The University of Iowa

Requesting Data

Need some data but not sure where to get it? Perhaps you just need to be granted access to the data. Have a question about interpreting what the data is telling you? Submit a Data Request within Campus Data and it will get routed to the correct data team and you can track the progress of your request.

Key Takeaways

Click on the Request link in the navigation sidebar, you will be taken to your Request List page if you have previously submitted a Request or you will be taken directly to the New Request page if this is your first Data Request.
Provide a topic, team, and detailed description when submitting your request. If you don’t know which team should handle your request, you can select the "I’m not sure..." option and we will route your request to the appropriate team.
The Request List page will show you a summary of all of your open requests. You can click on the request summary to view or update the request. Toggle the view pull-down list to view prior requests which have been closed.
Update a request by posting a comment and optionally closing or deleting the request. Comments are listed in chronological order and are presented with a summary of status changes that occurred along with the comment (e.g. status changes, team reassignments, edits).
If a team requires additional information from you, they will change the request status to “Need Feedback”. You will get an email notification and Campus Data will show a small circle on the Request link in the navigation bar to indicate that you have a request that needs your attention.
Email notifications are sent to either the initiator of a request or the team responsible for the request whenever a request is submitted or updated.

Making a New Request

To create a Data Request, click the Request link in the navigation sidebar.

If you have never created a Data Request, you will be taken directly to the New Request page. If you have previously created a Data Request within Campus data, the Request navigation link will take you to your Request List page showing you all of your currently open requests. From the Request List page, you can click the New Request button to open the New Request page.

Image of the new request panel

All fields are required when creating your Data Request.

Select a topic from the pull-down list to let the data team know the general category of your request.
Select the team that you believe is appropriate to answer your request. You can choose either a public team, or a private team that you are a member of. If you are not sure of the appropriate team, you can select the "I’m not sure..." option. This will route the request to the Campus Data team and we will make sure it gets re-routed to the most appropriate team.
Provide a description of your request in the text field. Please be as specific as possible. You can use simple markdown formatting in your description if you want to style your message. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry about it. There is currently a limit of 4000 characters for your description, we will remove this limitation in a future version.

Once you submit your request, an email notification will be sent to the administrators and data publishers of the team your request is assigned to. You will be sent to the Request List page where you should see a brief summary of your request along with any other open requests you have.

Managing Your Requests

Once you have submitted a request, clicking on the Request link in the navbar will show you a list of your requests that are currently open.

Image of the request list interface

The table will show you a brief summary of your requests sorted with the most recently updated requests at the top. The brief table of requests includes:

a message summary, showing the first sentence or two of the request
the current status of the request
a brief description of the request topic
the data team the request is currently assigned to
the time the request was last updated

You can click on the message summary to view or update the request.

By default, the display will only show you requests that are still open, but you can adjust the pull-down button to view past requests which have been closed as well.

Updating a Request

The request page provides you with the details of the request, the history of comments and actions that have been taken on the request, and the ability to take actions on the request.

When a team is viewing a request, they will see a slightly different interface that provides them the information they need and allows them to take slightly different actions than the initiator can (such as reassigning teams).

Image of the request details page

Request Summary - shows the topic of the request, the name of the person who submitted it, a request key referenced in emails, and the current status of the request.
Request description - a panel showing the request description along with the initiator and the date the request was made.
Team information - details about the data team that the request is currently assigned to, shows a description of the team along with contact information and possibly a link to the team's website if they have one.
Comments - a chronological list of comments along with any status changes that might have been made; each comment indicates the person or team making the comment along with the date the comment was made; any status changes are noted below the comment text.
Action Panel - provide a comment and optionally close or delete your request, you should only delete your request if it was created accidently, otherwise just close it so that you can keep a record of the request.

As the initiator of a request, you can click the icon in the upper right of the description to edit the description. If you update the description a brief comment

Likewise, if you are the author of a comment, you can click the icon in the upper right of a comment panel to edit that comment. If you update a comment, a small message appears at the bottom of the comment letting others know it has been updated.

You should only update descriptions and comments to fix small typos and address other small issues as your edits can get overlooked by someone who had previously read your description or comment. To make a signficiant edit or addition, you should update the request by posting a new comment.

Information provided by the initiator are highlighted in blue panels, while information provided by the data teams are provided in grey panels.

Notifications

Email notifications are sent by Campus Data in the following situations.

Image of an example email notification

When a new request is submitted, an email is sent to all administrators and data publishers on the team the request is assigned to.
When a request is updated by the team it is assigned to, and email will be sent back to the initiator with the comments made by the team along with a summary of any actions taken.
If the request is updated by the initiator, an email will be sent to all administrators and publishers on the team it is assigned to with the comments and summary of actions made by the initiator.
If a team reassigns the request to another team, an email will be sent to the new team administrators and publishers and also to the initiator letting them know of the reassignment.

If a user makes a change to the description or an existing comment, Campus Data assumes it is a minor edit and doesn’t send out any notification of the change. Campus Data does show that the change was made on the Request page.

Emails will come from Campus Data campus-data@uiowa.edu and have a consistent format similar to the example shown. The body of the email will contain either the description of the request, or the most recent comment made on the request. Below the body of the email, there will always be a link that will take you directly to the request in Campus Data.