1

Topic: Tracking access requests

Caveat! I'm posting as a Gateway user not LRC data provider.

I recently made a large number of data requests for access to Collembola and Acari records for VC59 and permission to use data for mapping national distributions.

As well as the direct use of those data in comparison to my study sites i am also looking to comment on data availability (i.e. permissions to access and use information).

I've just logged on to my account and notice that it doesn't appear to be showing requests that have been declined. I know via my notifications that a number of providers have declined my requests but i was hoping to collate these via my account. There also appear to be quite a few requests still marked as pending which i though had been responded to.

I know there have been database problems recently.

Is the 'My Accounts > Access Request' (https://data.nbn.org.uk/AccessRequest) section working as expected?
Would it be possible to add a function to download the access requests?

Kind regards,
Ben Deed

Natural History & Biodiversity Data Enthusiast

2

Re: Tracking access requests

I believe there may be a difference in the way the system deals with Close and Refuse responses to requests and this could perhaps be part of the answer to your query. If I remember correctly I Closed rather than Refused a request from yourself and then, when looking for your email address, could not find a record of your request on the NBN system, but other requests, Granted and Refused, were present. (I don't know if this was a symptom of the issues you mention or is a permanent feature of the system.) Hope this is of some help.

Kind regards

Bryan

3

Re: Tracking access requests

Yes, as far as I know 'close' is silent - for everyone. The 'requestee' doesn't know it's been closed and it disappears from the data suppliers dashboard.

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

4

Re: Tracking access requests

Yes the close option is silent, it was built that way to deal as part of dealing with sensitive access requests, so that users would never know that records existed in a given dataset (if the user requests hidden datasets they never know about the request until its accepted or rejected, if its closed they never know about it at all)

Matt Debont
Application Developer
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Monkstone House, City Road, Peterborough PE1 1JY, UK

5

Re: Tracking access requests

I understand the silent close. It was the missing 'open' declines i was hoping to be able to keep a track of.

Natural History & Biodiversity Data Enthusiast