How do I choose a data repository for publishing my data?
Any repository you use must be a certified or trusted digital repository, that is, one which will provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources.
- Check your funder requirements. Your funder may mandate which repository to use e.g. NERC: NERC data centres; ESRC: funds the UK Data Service and requires ESRC grant holders submit their data here.
- Check with the journal you are submitting to. Some journals maintain a list of approved repositories they will accept, or have specific policies regarding data archiving you need to comply with.
- Check for discipline-specific repositories. As a general rule your first choice should be a relevant disciplinary repository where there is one available. This repository is more likely to have the best metadata schema for your datasets and importantly, it will be where other researchers in your field expect to find data.
How do I check for discipline-specific repositories?
A great place to start is by talking to colleagues working in your research field. You can also look for where open data in your field is deposited for sharing: you can do this by checking Data Access/Availability Statements in relevant publications. Data Access Statements signpost the reader to where supporting data can be found.
There are tools for searching for disciplinary repositories.
These are international registries that list repositories and their characteristics. You can search by subject, and you can also filter for certified repositories.
Examples of discipline specific repositories include:
- UK Data Archive (social, economic and population data)
- Protein Data Bank (protein structures)
- Pangea (earth and environmental sciences)
NERC data centres (environmental data) - Image Data Resource (IDR) (life sciences image data)
- European Bioinformatics Institute (hosts repositories for different types of genetic data, imaging data and general biological data)
- Github (software and code)
Ulster's PURE Datasets Repository
In the absence of a suitable disciplinary data repository, Ulster academic and research staff, and PhD researchers, can use Ulster’s PURE Datasets Repository.
- You can upload to PURE datasets through your internal PURE account.
- Ulster’s PURE Data Repository is certified and registered within both re3data and FAIRsharing.
- PURE Support will create a DOI for dataset records from DataCite: the DOI will be available to data portals and indices which harvest DataCite metadata.
- We will use the DOI to create a Dataset reference which can be cited in publications.
- We have processes for facilitating restricted access to sensitive data.
- Personal support for data deposit is available from a member of the PURE support team.
A step-by-step guide 'Using PURE for Datasets' is available within Ulster's PURE Support Resources. You can also contact the PURE Support team at pure-support@ulster.ac.uk.
