What is a data repository?
A data repository provides long-term storage for data supporting scholarly publications, ensuring research data is accessible beyond the life of a grant, research project, or individual careers. OU researchers and authors are encouraged to share their research data and supplemental outputs in an open access discipline-specific data repository to facilitate the transparency and reproducibility of research.
Selecting a data repository
Reputation
Is the repository reputable? Check to see if it is endorsed by a funding agency, scholarly journal, professional society, library, or if it is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories.
Sustainability
Confirm the repository has the support of an institution, community, or funder, and that it will provide access to your data for well over 5 years. Look for repositories that have preservation and/or contingency plans, should funding cease, and ask about preservation/contingency plans if no information is provided.
Visibility
Ensure the data repository offers a DOI (digital object identifier), handle, or another unique identifier. Unique identifiers increase the visibility of your data and facilitate citation.
Usability
Usable data repositories allow users to easily upload, download, and cite data sets. Look for repositories with with clear, intuitive user interfaces.
Features
Compare and contrast the features offered by the repository, such as:
- Integrations with services such as Open Science Framework or GitHub may help you share data
- Author dashboards may provide download statistics or licensing options you can employ
- Note if there are upload and storage limits
Formats
Review repository documentation to ensure it can store the data you’ve generated. In addition, see if the repository can generate previews or provide other user interactions with your data. These features, if available, help users understand and access your data.
Rights
Read the terms of use to understand what permissions you’re giving the data repository. It’s best practice for a data repository to clearly state the terms of use and to have a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section to help users understand the service being provided. If you’re unsure about your rights as a user, contact the repository to learn more.
Data repository resources
OU Libraries hosts SHAREOK, the joint institutional repository for the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Central Oklahoma, which serves as the home for digital theses and dissertations, faculty publications, exemplary student work, open educational resources, and much more. While it is not a data repository, publication records can be linked to datasets hosted elsewhere.
To help researchers locate an appropriate resource for sharing their data, as well as to promote awareness of resources where datasets can be located for reuse, below are several lists of data sharing resources:
- NIH-supported data sharing resources includes Open, domain-specific repositories and open, generalist repositories. The list is maintained by BMIC (Trans-NIH Biomedical Informatics Coordinating Committee).
- Open Access Directory’s list of Data Repositories, hosted by Simmons College, includes repositories ranging from archaeology to physics.
- Re3data (Registry of Research Data Repositories) is a global registry of research data repositories that covers research data repositories from different academic disciplines. It includes repositories that enable permanent storage of and access to data sets to researchers, funding bodies, publishers, and scholarly institutions.
- CoreTrustSeal is an international, community based, non-governmental, and non-profit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthy data infrastructures. The site maintains a list of CoreTrustSeal certified repositories.
- Dryad is a community-governed data repository that accepts data from any field, in any format and assists with data curation when depositing data with Dryad.
- Zenodo - developed by CERN to enable Open Science and Open Data, Zenodo provides tools for Big Data management, sharing, curation, and publication of data and software.