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Data Repositories

What is this guide for?

CMU does not have an institutional repository. This guide is aimed for providing open resources and help all CMU data users including Data Management Plan (DMP) users to identify relevant repositories for research data management. OIT also provides assistance for CMU data users.

What is a data repository?

A data repository is a storage space for researchers to deposit data sets associated with their research. A repository can help you:

  • manage your data
  • preserve your data over time
  • facilitate discovery of your data
  • cite your data by a persistent identifier to increase citation rates

How to select your repository?

"Data should be submitted to discipline-specific, community-recognized repositories where possible. Where a suitable discipline-specific resource does not exist, data should be submitted to a generalist repository."1 The following online directories maintain lists of data sources and repositories across a wide range of disciplines.

  • FAIRsharing A cross-disciplinary platform that houses manually curated metadata on standards, databases and data policies. It is searchable and provides a list of certified data repositories.

1 Nature.Scientific Data. (n.d.). Data Repository Guidance. https://www.nature.com/sdata/policies/repositories

Check a list of Data Repositories. "Free" repositories are marked asterisk symbol (*) depending on repository size or a variety of conditions and criteria; while repositories with costs are not marked.

Decision Trees and Finder Tools

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