Who Gets to See What?

About This Lesson

Access control is a foundational part of responsible research data management. Not every dataset should be visible to everyone — ethical review boards, institutional policies, and intellectual property considerations all place constraints on who can access research data and when.

This lesson introduces how Libre Biotech implements group-based access control. Every user belongs to one or more groups, and every investigation, study, and process is owned by a group. When you create data, it is visible to members of your group. When a new team member joins your group, they immediately have access to the group's work — no manual sharing required.

What You'll Learn

• Why access control matters in research (ethics, IP, data sensitivity)
• How groups and roles (Leader, Manager, Member) work on the platform
• How investigations, studies, and processes inherit group ownership
• The dual-group access pattern: when a core facility runs samples for a research group, both groups get access
• The difference between public and private investigations
• How admin users differ from regular users in what they can see and do

Key Concepts

• Group: A team of researchers who share access to a body of work. Every user gets a personal group on signup.
• Role: Your permission level within a group — Leader (full control), Manager (can add members), or Member (read/write).
• Visibility: Investigations can be set to public (anyone can view) or private (group members only).
• Dual-group access: When two groups collaborate, both groups' members can see the shared data through UNION queries — no duplication needed.