Why should I submit my data to a repository?
There are many benefits to submitting data to a repository including long-term preservation of data, an avenue to share null data or other data from a study that did not result in publication, increased visibility of data for reuse, and generation of a DOI for datasets to track usage and citations.
What can I submit?
For example, all the data that you traditionally shared in the supplemental files of a manuscript can be maintained in a repository.
When do I submit?
It depends. Some publishers require submission of data to a repository either before or during the manuscript submission process. Note: to comply with the 2023 Data Management and Sharing Policy data must be made available at the time of publication or at the end of the funding period, whichever comes first.
Where should I submit?
Selecting a repository is a personal decision and no single repository will fit all needs. Luckily, for most publishers and grant submissions, you have the freedom to select a repository that suits your needs.
For a broader list of repositories, check out a repository database such as:
Broadly accept data regardless of data type, format, content of disciplinary focus. A comparison chart can help you determine which generalist repository fits your needs.
Vivli (clinical research data)
| Persistent unique Identifiers |
Assigns datasets to a citable PID to support data discovery and reporting
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| Long-term sustainability |
Long-term plan for managing data; builds on stable technical infrastructure & funding; contingency plans for
unforeseen events
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| Metadata | Ensures datasets are accompanied by sufficient metadata to enable discovery, reuse, and citation |
| Curation & quality assurance | Provides expertise to improve the accuracy and integrity of datasets and metadata |
| Free and easy access | Maximizes timely open access to datasets and their metadata free of charge, consistent with legal and ethical limits, Tribal sovereignty, and protection of other sensitive data |
| Broad and measured reuse | Makes datasets and their metadata available with broadest possible terms of reuse, and provides the ability to measure attribution, citation, and reuse of data |
| Clear use guidance | Provides accompanying documentation describing terms of dataset access and use |
| Secure | Has documented measures in place to prevent unauthorized access to, modification of, or release of data, with levels of security commensurate with the sensitivity of data |
| Confidentiality | Has documented capabilities for ensuring that administrative, technical, and physical safeguards are employed to comply with applicable confidentiality, risk management, and continuous monitoring requirements for sensitive data |
| Common format | Access to data and metadata from the repository is formatted in widely used, non-proprietary formats |
| Provenance | Records the origin, chain of custody, and any modifications to submitted datasets and metadata |
| Retention policy | Provides documentation on policies for data retention within the repository |
The design of this page was partly adapted from Research: By Course, Subject, or Topic, by University of Arizona Libraries, © 2020 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.