Library: How to Find Data and Statistics: Data Repositories

Data Repositories

A data repository is also known as a data library or data archive. This is a general term to refer to a data set isolated to be mined for data reporting and analysis. The data repository is a large database infrastructure — several databases — that collect, manage, and store data sets for data analysis, sharing and reporting.

Specialist Repositories

DRYAD
The Dryad Digital Repository is a curated resource that makes research data discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad provides a general-purpose home for a wide diversity of data types. Dryad originated from an initiative among a group of leading journals and scientific societies to adopt a joint data archiving policy (JDAP) for their publications, and the recognition that open, easy-to-use, not-for-profit, community-governed data infrastructure was needed to support such a policy. These remain our guiding principles.
Dryad’s vision is to promote a world where research data is openly available, integrated with the scholarly literature, and routinely re-used to create knowledge.
ICPSR
ICPSR advances and expands social and behavioral research, acting as a global leader in data stewardship and providing rich data resources and responsive educational opportunities for present and future generations.
An international consortium of more than 750 academic institutions and research organizations, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community.
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
DataONE
Enabling new science and knowledge creation through universal access to data about life on earth and the environment that sustains it
DataONE is a community driven program providing access to data across multiple member repositories, supporting enhanced search and discovery of Earth and environmental data. DataONE promotes best practices in data management through responsive educational resources and materials. We envision researchers, educators, and the public using DataONE to better understand and conserve life on earth and the environment that sustains it.
All of Us Research Program
The All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to collect and study data from one million or more people living in the United States. The goal of the program is better health for all of us. The program began national enrollment in 2018 and is expected to last at least 10 years.

Generalist Data Repositories

OSF
Product of Center for Open Science. The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a tool that promotes open, centralized workflows by enabling capture of different aspects and products of the research lifecycle, including developing a research idea, designing a study, storing and analyzing collected data, and writing and publishing reports or papers.
Zenodo
Built and developed by researchers, to ensure that everyone can join in Open Science.
Zenodo is derived from Zenodotus, the first librarian of the Ancient Library of Alexandria and father of the first recorded use of metadata, a landmark in library history.
figshare
Figshare is a repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner
Vivli - Center for Global Clinical Research Data
Vivli is an independent, non-profit organization that has developed a global data-sharing and analytics platform. Our focus is on sharing individual participant-level data from completed clinical trials to serve the international research community. We act as a neutral broker between data contributor, data user and the wider data sharing community.

Institutional Data Repositories

Dataverse Project
The Dataverse Project is an open source web application to share, preserve, cite, explore, and analyze research data. It facilitates making data available to others, and allows you to replicate others' work more easily. Researchers, journals, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive academic credit and web visibility. The Dataverse Project is being developed at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS), along with many collaborators and contributors worldwide.
MI Deep Blue Data
Deep Blue Data (DBD) is a repository for sharing and preserving research data developed at the University of Michigan. The datasets that underlie research findings are increasingly in demand: funding agencies require that research data be discoverable, accessible and preserved for future use; publishers ask for datasets to be included as supplemental files to support research findings; researchers seek out existing datasets to test new theories or generate discoveries.

Learning Opportunities with Data Repositories

ISPSR Teaching and Learning
These resources were created especially for undergraduate faculty and students. While any of ICPSR's data and tools can be used in the classroom, the ones provided here make it easy for instructors to set up data-driven learning experiences. The materials can be used as the basis for assignments, as an in-class or study exercise, for lecture content, or any other way you see fit. All resources are provided under a Creative Commons (attribution) License.
Data Management Skillbuilding Hub
The Data Management Skillbuilding Hub is a repository for open educational resources regarding data management, meaning that it is a collection of learning resources freely contributed by anyone willing to share them. Materials such as lessons, best practices, and videos, are stored in the DataONEorg GitHub repository as well as searchable through the Data Management Training Clearinghouse.

Data Citation

DataONE Data Citation Handout

APA Data Set Citation Example

O’Donohue, W. (2017). Content analysis of undergraduate psychology textbooks (ICPSR 21600; Version V1) [Data set]. ICPSR. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36966.v1

Parenthetical citation: (O’Donohue, 2017)
Narrative citation: O’Donohue (2017)

More Information From APA Style

DRYAD Data Set Citation Style

Author (Date of Article Publication) Data from: article name. Dryad Digital Repository. doi: DOI number.

Example:

Heijink, Britte et al. (2022), Long-term fire and vegetation change in northwestern Amazonia, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tb2rbp042