Make My Data Open
Sharing your data is a valuable way to promote equity in the scholarly community, extend the reach of your work, and increase transparency and reproducibility in the research ecosystem. There are many ways to share data, and depending on the nature of your research. Some datasets include information (medical, financial, personally identifying) that should not be made openly available. There are repositories that allow you to select restricted access as well as cloud storage tools that can be utilized to provide intra- and inter-institutional data sharing if you wish to collaborate with a select group of other researchers or stakeholders. Open Scholarship Services provides infrastructure and guidance on data that you wish to share or publish publicly.
Open Data Repositories
Open Data repositories offer long-term preservation of your published datasets as well as benefits to discovery and citation through indexing and the assignment of identifiers. Choosing the best repository for your work is based on a number of factors, including costs, the type and size of your data, and the features and audience of an individual platform/organization. Below, we have outlined some important considerations you should take in account when selecting a repository, and provided an assortment of generalist repositories that UMD Libraries can endorse, some of which the Libraries participate in as a member, which may confer benefits to UMD affiliates seeking to deposit data to those organizations.
Use a trusted data repository to publish and preserve your data in compliance with funder mandates. Different repositories may offer services, metadata, and storage options that may or may not align with your needs. UMD offers a variety of options for you to explore through our own repository and memberships in community-owned platforms.
UMD Data Collection on DRUM
The Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM) provides the opportunity to easily share data on infrastructure owned and maintained by the UMD Libraries. Using DRUM for Data will provide a simple, cost-free way to share your data and link it to any other research outputs that you deposit, such as a research article, white paper, or conference proceedings.
If you are using the DRUM self-deposit interface for the UMD Data Collection, there is an upload limit of 2GB. If you have a larger dataset, up to 15 GB, you can reach out via drum-help@umd.edu for assistance depositing your materials. This upload limit may preclude some datasets from being stored in DRUM, and we have partnered with community-owned organizations to help those of you who require larger storage space, as described below. While the Libraries are happy to provide consultations on the suitability of DRUM for your project and basic best practices around data sharing, we cannot offer data curation services to those who are depositing data to DRUM.
Dryad
Beginning in the Fall 2023 semester UMD will be a member of the Dryad data community. Dryad is a community-owned resource that offers data curation services in addition to large storage capacity for most kinds of datasets in any discipline.
- You may deposit up to 300GB of data using the general interface; for larger projects, please reach out to Dryad (help@datadryad.org) or the Libraries (lib-open-scholarship@umd.edu) to discuss how your data can be processed and if there are any additional technical requirements or fees that may be associated with a larger project.
- At Dryad, curation is the process of thoroughly evaluating research metadata and related objects to verify that data are accessible, organized, intelligible, and complete to ensure ease of re-use. Curators collaborate with researchers to confirm that data are appropriate for open sharing, follow FAIR principles, and meet ethical standards for publication. They also offer guidance on best practices for creating reusable data and help authors navigate publication requirements.
- Dryad data records each receive a DOI, can be versioned, and can be linked to your ORCID profile. In addition, Dryad collaborates with a variety of publishers and other repositories, such as PubMed, to streamline the presentation of data alongside research articles.
- Dryad publishes data exclusively under a Creative Commons Public Domain License (CC0) and does not support the publication of sensitive data or restricted access to records. Please note that most data is considered factual and is not copyrightable under US copyright law; thus the CC0 licensing requirement underlines the inherent reuse value of datasets and encourages sharing with the global community.
Qualitative Data Repository
Beginning in the Fall 2023 Semester UMD will be a member of the Qualitative Data Repository. The Qualitative Data Repository offers services that target the unique challenges of managing and publishing qualitative human subject data. QDR is hosted by Syracuse University and has been certified by CoreTrustSeal.
- QDR offers data management planning and curation services including assessment of their project plans, timeline, funder requirements, and participant privacy, all targeted toward the preservation and publication of sensitive data. We strongly encourage those who are interested in using QDR or sharing sensitive data to reach out to the organization as early as possible in their planning process to take advantage of these services.
- These services may be key in helping to bridge the gap between privacy and adherence to guidance from internal review boards with mandates to share and provide access to sensitive data.
- QDR offers storage solutions for audiovisual recordings and other non-textual forms of recording and storage qualitative data
- You may contact the Libraries to be connected to QDR or may reach out to the organization directly.
- QDR does provide a mix of open and restricted access options for data stored in their repository.
Open Science Framework
UMD is a member of the Open Science Framework (OSF), an open source cloud-based project management platform. It is designed to help teams collaborate in one centralized location and to share part or all of a research project or its outputs.
- OSF can support research outputs such as preprints, open access articles, and data.
- Teams can connect third-party services that they already use (such as GitHub, Google Drive, and Amazon Web Services) directly to the OSF workspace.
- OSF provides version control, persistent URLs, and DOI registration.
- Cross-institutional collaboration is easy, as is controlling who has access to projects.
Find a Repository with OpenDOAR and Re3Data
OpenDOAR: Browse a global directory of open access repositories based on a range of features, such as location, software or type of material held.
Re3Data (Registry of Research Data Repositories): Search this global registry of research data repositories representing the full range of academic disciplines.
For more on what to consider when selecting a repository, please also see our guidance on this topic from the OSS Repository Services page.