Publishing your data increases the value of your work and enhances your ability to secure funding.  Funders and journals are encouraging or even requiring data to be publically published in repositories or field-specific data warehouses. Sharing your data with collaborators can help make research more efficient.  Smart choices during research methodology development, including documentation of software and protocols, can help you share your data as it is produced, publish and archive your data after publication. This will ensure long term accessibility and reuse. Considerations include:

• Sharing and depositing data
• Identifying appropriate metadata
• Grant and journal requirements for archiving and reproducibility

Sharing and depositing data:

Collaborative document sharing solutions include:

• Box
• Dropbox
• Google docs

Repositories for domain-specific data:
Many repositories are available for data sharing and publishing. Some examples are listed below.

• OHSU Digital Commons
• Figshare
• Dryad
• LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe)

For data involving human subjects, please refer to the OHSU IRB Repository Policy

Identifying appropriate metadata and data standards

Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource (NISO). Data standards describe the recommended content and format for how data should be presented and exchanged.

• Guidelines on creating and using metadata for your datasets
• A list of metadata standards is available here and at the links listed below.
• BioSharing
• MIBBI: Minimal Information guidelines from diverse bioscience communities
• Bioportal
• ISA-TAB

Additional Resources:

• Data citation principles from Force11