University Libraries - Research Data Services

Criteria

Here are some criteria to keep in mind when selecting a repository for your data:

• Does it provide persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs) for deposited files?
• Does it provide curation for the data and metadata?
• Who can access the data, and how long will the data be preserved?
• What license(s) does it support?
• Is the repository integrated with other systems for finding, connecting data to articles, etc?
• Who manages the repository (government, for-profit publisher, academic, non-profit, other organization)?
• NIH also provides a guide to selecting a repository,
• Need assistance? Contact us and we’ll assist you.

Suggested Repositories

Where to start?

1. Review the research solicitation or funding opportunity announcement to see if they require or suggest certain repositories.
   
   • For NIH:
     • also check the list of NIH-supported repositories for appropriate repositories.
2. If a repository specific to your data is NOT specified:
   • Check the following lists of repositories, or contact us for assistance.
     *    The lists below are not all-inclusive
     **  Check with us or your program officer before selecting a repository from these lists:
     
     • FairSharing
     • re3Data
     • DataCite Commons Repository search
3. If there isn’t a discipline-specific repository for your research, we recommend using Iowa Research Online (IRO) (see IRO instructions) because:
   1. IRO meets funder requirements for repositories.
   2. Provides long term preservation and access.
      
   3. We curate all data deposited in IRO to create high-quality deposits that can be cited in and link to your publications, and are linked to your ORCID.
      
   4. We can reserve a DOI for a dataset so you can cite it in your manuscript.
      
4. For sharing and preserving code or software, we recommend using Zenodo with Github, or depositing your code in IRO.