Share Your Data

Sharing data

Regardless of your reasons, sharing data requires you to be aware of mandates that apply to your project, repositories that accept data and are appropriate for your discipline, and any costs and limitations on sensitive data associated with a particular repository. You may also need to balance requirements or recommendations for data sharing with ethical considerations.

• View and compare federal funding agencies' data sharing requirements using SPARC's community resource
• Explore KU ScholarWorks for depositing your data and publications
• Locate a discipline-specific data repository at the Registry of Research Data Repositories
• Locate an open data repository or database at the Open Access Directory list of data repositories

Subject-specific repositories

Many disciplines offer public repositories for researchers to deposit their data. Good data management practice recommends that researchers use discipline-specific, community-recognized repositories for long-term storage. Prior to selection, evaluate a repository for cost, sustainability, access, preservation, and other factors set out in your data management plan. Examples of recognized discipline-specific repositories include:

• DataONE
  Funded by the National Science Foundation, Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) offers a search interface for discovering many kinds of scientific data. Deposits of scientific research data are accepted through DataONE's member nodes.
• ICPSR
  Based at the University of Michigan, ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) provides data curation and repository services for social science data and a search interface for discovering and using these data.
• QDR
  Based at Syracuse University, QDR (Qualitative Data Repository) provides data curation and repository services for qualitative and multi-method data from the social sciences, health sciences, applied sciences, and humanities. The repository also offers a search interface for discovering and using qualitative data, as well as guidance and resources for managing, reusing, and teaching with qualitative and multi-method data.

General data repositories

If there is not an appropriate disciplinary repository for your data, you may want to consider using a general data repository. Below are some examples of data repositories that accept data from all disciplines. Be sure to read the repository FAQ and “how to deposit data” instructions to ensure that it is an appropriate match for your research data.