Making research data repositories visible: the re3data.org Registry

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 4;8(11):e78080. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078080. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Researchers require infrastructures that ensure a maximum of accessibility, stability and reliability to facilitate working with and sharing of research data. Such infrastructures are being increasingly summarized under the term Research Data Repositories (RDR). The project re3data.org-Registry of Research Data Repositories-has begun to index research data repositories in 2012 and offers researchers, funding organizations, libraries and publishers an overview of the heterogeneous research data repository landscape. In July 2013 re3data.org lists 400 research data repositories and counting. 288 of these are described in detail using the re3data.org vocabulary. Information icons help researchers to easily identify an adequate repository for the storage and reuse of their data. This article describes the heterogeneous RDR landscape and presents a typology of institutional, disciplinary, multidisciplinary and project-specific RDR. Further the article outlines the features of re3data.org, and shows how this registry helps to identify appropriate repositories for storage and search of research data.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases as Topic*
  • Humans
  • Information Dissemination
  • Registries
  • User-Computer Interface

Grants and funding

The writing of this paper was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.