Research Guides: Digital Commons: Data Management

Data Management

This data management guide provides you with practical information on how to manage your research data.

Reasons to Manage Your Data:

Save time and increase research efficiency
Document and provide evidence for your research in conjunction with published results
Preserve your research data for long-term access and safeguard your data from loss
Increase the impact of your research by publishing your datasets and documentation in repositories
Meet IRB and data security requirements
Meet funding agency, legal and ethical requirements for dissemination and documentation of your research

Data Management Plans

A data management plan (DMP) is a formal document that outlines what you will do with your data during and after a research project. The DMP describes your practices for collecting, organizing, backing up, and storing your research data. Many funding agencies require that researchers write a DMP.

To help you begin writing a DMP, the Office of Sponsored Research and Programs (ORSP) provides some resources and examples to give you an idea of what a DMP entails

OSRP resources and examples:

Additional information on creating data management plans:

DMPTool
A tool to help create data management plan templates that meet institutional and funder requirements.

Data Sharing and Repositories

Why should I deposit my data?

Data repositories increase the visibility and accessibility of your research to a broader audience. Additionally, repositories manage and maintain your data thus ensuring long term access.

Where should my data go?

If your discipline already has a repository in place for research data, consider depositing your data there first. Discipline-specific repositories are often better able to accommodate specific data archiving needs and may provide an ideal archiving solution for your research data. If your discipline lacks an established repository, or if using existing repositories would not fulfill funder requirements for public access, consider the Montclair State University Institutional Repository. Note: if you deposit your data in an external repository, you may also provide a link to that data within the Montclair Institutional Repository.

What are the guidelines for uploading data created with an external collaborator?

Please review Montclair State University's Data Transfer and Usage Agreements (DTUAs) for more information.

Data Repository for Montclair State University - Digital Commons

The Montclair State University Institutional Repository is a repository for digital research data generated by Montclair faculty and staff. Managed by Sprague Library, the Repository provides long-term digital preservation and open access to data.

The Repository is intended for the deposit of Montclair created digital research data that is in a finished, distributable state. The software accepts a wide variety of of research data and file formats; however, some types of data, such as protected health information and personally identifiable human subjects data, are not appropriate for deposit at this time.

How do I deposit data into the Montclair State University Institutional Repository?

Review the guidelines for sharing data sets within the Repository.
Prepare your data files, gather appropriate documentation files, funder information, and have metadata ready (title, authors, abstract).
Submit your data with the Repository's online data submission form.

Repository Directories And Recommendations

A selection (not intended to be comprehensive) of publicly accessible data repositories:

Montclair State Digital Commons
The Montclair Institutional Repository runs on the bepress Digital Commons software and is a repository for digital research data generated by Montclair State University researchers, faculty, and staff. It provides long-term digital preservation and open access to data. It is managed by Sprague Library and services include: appropriate metadata generated with a persistent URL, monthly reports, and download stats.
Open Access Directory Data Repositories
This is a list of repositories and databases for open data arranged by subject.
re3data.org
Largest and most comprehensive registry of research data repositories covering a wide range of disciplines from around the world.
Nature Recommended Data Repositories
Repositories included on this page have been evaluated to ensure that they meet Nature's requirements for data access, preservation and stability.
Dataverse Project
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, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive academic credit and web visibility.
Dryad
Dryad is a curated general-purpose repository that makes the data underlying scientific publications discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad has integrated data submission for a growing list of journals; submission of data from other publications is also welcome.
Figshare
Figshare is a repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable, and discoverable manner. It allows users to upload any file format to be previewed in the browser so that any research output, from posters and presentations to datasets and code, can be disseminated in a way that the current scholarly publishing model does not allow.
Mendeley Data
Mendeley Data is a place where researchers can upload and share their research data for free. Datasets can be shared privately amongst individuals, as well as published to share with the world.
Zenodo
Zenodo enables researchers to share and preserve any research outputs in any size, any format, from any discipline.

For lists of discipline specific repositories, visit the following pages:

Data Sharing and Repositories
From California State University, Fullerton

Digital Commons