Consider the CDR for your NIH-funded data

On January 25, 2023, the National Institutes of Health will enact a new Data Management and Sharing policy. If you work on NIH-funded projects and need a repository to deposit your data, consider the CDR! Here is how the CDR meets the NIH’s Desirable Characteristics for All Data Repositories:

• Unique Persistent Identifiers: The CDR will automatically create a digital object identifier (DOI) for every publicly available dataset. The DOI will continue to point to the dataset’s landing page if the dataset is removed.
• Long-Term Sustainability: The CDR is funded long-term by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. It has mechanisms to ensure the integrity, authenticity and availability of datasets. The CDR creates multiple backups of data for preservation purposes..
• Metadata: The CDR uses widely used metadata schemas such as MARC and Dublin Core.
• Curation and Quality Assurance: Each data submission to CDR is reviewed by a librarian to determine if it complies with the CDR’s deposit guidelines. The librarian will not review contents of datasets.
• Free and Easy Access: Datasets are openly available for download immediately after deposit free of charge. Depositors with specific access needs can contact the repository.
• Broad and Measured Reuse: The CDR is indexed in multiple search engines including Google. Additionally, the CDR creates DOIs for each deposit, and datasets are available through DataCite’s search.
• Security and Integrity: Users may elect to restrict access to their dataset to themselves, or the UNC-Chapel Hill community. They may also elect to set an embargo period for their data. The CDR cannot accept data which contains personally identifiable or sensitive information which is classified at Tier 1 or higher per the university’s classification standard.
• Clear Use Guidance: The CDR requires that depositors include information about their methodology upon deposit. Depositors are strongly encouraged to include additional information about their data in their deposit to facilitate reuse.
• Confidentiality: The CDR cannot accept data which contains personally identifiable or sensitive information  which is classified at Tier 1 or higher per the university’s classification standard.
• Common Format: Datasets can be downloaded in the same format in which they were deposited. Depositors are strongly encouraged to use non-proprietary formats for their deposit.
• Provenance: The CDR logs information regarding the origin of the dataset and any modifications to the dataset and metadata.
• Retention Policy: Datasets in the CDR will be reviewed after ten years to ensure that they are still used. More information can be found in the CDR Data Deposit Policy.

To deposit your data, use the Dataset deposit form. If you have questions or would like to discuss depositing your data in the CDR, please contact us!