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DMPTool for Data Management Plans: Data Repositories

This guide provide information and resources to assist researchers in data management planning process.

Directories of Data Repositories

Looking for a repository where you can store your research data?  The following directories may be helpful.

Primary Data Repositories

The following data repositories are frequently used by members of the Penn community for storing research data.  Some are general repositories and repository services; others store specific types of data.  If you have a suggestion for another repository to add to this list, please contact us!

ScholarlyCommons DMP Language

Logo image for ScholarlyCommons.

ScholarlyCommons is the institutional repository for the University of Pennsylvania. As such, it houses the scholastic output of the Penn community and shares these works with a global audience. For more information, see the ScholarlyCommons Guide or email repository@pobox.upenn.edu.


The following boilerplate text can be used to describe ScholarlyCommons in your data management plan:

Data for this project will be deposited into ScholarlyCommons, the open access institutional repository for the University of Pennsylvania through the Penn Libraries. ScholarlyCommons provides long-term preservation, metadata, a unique and persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and is retained indefinitely. The data and documentation will undergo a mandatory review by ScholarlyCommons data curators to ensure that they are accessible, organized, and well documented. We will make updates to our dataset according to the suggestions of the data curators.

Dryad DMP Language

Dryad repository logo

Dryad is an open access data repository that started out in 2008 preserving ecology and environmental biology data, but has since then broadened out its collection policy to accept any data that meets its policies (such as no personally identifiable human subject data). The University of Pennsylvania is an institutional member of Dryad, which covers deposit and curation fees for submissions up to 300GB. For more information, check our repositories page or email LibraryRDDS@pobox.upenn.edu

The following boilerplate text can be used when describing Dryad in your data management plan (please make alterations as necessary for your individual plan): 

Data for this project will be deposited into Dryad, an open access generalist repository hosted by the California Digital Library. Dryad provides long-term preservation, high quality metadata, a unique and persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and is retained indefinitely. All data deposited is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero license and freely available to allow for the widest access and reuse. Preservation is ensured by hosting multiple copies of the data in multiple geographic locations, storing data along with a SHA-256 checksum, running regular checks against the checksum, and backing up metadata on a nightly basis. In order to increase findability, the data is indexed by Thomas-Reuters Data Citation Index, Scopus, and Google Dataset Search. Dryad uses persistent identifiers such as ORCID, ROR, DataCite, and CrossRef to improve metadata quality and connect data with other research outputs. The data and documentation will undergo a mandatory review by Dryad data curators to ensure that they are accessible, organized, and well documented. We will make updates to our dataset according to the suggestions of the data curators.

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