Policy guide: data sharing for reproducibility and publication
FAQ for URL Shares researchers
Disclaimer The access to and use of data made available to researchers by these data sharing guidelines are subject to the Research Data Agreement (RDA). These guidelines are provided for information purposes only and may be subject to change. If you have any questions about these guidelines, please send email to openresearch@meta.com.
Last updated: 10.5.22
Downloading data
In the public environment: Researchers are permitted to download raw data and the notebook that contains their code and analyses when necessary for their research project.
Important Researchers must keep data they download secure from unauthorized use and disclosure, and are not allowed to publicly share raw data from the public environment.
In the private environment: Researchers are not permitted to download or publicly share raw data.
Research outputs are derivatives of the raw data and can consist of code, figures, tables, graphs and statistics that are aggregated and de-identified. Researchers are permitted to export “research outputs” that do not contain any personal data or Meta confidential information.
These research outputs can only be shared publicly under the terms of the RDA and may not be shared until they have been reviewed by Meta during the pre-publication review process.
Researchers may not take screenshots of their Researcher Platform environments for the purposes of publication. Now that Meta offers copy and paste as a method of exporting, capturing and publishing screenshots is no longer permitted.
Copy and paste process
- Highlight the research analysis:
- Right-click on the highlighted analysis and select “Copy Output to Clipboard”:
- Paste the image of the analysis into your text editor:
Pre-publication review
The RDA states that “Facebook will have the opportunity to review drafts of any publications pertaining to or containing the results and findings of the Research Projects, and any supporting information that Institution or Principal Investigator proposes to make available to any third party, sufficiently ahead of the planned publication or disclosure date (in any event at least thirty (30) days ahead of such date) solely to identify any Confidential Information or any Personal Data that may be included or revealed in those materials and which need to be removed prior to publication or disclosure. At the end of the review period, Institution and/or Principal Investigator will have the right to publish the materials that have been reviewed by Facebook. For the avoidance of doubt, once a work has been reviewed, the content may be further disclosed in substantially the same form on multiple occasions without additional review by Facebook.”
The pre-publication review is required for any researcher who accesses Meta datasets governed by the RDA and who is interested in sharing any of their work publicly. Meta will review drafts of these materials and any supporting information the researcher proposes to make available to any third party. During this review, Meta will determine whether there is any confidential information or any personal data as defined in the RDA in the proposed draft and supporting materials. If either confidential information or personal data are discovered, Meta will mark the areas for removal. The RDA does not give Meta the right to pre-approve publications.
Researchers are required to submit drafts and any other supporting materials for review at least 30 days before their planned submission to a journal or any other third party that has not signed the RDA under their university signatory. If, after Meta’s initial pre-publication review, there have been material changes to the draft or other supporting materials, researchers should plan to submit the most final version for another review by Meta. Please submit drafts and any other supporting materials to this email: research-publications@meta.com.
Any written drafts and all other supporting materials (including code and other non-written files) the researcher plans to make available to any other third party that has not signed the RDA under their university signatory, such as a journal or conference.
Write your FAQ answer content here.The pre-publication process may take up to 30 days (which is also why we request a draft for review at least 30 days before planned submission to a journal or other third party).
Data sharing for reproducibility and replicability purposes
Researchers should not share URL Shares raw data or research outputs with anyone who has not signed the RDA with their university signatory and who is not a collaborator of their particular research project. Researchers may share the specific URL IDs (url_rid) that they studied from the public environment so that others can recreate the dataset used after they have applied and become an approved research partner with access to the URL Shares raw data on the Researcher Platform.
The URL IDs the researcher would like to publicly share should be submitted as supporting materials for pre-publication review.
Researchers may inform journals and other third parties with the following information about Meta data and materials availability.
Facebook data in this study were obtained from Meta, as part of an initiative to facilitate the study of social media’s impact on society. Researchers seeking permission to use the Researcher Platform must 1) apply to become an approved partner and 2) sign the Research Data Agreement (RDA), a publicly available legal agreement.
The RDA prohibits sharing Facebook data with any third-party. Researchers may request access to Facebook data at Social Science One. If a journal requires data to verify findings, the journal must also request access at the same website.