Open data

The most straightforward way of publishing your data is to make them openly available via a public trusted repository.

Benefits of a data repository

By depositing your data and software in a data repository you enhance their findability, accessibility and impact. You not only allow others to validate your research findings, but also enable fellow researchers to ‘reuse’ your research results. Deposited materials receive:

A unique persistent identifier (PID) - for instance a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) - which allows you to share and cite your dataset
Rich metadata in accordance with a structured metadata standard, enhancing the findability, interoperability and reusability of your dataset for both fellow researchers and computers
A machine readable license or availability statement, which regulates under what conditions your data are available and can be reused by others

UG default data repository: DataverseNL

The UG default data repository for publishing research data and software is DataverseNL. DataverseNL is managed and supported by the UG DCC and Library. Datasets deposited in DataverseNL are made ‘findable’ through the UG Research Portal. Datasets can be published openly or under restricted access.

Learn more about DataverseNL

Other recommended repositories

In some cases, other (discipline-specific) data repositories may be more suitable for your research data and/or software. The UG Managing Board Research Output recommends specific repositories for archiving and publishing data and software with the aim to facilitate FAIR data and Open Science.

Recommended general purpose repositories:

DataverseNL, which is by default the UG repository for publishing data
DansEasy
4TU
Zenodo
Dryad NB: not suitable for human subject research

Discipline-specific repositories

Subject specific repositories:

Pangaea - Earth & Environmental Sciences
Talkbank - Languages & communication. NB: take the right protection measures
Protein Data Bank (PDB) - Life Sciences
Wormbase - Life Sciences

Open data licenses and Terms of Use

Open data published without limitations and restrictions can be used by any interested party. To maximize the reuse of your research data, our advice is to publish the data using the Creative Commons licence CC0 1.0, which places the data in the public domain. This is also the default licence for research data made available via DataverseNL. Alternatively, you could use the CC BY 4.0 licence, which means that attribution should be given. However, keep in mind that according to the standards for good research practices (e.g., see Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity), researchers should always cite their sources accurately. That means that researchers using the data should always give you credit, even if you make the data available under a CC0 1.0 licence.

Contact the DCC for support

Last modified:

17 October 2023 5.34 p.m.