Dataverse 4.5 is here!

The four main features of this release are Harvesting, Metadata Export, Private URL, and Federated Login Mode.

  • Harvesting allows the dataset metadata from another site to be imported so that these files appear to be local, though data files remain on the remote site. This allows Dataverse installations and other repositories to share metadata with each other to create a data sharing community and to provide more access to the datasets stored in each repository. Harvesting is implemented using the standard OAI-PMH protocol - any Dataverse installation can be configured as an OAI client and server.

  • Metadata Export makes it easier to share and discover from Dataverse. Another key function of the export is to store the metadata in the file system in a format for preservation. In this release, the metadata is exported in Dublin Core, Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and native JSON. Metadata export will support additional standards in the future.

  • Private URL provides a simple way to generate and send a special URL to an unpublished dataset for a group of anonymous peer reviewers to review the data.

  • Federated Login Mode allows users from 200+ different organizations to sign in using his or her organizational credentials.

Big thanks to all the community members who participated in usability testing, provided feedback in Github issues, and worked with us in other ways to make sure that this release was successful.

For the complete list of issues, see the 4.5 milestone in Github.

For help with upgrading, installing, or general questions please email support@dataverse.org.