Library Guides: Research Data Management Toolkit: Find and Re-Use Data

Introduction

This page lists some of the options available for publishing research data or finding data for your own research.

There are many data repositories so we have listed directories to help you locate them as well as some key data sources.

NEW - Google has recently introduced Dataset Search (beta) which uses AI to search across multiple repositories - if their content is tagged correctly.

JCU data records are harvested by Research Data Australia which means they are discoverable using the Dataset Search.

Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Data Publication

Repositories - or data papers

Institutional, national, international, generalist and discipline-specific repositories are available to support long-term access to research data.

Your funder or journal may mandate data deposition in a particular repository e.g."Most journals require DNA and amino acid sequences that are cited in articles be submitted to a public sequence repository (DDBJ/ENA/Genbank - INSDC) as part of the publication process." -- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/submit/

Many journals integrate data deposition in a generalist repository with the submission of manuscripts e.g. Dryad.

Some researchers may also choose to publish a data paper. Data journals are publications whose primary purpose is to expose datasets. This may be considered best practice for researchers whose primary output is data. See the ANDS Guide on Data and Journals for more information and check out some examples by JCU researchers in ResearchOnline@JCU

Some Key Australian Data Repositories

Research Data Australia
Australia's research data commons helps you find, access and reuse data for research from 100 Australian research organisations, government agencies and cultural institutions. RDA harvests data descriptions and links to data held with their data publishing partners. JCU has over 2,500 datasets in RDA

Tropical Data Hub (TDH) Research Data repository (via Research Data Australia)
JCU datasets registered in Research Data Australia (most recent first)

AIMS Data
Data collected by the Australian Institute of Marine Science iare described in detail in the AIMS Data Catalogue
AODN Portal
The AODN (Australian Ocean Data Network) Portal provides access to all available Australian marine and climate science data and provides the primary access to IMOS (INtegrated Marine Observing System) data including access to the IMOS metadata
Atlas of Living Australia
The Atlas of Living Australia is a collaborative, national project that aggregates biodiversity data from multiple sources and makes it freely available and usable online.The Atlas of Living Australia is the Australian node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) at http://www.gbif.org/dataset
Australian Data Archive
The ADA is comprised of seven sub-archives - Social Science, Historical, Indigenous, Longitudinal, Qualitative, Crime & Justice and International. The archive is managed by the ADA central office based in the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University (ANU)
CSIRO Data Portal
The CSIRO Data Access Portal provides access to research data, software and other digital assets published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation across a range of disciplines.
data.gov.au
data.gov.au provides an easy way to find, access and reuse public datasets from the Australian Government.
Users are actively encouraged to use government data to analyse, mashup and develop tools and applications to benefit all Australians.
Geospatial datasets on data.gov.au and from other spatial indexes are now available through the National Map at http://www.nationalmap.gov.au/
Queensland Government Data
Portal for Queensland Government public datasets.
Maps and geospatial section includes links to Queensland Globe,flood maps and the Queensland Spatial Catalogue - QSpatial

The Tropical Data Hub (TDH) Research Data Repository

Research Data Repository

JCU HDR students and researchers should archive their completed data in the Tropical Data Hub (TDH) Research Data repository. This includes:

completed HDR (Higher Degree by Research) data
data associated with publications or funded projects
significant data or data with potential re-use value

We can support researchers submitting manuscripts for publication by providing embargoes and private links to data for peer reviewers, if required.

JCU researchers may also use the Tropical Data Hub to describe data held in other repositories (such as Dryad and GenBank) and link to these datasets. This increases their visibility and ensures they are harvested by Research Data Australia and the Research Portfolio site.

Take a look at the Tropical Data Hub section of this Toolkit to learn more about using JCU's institutional data repository or contact the data librarian at researchdata@jcu.edu.au for assistance.

Data Repository Registries and Lists

Both FAIRsharing and Re3Data provide information on an array of criteria to help researchers identify the most suitable one for their needs:

Re3Data
Lists over 2000 repositories and the list is growing!
FAIRsharing
Lists over 1000 repositories and is based around the FAIR principles

The PLoS and Nature lists are highly recommended for finding repositories by discipline:

Recommended Repositories (PLoS)
PloS (Public Library of Science) maintains a list of recommended data repositories.
Recommended Data Repositories (Nature)
Nature also maintains a list of recommended repositories.

Other lists:

Data Repositories
Part of the Open Access Directory
Awesome Public Datasets
This crowd-sourced list includes some real gems e.g. https://ourworldindata.org produced at the University of Oxford and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Many of the resources listed include visualizations.

Generalist Data Repositories

Repository	Storage costs	More information
Dryad Digital Repository	$120 USD for first 20 GB and $50 for each additional 10 GB	FAIRSharing entry
Figshare	Free, upload files up to 5 GB	FAIRSharing entry
Open Science Framework (OSF)	Free, 5 GB per file	FAIRSharing entry
Tropical Data Hub (TDH) Research Data repository	For JCU staff and HDR students	Toolkit TDH page
Zenodo	Free, 50GB per dataset	re3data entry

Some International Repositories...

Global Health Observatory (GHO) data
The World Health Organization's gateway to health-related statistics for more than 1000 indicators. Data are organized to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research: ICPSR
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) maintains and provides access to thousands of social science datasets for research and instruction. This is a great place to start looking for social science data for secondary analysis. US-based.
PANGAEA: Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science
The information system PANGAEA is operated as an Open Access library aimed at archiving, publishing and distributing georeferenced data from earth system research. The system guarantees long-term availability of its content through a commitment of the hosting institutions.
UK Data Service
The UK’s largest collection of digital social and economic research data.
World Bank Open Data
Designed to make World Bank data easy to find, download, and use. All of the data can be used free of charge with minimal restrictions.

return to Toolkit Contents

Research Data Management Toolkit: Find and Re-Use Data

Introduction

Data Publication

Repositories - or data papers

Some Key Australian Data Repositories

The Tropical Data Hub (TDH) Research Data Repository

Research Data Repository

JCU HDR students and researchers should archive their completed data in the Tropical Data Hub (TDH) Research Data repository. This includes:

completed HDR (Higher Degree by Research) data

data associated with publications or funded projects

significant data or data with potential re-use value​

​We can support researchers submitting manuscripts for publication by providing embargoes and private links to data for peer reviewers, if required.

​JCU researchers may also use the Tropical Data Hub to describe data held in other repositories (such as Dryad and GenBank) and link to these datasets. This increases their visibility and ensures they are harvested by Research Data Australia and the Research Portfolio site.