downloaded File
Locate the Zip File: Find the downloaded zip file on your computer (usually in the "Downloads" folder).
Unzip: Extract by right-clicking the zip file and selecting "Extract All" (Windows) or by double-clicking the zip file (Mac).
Step 3: Open & Prep Google Drive
Google Drive: Navigate to drive.google.com.
Locate your MyDrive folder: Create a folder where you want to upload your files and navigate into it.
Step 4: Upload Files to Google Drive
Upload: On the upper left corner, click the "New" button in Google Drive, then select "File upload" or "Folder upload."
Select: Locate the extracted Dropbox files on your computer and click Upload.
Step 5: Verify the Upload
Check Progress: Monitor the upload progress in Google Drive.
Verify: Ensure all files have been uploaded by checking the destination folder in Google Drive.
Only the Dropbox Teams Administrator can perform this action. Please contact the ITS Help Desk ( help@sandiego.edu) by email to begin account migration.
Note: We won’t remove shared team data until your account migration request is ready to be completed.
Conversion Information:
When converting from a USD Business Dropbox to a personal Dropbox account, you will lose access to all team files and folders you created along with team content shared with you. However, all private files and folders you own remain in your account. Once converted, the team admin can no longer manage your files.
The converted account becomes a free Dropbox Basic account with a limited storage space of 2 GB. If required, you can subscribe to a paid plan if you need more space or features here.
If your personal storage is over the 2GB Free Account quota after the conversion:
File syncing will stop and you will not be able to add or edit files until you are under the quota. Your data won’t be deleted though you will need to upgrade to a paid plan to edit your files. You can also delete/download files from your Dropbox to free up space to get below the 2GB quota.