Repositories

Picking a Repository

It is important to select a data repository that is suitable for your research data and that helps ensure the reliability, security, and accessibility of data for the broader research community.  

See FABBS’ Understanding Open Science Page for a list of good repository criteria.

• Watch the Data Repositories 101 video by the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for guidance on selecting a repository. 
• Read the Desirable Characteristics Of Data Repositories For Federally Funded Research by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) within the White House for further Insight on following Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) Principles. 

Using Repositories

• Use NIH’s Directory of Repositories for Sharing Scientific Data for repository descriptions and how to submit to each repository. 
• Use the Registry of Research Data Repositories (Re3Data) to search for repositories by discipline, content type, or country. 
• Use/read the Data Curation Network Steps and Checklists before submitting datasets to a repository.  

Directory of Repositories

Below is FABBS’ own curated list of repositories relevant to our members.

Cognitive Science Repositories

• Brain Imaging Data Standard (BIDS) provides a standard for consistently organizing brain imaging data. 
• Watch the Office of Data Science Strategy Data Sharing and Reuse Seminar by the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more information on BIDS. 
• OpenNeuro is a MRI, PET, MEG, EEG, and iEEG data analysis/sharing platform developed by the Center for Reproducible Neuroscience.
• OpenfMRI is a data sharing project for raw fMRI data. 
• Neurovault is a data sharing project for statistical maps. 
• Neurosynth is a meta-analysis project using text mining. 

Developmental Science Repositories

• Meta Lab is a meta-analysis tool and database for language and cognitive development research.
• Wordbank is a database of children’s communicative development and vocabulary research. 
• The Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) is the child language repository within TalkBank. 
• Databrary fosters data sharing in the behavioral, social, educational, developmental, neural, and computer sciences and supports various types of data including video and audio.  

Language Science Repositories

• TalkBank is a database of repositories across 14+ research areas. 
• Meta Lab is a meta-analysis tool and database for language and cognitive development research. 

Education Science Repositories

• The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a data archive and training tool for data access, curation, and analysis within the social sciences. 

General Repositories

• Data Curation Network is a membership organization linking institution and non-profit repositories, based at the University of Minnesota. 
• Center for Open Science (COS) is a cloud based, collaborative management service to share data, papers, preprint, and register research and pre-registration. 
• Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free, start-to-finish project management tool and repository. 
• Harvard Dataverse is a database of repositories for any discipline. 
• NIMH Data Archive (NDA) is a guide and database of repositories for data on human subjects. 
• Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) is an archive and training resource for managing and sharing qualitative data. 
• Look through Data Repository Guidance from Nature for further data repository options beyond the social and behavioral sciences. 

Additional Resources

• Watch Getting Help at Your Institution: Institutional Repositories, Data Management, and More from 21:55 by the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a presentation on How Institutional Repositories fit in the Research Landscape. The rest of the video also provides step-by-step guidance on building a data management plan and utilizing librarian’s skills to improve data use and sharing. The video includes a tutorial on using the DMP Tool to build a data management plan. 
• Read Qualitative Data Sharing: Data Repositories and Academic Libraries as Key Partners in Addressing Challenges, an article from SAGE that discusses the challenges of qualitative data sharing and how data repositories and academic libraries can help researchers overcome them.