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The following products are supported and licensed by UC San Diego for use by faculty, staff, and students

Google Drive (a G Suite for Education application)

For individuals who are unfamiliar, or not yet using Google Drive, more information and how to get started can be found here.

In My Drive, the Principal Investigator (PI),or data owner, can create a hierarchical structure of folders for lab members’ data. Under the UC San Diego licensing agreement with Google, users have unlimited storage space.

We recommend: 

  • The folder at the highest level not be shared. 
  • Applying the Principle of Least Privilege, where users are given access only as necessary. This can minimize problematic data management help to maximize data security, including fewer opportunities for accidental data overwrites or deletions.
    • Assignmenting lab members as a 'contributor', allows for files or folders to be created and shared, but may not be deleted. 
    • Assignmenting lab members as with 'content manager' access allows for deleting of files or folders at the folder level which where access has been granted.
  • Creating nested folders within the parent folder:
    • For each lab member 
    • For subset(s) of members who share data
  • Using a consistent naming convention (E.g., Project_LabMemberName).
  • Sharing only necessary folders with individual lab member-user.
  • As appropriate, group leaders create student folders under their own folder and share individually.
    • Note: The Drive owner will have to approve share requests made by group leaders or other delegates working under the PI's permissions.
  • Limiting the number of users who can access a particular folder in order to minimize the potential for accidental data overwrite or deletion. 
  • Developing lab procedures that reflect effective practices for data safeguards, oversight, and retention. We do not recommend that students save a separate copy because of potential data synching issues. However, certainly, these recommendations do not prohibit anyone from saving a separate copy of their data locally or in their personal Google Drives.


Example of recommended file structure

For more information about G-Suite for Education at UC San Diego, visit this Blink page

Health Sciences personnel should consult this Pulse page

OneDrive for Business

As an alternative to Google Drive, UC San Diego's licensing agreement with Microsoft provides for allocations of 5TB in OneDrive, available to all UC San Diego students, faculty, and staff. A similar folder and permissions structure as outlined above can also be achieved created in OneDrive.

Points of Note:

  • When granting access, there is only an 'allow edit' option that must be checked for members to make changes within the shared folder which includes add and delete permissions.
  • Members with edit privileges may share folder with others without requiring the owner's permission.

For more information about OneDrive at UC San Diego, visit this Blink page

Quick access to OneDrive via web browser.

Health Sciences personnel should consult this Pulse page


Need help establishing a data management best practice workflow for your research group or lab? Please contact research-it@ucsd.edu 

Last updated: 9/21/20







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