re3data.org: Registry of Research Data Repositories

Re3data launched at the tail end of 2012 with the goal of registering all research data repositories. These research data repositories are collections of datasets usually associated with a particular discipline or a particular geographic region. Because of the way data repositories have cropped up on an as-needed basis over the past 50 years, these repositories are myriad and take a specialized knowledge to navigate the options in any academic field.

Research data represents the lion’s share of effort for universities. The value of research data within universities is without peer; however, this data is often vulnerable to loss due to poor preservation practices. Data repositories provide long-term storage and potentially enable access to datasets, while also promoting reproducibility of research. Although this storage and access provide a clear benefit to the researcher, the funding agencies who support research can be the stimulus for researchers to use a data repository…

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For librarians, the benefits of data repositories are fairly clear. Repositories manage, organize, preserve, enable discovery of, and usually provide a persistent identifier for data. Re3data allows librarians to point researchers in the right direction regarding repositories. Re3data provides a basic search feature equipped with 27 facets to narrow or refine a search. Each repository record is tagged with icons to let uses know if the repository provides additional information about its service, if it is open, restricted, or closed access, and what persistent identifier is used (i.e. DOI, URN, ARK, handle, Purl, or other).