DataShare

Publish your original data to be found and re-used by other researchers using this free repository for open data.

It’s a way to maximise the visibility and impact of your data. It also means your data are kept safe for posterity.

When you save your data in DataShare, a record is created that can be easily found by search engines like Google. DataShare generates a unique id number/link - the DOI (digital object identifier) - so you can reference your data from Pure and in publications. It also creates a citation to help other researchers reference it easily and accurately.

You can deposit a wide variety of files, including text, images, interactive resources and software, video and audio files with links to online research outputs like journal articles.

You can select a licence so that other researchers know what they can and can’t do with the data. DataShare recommends Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. International (CC BY 4.0) but you can enter another open data licence if you wish.

If you need to hold back on publishing data from a research project you can publish the data record but safely store your data in DataShare with an embargo so the data only becomes available at a future date, such as the date your paper is published.

DataShare will show information about when and how often the data have been accessed and downloaded.

The data will be preserved. This means that if a file format becomes obsolete, Information Services will seek to transfer the data to a new file format so the information can still be accessed and used.

You can also use DataShare to find and access data generated by University of Edinburgh researchers if you’re planning a new research project. Or revisit your own data if you do further research on the same topic, even if you have moved to another institution.

Using DataShare means you can meet funders’ open data requirements and comply with University of Edinburgh policy. But DataShare is not restrictive, so you can also deposit your data with another repository.

Free or paid for

Free

Need somewhere more private for your data after publication? See how DataVault compares to DataShare.

Specific to this tool: Depositors retain rights over the data and guarantee that they have the right to deposit it. See the terms and conditions for depositors
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