1. Check if the researcher who requested the collection is 'eligible manager' in your Organisational Unit (OU). If not, decide if they are allowed to get these rights and possibly grant them.
2. Click on the tab 'Create collection'.
3. A new screen will appear where you can fill out metadata of the new collection (obligatory fields are indicated with an asterisk):
   1. Title*: This is usually provided by the researcher that requested the collection. Please make sure that a title properly describes the subject of the collection (for example, “Didi's Thesis Collection” is not descriptive, but “Genetic and epigenetic networks in Intellectual Disabilities” is). Can be changed by research administrators and manager(s) after creation, but before archivation/publication of the collection.
   2. Project identifier*: This forms the last part of the collection identifier: a unique code describing a collection. In the WebDAV client, collections appear only with their collection identifier (the title will not be visible). Project identifiers can be any combination of numbers, signs, and letters and the research institute can decide how to implement a project identifier (see the section “Developing a user policy for the RDR” in the research administrators protocol). Cannot be changed after collection creation.
   3. Organisational Unit*: If you are research administrator of just one OU, that OU will automatically be selected for you. Otherwise, select the OU in which the collection needs to be made. Cannot be changed after collection creation.
   4. Managers*: assign one or more managers to the collection. Click the button “Add manager” and find the user in the search bar. Only users who are 'eligible manager' in the OU (see step 1) can be selected from this menu. Press “select user”. Can be changed by research administrators and manager(s) after creation and even after publication or archiving of the collection.
   5. Collection type*: a Data Acquisition Collection (DAC) or Research Documentation Collection (RDC) for internal archiving and/or sharing, or a Data Sharing Collection (DSC) for external public sharing. Usually, the researcher specifies which type the new collection should be; a research administrator or data steward can provide help on this decision based on the research institute’s policy. Information about the collection types for researchers is provided in the helppages. Cannot be changed after creation.
   6. Audience: you may fill out one or more target audiences of the collection. You may also leave this field empty and let the collection manager choose one or more target audiences after collection creation. Can be changed by research administrators and manager(s) after creation and even after publication or archiving of the collection.
   7. Collection quota*: The size (in GB) that is reserved as the maximal size for the collection. Note that this has no direct consequences for costs: costs in the RDR are based on actual used storage space, not reserved storage space. Research administrators can always increase the collection quota later if the researcher has started working on the collection and needs more space. Your research institute may choose to fill out a standard collection quota for each collection -and increase it later if the researcher needs more space- or to let the researcher request a specific amount when they requests the collection. Either way, it is important for the research administrator to keep track of extremely large collections, and encourage researchers that request such large collections to consider cost as well as research integrity and scientific value of the data when choosing to preserve substantial amounts of data for the long-term. Can be changed only by research administrators after creation, but before archivation/publication of the collection.
   8. Preservation time*: How long (in years) the collection should be kept as a minimum. Note that RU’s Research Data Management (RDM) policy dictates that research data underlying a publication must be stored for at least 10 years for research integrity purposes. Therefore, do not reduce the preservation time below 10 years unless there is a valid reason to do so. The RDR will never remove a collection’s metadata even after the retention period, but the data may be removed. The data will never be removed without notifying the collection manager. The collection manager can therefore always request that the research administrator extends the preservation period, should they find this desirable. Your research institute may choose to set a standard preservation time or allow the researcher to choose a preservation time when they requests the collection. Can be changed only by research administrators after creation, but before archivation/publication of the collection.
   9. Embargo until: only visible for Data Sharing Collections (DSCs). The date after which a published collection becomes accessible under the chosen access level and Data Use Agreement. To clarify, the embargo date only has effect on collections in the 'published' state; an embargo date will not trigger publication when the collection is in a state other than 'published' (i.e. editable, internal review, FAIR review, or external review). Placing an embargo on a collection requires careful consideration. Therefore, only a research administrator can place an embargo on a collection. During the embargo period, the embargo date can be changed (removed, shortened or lengthened) by the research administrator. It is not possible to add an embargo to an already published collection.
   10. Make metadata public: always selected for Data Sharing Collections (DSCs). If you select this option, the metadata of the collection (those that are visible in the “metadata” tab of the collection) will be made publicly available and registered in RIS as soon as the collection is archived or published. Note that for DSCs, this is always the case, and you cannot unselect this option. It is up to your institute to decide if it is desirable that researchers register all their output, and therefore also the metadata of DACs and RDCs, need to appear in RIS. Can be changed only by research administrators after creation, but before archivation/publication of the collection.
   11. Demo collection: To demonstrate the RDR to researchers and/or students of your institute or to external parties, it could be useful to create a collection for demonstration purposes only. Demo collections never show up as a “featured” collection on the RDR’s home page, can be deleted at all times, are not findable via Google Dataset Search, and their metadata are never registered in RIS. Otherwise, demo collections have the exact same functionality as “real” RDR collections.
4. Click “Next”.
5. Check the metadata fields you have just filled in.
6. Optionally: Select 'And create another collection' if you want to create a collection with similar metadata. This will copy-past (most) of the entered fields to the creation screen of step 3 for another collection. This can be useful if a researcher has requested for example a DAC, RDC and DSC for the same project.
7. Click 'Create'. The collection has been created and depending on the previous step, you either start creating a new collection with similar metadata or are finished. The collection manager(s) will be notified by email about the collection creation (with a link to the newly created collection).

1. If not already provided, ask the collection manager for the reason why they need a new version and decide if this is a good enough reason for a new version.
2. If so, log in to the RDR and go to the collection's landing page.
3. Click the button 'Create new version'.
4. Inform the collection manager that they need to update the metadata field 'description' and their documentation of the new version to include the differences between the new version and the previous version to increase Reusability.

How to remove an unpublished/unarchived collection:

1. Prior to removing a collection, make sure that there is a valid reason to do so and that scientific integrity is not compromised. For more information see the research administrator protocol.
2. Make sure that the collection manager(s) do the following:
   1. Optionally: change the status back to 'editable'. You can check the status of the collection on the collection's landing page under the tab 'Metadata' > 'Administrative' > 'State'.
   2. Unflag all documentation files that they have flagged. Note that the documentation files ABOUT.txt, LICENSE.txt, and MANIFEST.txt are automatically generated by the system and do not need to be unflagged.
   3. Delete all files except ABOUT.txt, LICENSE.txt, and MANIFEST.txt (if present). If any files cannot be deleted, they are probably flagged as documentation (see step 2b).
3. Navigate to the landing page of the collection in question. On the top of that page, click the “Delete collection” button. If this button is disabled, double-check if step 2 has been completed properly by the manager(s).