Selecting a Repository
- Is the repository intended for your subject/research domain? Does your funder recommend it?
- Does it provide persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs) for deposited files?
- 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)?
Suggested Repositories
The best option is to deposit your data in a repository that is specific to your research area or type of data.
If a domain repository is not available for your data, we generally recommend using Iowa Research Online.
Where to start?
- Review the research solicitation or funding opportunity announcement may require or suggest certain repositories.
- The program, division or directorate (NSF), institute, center, or office (NIH), or the funding organization may designate which repositories or data centers should be used, or they may rely on more general guidance. For instance:
- NIH-Supported Scientific Data Repositories
- Some NSF data guidance documents include suggested domain-specific repositories.
- NOAA, USGS, and others may have preferred data repositories.
- If a repository specific to your data is not listed in those sources, contact us.
You can also check these lists of repositories.
**These lists are not all-inclusive; check with us or your program officer before selecting a repository from them:
- If there isn’t a discipline-specific repository for your research, we recommend using Iowa Research Online (IRO).
- IRO meets funder requirements for repositories,
- Provides long term preservation, and
- We can assist you with creating a high-quality record for your data in IRO.
Other suitable general repositories are Dryad, Dataverse, and Zenodo.
- For sharing and preserving code or software, we recommend using Zenodo with Github.