Research Guides: Research Data Management: Data Repositories

Choosing a Repository

What to consider when selecting a repository for your research data:

Does your funding agency (or publishing outlet) require or suggest a specific repository?
Is there a discipline-specific or data-type-specific repository that fits your research?
How much curation or support does the repository offer in the deposit process?
Does your data require a repository that has policies and procedures for controlling access to sensitive or restricted data?
How does the repository sustain long-term access and preservation?
Does the repository offer unique persistent identifiers for the data sets (e.g. DOIs)?

NIH goes into more detail about these and other considerations on their list of Desirable Characteristics for All Data Repositories.

Tools for Finding Repositories

There are thousands of existing data repositories. Some are very narrowly focused and specialized, while others are broader and more generic. Data repository directories help users by centralizing information about repositories and providing search tools that can limit by various characteristics.

re3data.org - The Registry of Research Data Repositories provides a search function with a wide range of filters and the ability to browse by subject or country.
FAIRsharing.org - This site provides a search function that can be limited to data repositories, but also standards, policies, and more resources related to research data.
OpenDOAR - The Directory of Open Access Repositories includes all types of repositories; use the advanced search to set Content Types to Datasets.
NIH-Supported Data Sharing Resources - This list of approved repositories allows searching by Institutes/Centers/Offices, subject, access type, and other properties.

Common Data Repositories

Here is a selection of general data repositories, as well as a few discipline-specific data repositories that are still relatively broad in scope.

General

See a comparison of these tools at: Stall et al. (2023). Generalist Repository Comparison Chart (3.0). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7946938.

Harvard Dataverse
A Dataverse repository open to all researchers from any discipline. Example UNC dataset.
Dryad
Serves all research domains. Only publishes data under a CC0 license, and does not offer support for restricted data. Example CSU dataset.
Mendeley Data
Open to all fields and a variety of file types. The search function also allows for discovering datasets across various data repositories. Example dataset of images.
Figshare
Repository for any scholarly research output, not just data. Example UNC dataset.
Open Science Framework
A multipurpose platform for managing projects and sharing research outputs. Example project.
Zenodo
A catch-all repository that allows all researchers to archive and share their research objects. Example UNC dataset.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

ICPSR This link opens in a new window To use this resource, you need to create an account using a computer on campus. DO NOT use your social media accounts, as they will not grant you full access. Please contact jennifer.leffler@unco.edu if you need to create an account from off campus.
ICPSR is the world's largest archive of computer-readable social science data. In addition to archiving collections from disciplines such as sociology, political science, history, and economics, ICPSR has 7 special emphases in gerontology, substance abuse and mental health, criminal justice, child care, health and medical care, education, and demography.

Qualitative Data Repository
Digital data (and accompanying documentation) generated or collected through qualitative and multi-method research in the social sciences and related disciplines.
The Digital Archaeological Record
An international digital repository for the digital records of archaeological investigations.

Health Sciences

NIH-Supported Data Sharing Resources
Domain-specific Lists of data sharing repositories recommended by NIH.
Synapse
Biomedical data reuse and discovery.
Vivli
Clinical trial research data.

Sciences

PubChem
An open chemistry database at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
EarthChem
Geochemical, geochronological, and petrological data.
OpenTopography
Access to topography data, tools, and resources.
ScienceBase
For U.S. Geological Survey science and products.
DesignSafe Data Depot
Curation and publication of datasets generated in the course of natural hazards research.
VizieR
Provides the most complete library of published astronomical catalogues.

UNCOpen: The Institutional Repository of the University of Northern Colorado

Our institutional repository, UNCOpen, reflects the intellectual environment of the campus and supports the academic mission of the University of Northern Colorado. Highlighted materials include research, creative works, and journals produced by UNC faculty, staff, and students. The repository accepts faculty and faculty-sponsored student research materials including data sets.

UNCOpen can be used for long-term preservation of research data produced by UNC faculty and researchers, as well as providing public access to data in compliance with funder and publisher mandates. For information about depositing your data or other work in the repository, contact the University Libraries.