Data Repositories

What to Consider in a Repository

What is the best fit for my research?

As is noted above, not all repositories offer the same services, storage space, diversity of supported file types, or opportunities for discovery. The size and type of materials that you will be depositing, your goals in sharing your work via a repository, and any requirements from institutional partners or funding organizations are all important considerations that are specific not only to you as a researcher but to the demands of each project. It is also important to bear in mind that there may be costs involved in utilizing some repositories, such as fees for storage space or curatorial services.  

Repository Quality

Always take the time to research and think critically about any digital platform onto which you might publish your work or other intellectual property or store any data or other files. A good repository will not only offer broad access to your work but also provide assurance that your research will be well preserved. 

• Stability: Who is hosting the repository? Is the institution or company known to you and do they have adequate funding in place to continue to support their initiative?
• Identification: What kinds of identifiers does the repository create and assign to your work? Identifiers like DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) can help to track citations and version your work while linking your work to an ORCID (a personal professional ID for you) can help to associate deposited content with your portfolio and digital identity. 
• Discoverability: Who is part of the community that uses this repository? Is the language of the content and metadata compatible with the audience for your work and the databases or other research discovery mechanisms where you hope your work will be discoverable? Where is content in the repository indexed to?
• Who hosts the repository? Some repositories are owned by commercial entities. While there is nothing inherently wrong with selecting a repository operated by a commercial party, these organizations may have less incentive to create and maintain terms of service that benefit researchers, protecting their data and intellectual property. Many academic platforms, including repositories and academic social media platforms began life as small, non-profit ventures that are prone to acquisition by commercial publishers or venture capitalists and see changes in their policies, fees, or other terms of use. Selecting a repository that is hosted by a trusted public institution, consortium, or other community-owned organization can help to future proof a platform against commercial interests that may alter  administration and values. 

Types of Repositories

There are several types of academic repositories that might be a good fit for you and your work, based on the type of material you are depositing and the intended audience for your work. 

• Institutional Repositories: Many academic institutions have their own repository which provides a mechanism for gathering, preserving, and promoting the intellectual work of their community. At the University of Maryland, College Park, the institutional repository is called DRUM (Digital Repository at the University of Maryland) and we welcome you to explore depositing your research or reach out to us with any questions at drum-help@umd.edu. 
• Disciplinary Repositories:  Rather than publishing the works of a specific institution, a disciplinary repository caters to a particular subject or research community. Disciplinary repositories may offer features or services that cater to your needs as a subject specialist (such as modified storage, linked data or the capacity to present or store media). Additionally, a disciplinary repository may be a better venue for increasing the visibility of your work. It may be more regularly accessed by members of your research community or specifically indexed to databases, catalogs and other points of research that are commonly used in your field. 
• Specialized Repositories: In addition to disciplinary venues, repositories that specialize in content types also exist. Data repositories, with larger storage capacities and data curation services are commonly used by UMD faculty. There are also repositories that specialize in code, images, or particular digital artifacts, such as MRI scans.  
• Funder Repositories: Some grant-funding bodies, such as federal agencies, maintain repositories to preserve and disseminate research they fund. Many, though not all, of these repositories contain both scholarly articles and data compiled in the research process. 

CoreTrust Seal

One simple way to assess the quality of a repository is to look for the CoreTrustSeal, a certification made by an independent, community-based non-profit. This certification is made by an assembly of reviewers based on a catalogue of core characteristics of trustworthy data repositories and can signal a repository with international standards of preservation, administration, and technology management. 

Recommended Data Repositories

UMD Data Collection on DRUM

drum.lib.umd.edu

The Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM) provides the opportunity to easily share data on infrastructure owned and maintained by the UMD Libraries. Using DRUM for Data will provide a simple, cost-free way to share your data and link it to any other research outputs that you deposit, such as a research article, white paper, or conference proceedings.

If you are using the DRUM self-deposit interface for the UMD Data Collection, there is an upload limit of 2GB. If you have a larger dataset, up to 15 GB, you can reach out via drum-help@umd.edu for assistance depositing your materials. This upload limit may preclude some datasets from being stored in DRUM, and we have partnered with community-owned organizations to help those of you who require larger storage space, as described below. While the Libraries are happy to provide consultations on the suitability of DRUM for your project and basic best practices around data sharing, we cannot offer data curation services to those who are depositing data to DRUM. 

Dryad

datadryad.org

Beginning in the Fall 2023 semester UMD will be a member of the Dryad data community. Dryad is a community-owned resource that offers data curation services in addition to large storage capacity for most kinds of datasets in any discipline. 

• You may deposit up to 300GB of data using the general interface; for larger projects, please reach out to Dryad (help@datadryad.org) or the Libraries (lib-open-scholarship@umd.edu) to discuss how your data can be processed and if there are any additional technical requirements or fees that may be associated with a larger project.
• At Dryad, curation is the process of thoroughly evaluating research metadata and related objects to verify that data are accessible, organized, intelligible, and complete to ensure ease of re-use. Curators collaborate with researchers to confirm that data are appropriate for open sharing, follow FAIR principles, and meet ethical standards for publication. They also offer guidance on best practices for creating reusable data and help authors navigate publication requirements.
• Dryad data records each receive a DOI, can be versioned, and can be linked to your ORCID profile. In addition, Dryad collaborates with a variety of publishers and other repositories, such as PubMed, to streamline the presentation of data alongside research articles. 
• Dryad publishes data exclusively under a Creative Commons Public Domain License (CC0) and does not support the publication of sensitive data or restricted access to records. Please note that most data is considered factual and is not copyrightable under US copyright law; thus the CC0 licensing requirement underlines the inherent reuse value of datasets and encourages sharing with the global community.

Qualitative Data Repository

qdr.syr.edu

Beginning in the Fall 2023 Semester UMD will be a member of the Qualitative Data Repository. The Qualitative Data Repository offers services that target the unique challenges of managing and publishing qualitative human subject data. QDR is hosted by Syracuse University and has been certified by CoreTrustSeal.

• QDR offers data management planning and curation services including assessment of their project plans, timeline, funder requirements, and participant privacy, all targeted toward the preservation and publication of sensitive data. We strongly encourage those who are interested in using QDR or sharing sensitive data to reach out to the organization as early as possible in their planning process to take advantage of these services.
• These services may be key in helping to bridge the gap between privacy and adherence to guidance from internal review boards with mandates to share and provide access to sensitive data. 
• QDR offers storage solutions for audiovisual recordings and other non-textual forms of recording and storage qualitative data
• You may contact the Libraries to be connected to QDR or may reach out to the organization directly.
• QDR does provide a mix of open and restricted access options for data stored in their repository. 

Open Science Framework

osf.umd.edu

UMD is a member of the Open Science Framework (OSF), an open source cloud-based project management platform. It is designed to help teams collaborate in one centralized location and to share part or all of a research project or its outputs.

• OSF can support research outputs such as preprints, open access articles, and data.
• Teams can connect third-party services that they already use (such as GitHub, Google Drive, and Amazon Web Services) directly to the OSF workspace.
• OSF provides version control, persistent URLs, and DOI registration.
• Cross-institutional collaboration is easy, as is controlling who has access to projects. 

Find a Repository with OpenDOAR and Re3Data

OpenDOAR: Browse a global directory of open access repositories based on a range of features, such as location, software or type of material held. 

Re3Data (Registry of Research Data Repositories): Search this global registry of research data repositories representing the full range of academic disciplines.

For more on what to consider when selecting a repository, please also see our guidance on this topic from the OSS Repository Services page.