Digital data

Project website or informal sharing is not recommended for long-term preservation or re-use of data, because while informal data sharing can offer immediate storage and easy access, the long-term sustainability of data through websites is an issue manage and burden to accomplish. Furthermore, if the data is not open data, it is difficult to control usage and handle requests to access data.

Funders, institutions and journals may specify where data should be placed in specialist data archives, platforms, or institutional repositories. These guarantee long-term storage and back up of data, alongside managed re-use. There are disadvantages, though, because for instance grant-funded subject repositories occasionally, that don’t have sustainable business models may shut down after their funding runs out, so it is important to have a plan ready in case this occurs.

Self-archiving platforms allow you to upload your research data. These platforms allow for quick upload of data with minimal metadata requirements. They then receive a catalogue record, licence, and Digital Object Identifier for citation.

re3data.org offer a searchable registry of more than a thousand data services. Many of the services are disciplinary, where it is possible to share specialized research data with relevant communities. They often have special features for disciplinary data. The data will be more likely to be seen of people that more easily understand them.

Authors are encourages to archive data to one of the disciplinary data-type specific repositories, where the most popular are mentioned in for instance Nature. However, generalist repositories can handle a wide variety of data, and may also be appropriate for storage of associated analyses, or experimental-control data, supplementing the primary data record.Some examples of services that are not disciplinary are mentioned here (in recommended order)

Global general data repositories

- Zenodo

- figshare

- The Dataverse Project

Danish data repositories

If one prefers to store data in a Danish repository some examples are mentioned here. It may also be the case that a counselor tells that research data has to be stored in a danish registry, because, for instance, the data are sensitive. It has been hard to find a suitable general Danish repository and none of those that are mentioned here is satisfactory.

Non-digital data

What do I do about Research Data Management if my data is not in a digital form?

Non-digital data refers to data not readable on a computer
Research funders expect non-digital data be treated as equivalent to digital data, including preservation, discover, and access

Although the focus of Research Data Management is on data created or stored in a digital form, policies on preservation and re-use also apply to data not created or stored in a digital form. Effectively this means data that is not readable on a computer. It should be stored for the same length of time and have a digital record published describing data and how to access it --including the provision of a persistent identifier to the data. From this, researchers should be able to discover and access it within legal, ethical, and commercial constraints regardless of its form – even if potential re-use is dependent on traveling where the data is held in physical form.

Browser not supported