There are more than 1,000 repositories where scientists can deposit data and documents associated with their manuscripts. The majority of these are subject-specific—there are ones specialized for chemical and molecular structures (Crystallography Open Database, Protein Data Bank, Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank), neuroimaging data (OpenNeuro, NeuroVault), and mathematical models (BioModels, The Network Data Exchange), just to name a few. Several publishers recommend that authors submit their material to such subject-specific repositories whenever possible.
See “The Push to Replace Journal Supplements with Repositories”
Subject-specific repositories provide a few advantages, according to Grace Baynes, the vice president of research data and new product development at Springer Nature: they’re designed with the specific research community that’s using those data in mind, and putting data into a repository that your peers use may optimize your chances of connecting with a future collaborator. But such repositories still...
Here’s a brief guide to some of the most commonly used general-purpose repositories.
Repository name | Type of files accepted | Size limits | Submission fee | DOI assignment available |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dryad | Any format | None listed | $120 US per data package (all data associated with one publication) | Yes |
figshare | Any format | 5 GB per file for free accounts, but files up to 5 TB in size possible | Free for individuals, paid accounts for institutions | Yes |
Harvard Dataverse | Any format | 2 GB per file (multiple uploads possible) | Free up to 1 TB | Yes |
Open Science Framework (Center for Open Science) | No restrictions listed | 5 GB per file (larger files can be stored as add-ons from other providers) | Free | Yes |
Mendeley Data (Elsevier) | Any format | 10 GB per dataset | Free | Yes |
Zenodo (CERN) | Any format | 50 GB per dataset (larger files allowed on a case-by-case basis) | Free | Yes |
Diana Kwon is a Berlin-based freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter @DianaMKwon.