Data Management

Depositing your data with a data repository allows others to find and access your data, and it helps ensure the preservation of your data. Many funders and journals now require you to put your data in a repository.

Subject-specific Repositories

One option for depositing your data is to put it in a subject-specific repository. One advantage of this approach is that others in your field are more likely to find and use your data if it is in a place where they would typically look for data sets. If you're not sure what the repositories for your discipline are, PLOS and DataCite (re3data) both maintain lists of repositories by subject. 

General Data Repositories

Another option for depositing data is to place it in a general data repository. The advantage of this approach is that it may allow a wider variety of researchers to find, access, and use your data. Dataverse and OSF are the two most widely used general data repositories.

Institutional Repositories

If your data is under 5GB, you can deposit it in Georgetown’s institutional repository DigitalGeorgetown. Learn more below.

How can DigitalGeorgetown help researchers share their data?

DigitalGeorgetown brings together the scholarly output of faculty, staff, and students across all Georgetown campuses. The IR includes working papers, journal articles, datasets, technology-enhanced learning materials, audio and video resources, citation and image databases, and much more. The majority of content within DigitalGeorgetown is open access, which means that anyone in the world can access it.  Many publishers, funding agencies, and grant-making institutions have adopted open access policies, which require researchers to make data and reports available to the general public. With thousands of visitors each month and a dedicated team at the Library offering support and development, DigitalGeorgetown is one of the easiest platforms for our community to use for releasing content as open access. 

DigitalGeorgetown is heavily indexed by Google Scholar and other search engines, which increases the visibility and discoverability of our scholars’ work. The IR offers permanent URLs (called handles) for items hosted within the repository. This means that even if our repository’s underlying systems change, the URLs will continue to work. This is great for CVs. 

Georgetown University Library is committed to the long-term preservation of materials submitted to DigitalGeorgetown. The Library’s digital preservation policy stipulates that all materials submitted to the IR are preserved, which helps ensure the continued and persistent access to data over time.

The Library’s Digital Services team can help you determine if DigitalGeorgetown is the best place for your data and other scholarship through a consultation. However, our staff does not have the expertise to assess the academic quality of materials that may be deposited in the repository. Researchers are free to submit any content they think is appropriate, and which does not violate any laws or local policies. Bear in mind that the materials will be visible to a worldwide audience, so they should enhance your own reputation and that of your department and the University.

If I want to place my data in the DigitalGeorgetown IR, what steps do I need to take?

Any individual affiliated with Georgetown University can submit their scholarly work to the repository. If you are depositing content in DigitalGeorgetown for the first time, we recommend setting up a brief consultation with our Digital Services team, either in-person or via a Zoom video conference, so we can discuss the options you have in terms of file formats, license agreements, and access levels. Email us at digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu to set up a consultation appointment. 

If you have already submitted content to DigitalGeorgetown and are familiar with the process, you can self-submit your scholarship. Step-by-step instructions for this process can be found on our website at http://www.library.georgetown.edu/ir/submit.

What if I’m not ready to share my data publicly? 

If you have data that you would like to deposit in DigitalGeorgetown, but you are not yet ready to share it with the world, we offer a variety of embargoes. This is a great option for content that is not suitable to be released as open access, but needs long-term maintenance and preservation. Researchers can choose to lock down their scholarship with a common embargo, which limits access to only individuals with a Georgetown NetID and password, or they can completely restrict access to their content by choosing a restricted embargo. In that case, no one, not even the researcher, would be able to access the content. These embargoes are offered in six-month, one-year, or two-year time periods, with the option to extend an embargo indefinitely after the initial two-year period has expired.