Research findings are often written up into journal articles, books, or other academic publications. But these aren’t the only outputs of the research process: the data which underlies the conclusions is a significant resource in its own right, and may well be of considerable value to the research community.
- If there is data underpinning your publication, consider whether and how you can make it available to other researchers.
- See the How to share and Archives and other options pages for more details.
- Note that in some circumstances there will be good reason not to make your data fully open.
- See the To share or not to share? page for more details.
- Check whether your funder has any requirements regarding archiving of and access to data underpinning publications.
- See the Funder requirements page for more details. A short guide to funding agency expectations is also available on the DCC website.
- Note that all RCUK funders now require that published results include information on how to access the supporting data, in line with the Common Principles on Data Policy.
- The University of Oxford Policy on the Management of Data Supporting Research Outputs covers both funded and unfunded research.
- The policy requires researchers to retain the data underpinning research conclusions for as long as it remains of continuing value – but for a minimum of three years.
- Where possible, researchers are also asked to make the data available to others.
- The best way to preserve (and if appropriate, share) data underpinning published research conclusions is to deposit it in a repository:
- If there is a suitable specialised subject-specific data repository for your data output, deposit it there. Re3data.org offers a catalogue of repositories.
- If the research publisher hosts underlying data, deposit the data with them.
- If options 1 and 2 are not available, deposit the data in Oxford’s institutional data archive, ORA-Data.
- Note that depositing data in a repository also makes it easy to cite – most repositories will issue a DOI or other permanent identifier which can be included in your publication.
- See the Citing your data page for more details.
- Wherever you deposit the data, you should create a record for it in ORA-Data. ORA-Data acts as a central data catalogue which will feed information to global resource discovery services and help increase your research profile.