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Research Data Management

Information and guidance for researchers about managing data and writing data management plans.

Choosing a Repository

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

  1. Does your funding agency (or publishing outlet) require or suggest a specific repository?
  2. Is there a discipline-specific or data-type-specific repository that fits your research?
  3. How much curation or support does the repository offer in the deposit process?
  4. Does your data require a repository that has policies and procedures for controlling access to sensitive or restricted data?
  5. How does the repository sustain long-term access and preservation?
  6. 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.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Health Sciences

Sciences

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.