| Version | Which version of the data would you personally find useful for a variety of future projects? Generally, the version of the data that you analyzed might be useful in other researchers' analyses, whereas raw instrument data might not be intelligible to anyone who hasn't used that instrument before. |
| File Formats |
While you often need to work with proprietary file formats during a research project, consider saving a second copy of your final data in a non-proprietary format, to ensure that you and other researchers will be able to access the data in the future. In general, file formats are more likely to be accessible in the future if they are:
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The easiest way to share your data is to place it in a repository -- that way, you won't have to deal with:
| Adding a license to your data. | A repository will either prompt you to choose a license during data upload, or have a standard license for every dataset in the repository. |
| Establishing access permissions for your dataset. | A repository will have a standard set of access permissions for all files (or subsets of files) in the repository. |
| Emails requesting data. | Putting data in a repository means that data requests won't contribute to your email overload. |
| Preserving and migrating your files to ensure ongoing access. | As Jeff Rothenburg said, "digital information lasts forever—or five years, whichever comes first" (quote is from page 2 of his Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information paper). |
| Help other researchers discover your data by depositing it in a discipline-specific repository. |
Browse the following directories of data repositories to find a repository that specializes in your research area: Cline librarians can help you find the right repository for your data -- contact us today! |
| Can't find a discipline-specific repository for your data? |
You may be able to put your data set into OpenKnowledge@NAU if it is:
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If you want to share your data but don't want to share it through a repository, some funding agencies allow you to share data on your own website or inform people they can contact you for data.
| Steps for sharing data without a repository | Why? | How |
| Licensing your dataset (establishing conditions for re-use). | Add a license even if you want your data to be in the public domain -- this reassures potential users that your dataset really is open for re-use. | Two organizations offer licenses for open data: Creative Commons -- Science
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| Establishing access permissions for your dataset. | If you're sharing data from your own site or upon request, you might need to construct data access permissions (particularly if you're working with sensitive data). | |
| Planning for and managing the long-term preservation of your dataset. | File formats tend to become obsolete within 5-10 years, due to software companies going out of business or to the release of new software versions that aren't backwards-compatible. | See our advice about long-term preservation issues. |