All requests to contribute data — or to get support as a data contributor — start at the AD + EL Service Desk.
This is a shared help desk used across the AD Knowledge Portal, ELITE Portal, ALS Knowledge Portal, and CLASSIC Portal + OpenDRaWeR Metadata Catalog, so you'll select your specific portal and program as part of your request.
We recommend submitting a Service Desk request as early as possible — even as soon as you generate your data. Opening a request early helps us understand your intent to contribute and opens a direct line of communication between you and our data coordination team.
👉 Go to the AD + EL Service Desk
Which type of request should I submit?
When you open the Service Desk, you'll be asked what you'd like help with.
Requests are organized into two groups:
Data Sharing Support
Use one of these request types to share a resource through the ADKP, or to request our assistance in citing ADKP resources for publication.
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Request type |
Use this when... |
|---|---|
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Community Data Contribution Program (CDCP) |
You'd like to participate in our fee-for-service Community Data Contribution Program (CDCP). This is the appropriate selection if the AD Knowledge Portal Data Coordination Center (DCC) was not already funded to support data sharing for your grant, and/or if the data was not generated by an ADKP-supported consortium. |
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Add Data to a New Study |
Data coordination for your grant is supported by the ADKP, and you're ready to upload data that will be organized under a brand new study. |
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Add Data to an Existing Study |
You're ready to contribute additional data to a study that's already been established in the Portal. |
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Add Analytical Outputs |
You want to contribute derived data from the AD Knowledge Portal. These files include analysis or results-level data only, not newly-generated omics. This may apply either when sharing analytical outputs to an existing AD Knowledge Portal study, or for the purposes of creating a publication dataset which points to your analytical results in association with a manuscript. |
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Request a DOI for Publication |
You want to cite multiple resources available through the Portal in a publication. Our team can assist you by providing a Synapse Dataset which points to multiple Portal resources as well as your own analytical results from a single DOI. |
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Request Data Indexing Support |
Your data is already publicly and permanently hosted elsewhere, and you'd like the portal to point to it rather than make an additional copy available through the AD Knowledge Portal. |
General Support
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Request type |
Use this when... |
|---|---|
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Ask a question |
You have a general question that doesn't fit elsewhere. |
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Report a bug |
You've encountered unexpected behavior on the portal. |
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Suggest an improvement |
You have an idea for a new feature or improvement. |
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ADEL Curator Bug Support |
You’ve been using the newly developed Curator tool for metadata submission and have encountered an error to report to our technical support staff.\ |
Each request type opens a short, guided form. Required fields are marked with an asterisk. If you're ever unsure which request type applies to your situation, choose "Ask a question" and our team will help route you.
Contributor Checklist: What to Have Ready Before You Start
The Service Desk forms ask for a fair amount of detail up front. To avoid getting partway through and getting stuck, we recommend gathering the following information before you open a form. Not every item applies to every request type, but having these on hand will cover the majority of what's asked.
We'll walk you through anything you're missing — this checklist is meant to save you time, not to gate your submission.
Be prepared to answer questions about the following:
About your program and project
- Program name (find yours in the Explore > Programs list)
- Project or study name (and, if adding to an existing study, its exact name as it appears on the portal)
- Grant number
- Originating funding source
About your team
- Grant PI name and institution
- Data liaison name and email (your team's main point of contact with us)
- Data uploader name, email, and Synapse username (this person should be comfortable with R, Python, or the command line)
About your data
- Institution(s) where the data was generated
- Institution(s) where biospecimens were collected (if applicable)
- Whether your data includes human subjects data, and whether individuals' data appears in any other repository
- Data type(s), and an estimate of file count, file size(s), processing level(s), and total volume estimates
About your sharing plans
- Whether your data will be uploaded directly to Synapse, or indexed from an existing, stable, public location (if indexed, have the URL ready)
- A draft study description and methods description (see How to Assemble Metadata for guidance on what these should include)
- A draft acknowledgment statement
- Whether and when you plan to publish