Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

For depositors - general submission questions

Who can deposit data? 

Submitting datasets is limited to ASU-affiliated projects by ASU faculty, academic professionals, or university staff with active ASURITE accounts.  If your funding source provides preferences on where to publish and archive your data, see Publishing Data: Disciplinary Data Repositories or contact ASU Library Researcher Support for a consultation. If there is no specific requirement, make your datasets accessible and discoverable in the ASU Research Data Repository

What do we consider research data?  

While there is no consensus on the definition of research data, many people sum it up as factual material collected, retained, and accepted by investigators during a research project to validate research findings. We accept digitally born or digitized data. Research data may be quantitative such as spatial and tabular files and remote sensing output; qualitative information, such as documentation, interviews and survey results; and supplementary information, including photos, digitized physical samples and recordings.

Can ASU students submit their research data?

Currently, we only accept datasets submitted by ASU faculty, academic professionals, or university staff. If your request is related to a grant-funded project on behalf of a principal investigator, please have your PI contact us for a consultation to clarify the project's needs.

We recommend using the OSF for student-created projects to store and share their work or if you need to publish it immediately. The OSF (Open Science Framework) is a free scholarly web tool with a partnership with ASU to manage various projects. You can view public ASU projects at osf.asu.edu (give the page a few seconds to load all the projects) and use your ASURITE to create an account. Note there is a limit of 50GB of data storage for published projects and 5GB for private, unpublished projects.

Where do we submit or find ASU scholarly articles, conference proceedings, and other works? 

ASU’s institutional repository KEEP is the home of ASU-produced scholarship. KEEP increases the visibility and impact of research generated by ASU's faculty, scientists, researchers, academic professionals, and staff members. Find and submit open access articles, collaborative research projects, musical performances, theses and dissertations, and more! Discover and submit your scholarly works at keep.lib.asu.edu and select Share Your Work at the top of the page. The library team will work with you to link your data to your papers and provide a link from your KEEP record to your corresponding datasets in the research data repository.

What does the ASU Library charge for submitting datasets to the repository?

The ASU Library does not charge for dataset submissions of ASU-affiliated projects. However, if your dataset is larger than a terabyte, you must talk with the ASU Research Data Management Office. While there may not be a direct cost, there is a process to publishing your data, so you will want to ensure you have given us time before any publication deadlines. We would also work with you to determine what portions of the data should be shared (it may not be everything) and ensure the ASU repository is appropriate for your data.

What is the maximum file size I can upload to the ASU Research Data Repository?

Please review the following limitations for large file size upload to the ASU Research Data Repository:

Single file upload: The maximum file size limit for individual file upload is 3GB. The experience for each user may vary based on the stability of the internet connection, speed of connection, file complexity, file format, and type;

For tabular data files, additional processing by the Dataverse platform means that more time is required to upload. This may result in upload failures depending on the file size and the number of columns, cases, or rows in your file. We recommend you upload files less than 500MB in size that requires this feature (see Full Dataverse User Guide)

Multiple file upload: The repository accepts .zip or .tar file bundles. It automatically unpacks your single .zip package file and presents individual files contained within to users without any hierarchy or organization maintained. Alternatively, .tar or double-zipped files can be uploaded directly, preserving your original file organization. Given the additional processing required for .zip files, we recommend you upload zip files that contain less than 500 files.

If you have many separate data files and/or metadata that you would like to upload to create or populate a Dataset or collection, consider using the SWORD API (see Advanced Dataverse User Guide), which can support batch upload of files (same size limits as described above).

It is recommended that file size be factored in when considering data reuse. Larger files can be more difficult for researchers to handle and work with. Preparing and structuring your data for reuse requires careful consideration of potential use cases, the software required for analysis, the computer system, and file disk space. The Dataverse community is working to support more disciplines and data types. We anticipate that in the future, larger datasets will be better supported and managed in the platform.

If you have questions about file size limits, please get in touch with Researcher Support.

What type of files can I upload to the ASU Research Data Repository?

The repository is ideal for depositing and sharing research data and supports various research data types and formats. You are welcome to upload research data, supplementary tables, and documentation. Contact the KEEP repository service to submit publications and presentations that your data supports.

We support uploading any file type, including shapefiles, images, Flexible Image Transport System files, and compressed files. However, to use the Data Explorer feature, you need to upload tabular data files (e.g., Stata, SPSS, R, Excel (xlsx), and CSV).

Some files will generate an archival file format for viewing, but users can download either the original or archival version.

See the full Dataverse User Guide for more information.

I have been using the original Harvard Dataverse. Can my datasets or dataverse collections be moved to ASU?

Yes. The ASU Library can work with you to copy your Harvard Dataverse to the ASU Research Data Repository.

To maintain your original statistics, we will leave the original datasets in Harvard and create new copies at ASU. A metadata record will point back to the Harvard repository. We highly recommend that ASU researchers using the Harvard interface now use ASU's installation unless there are mitigating circumstances like a journal, funder, or collaboration requirements that require Harvard's platform.

To submit a migration or questions about the process, please contact ASU Library's Researcher Support and request a repository deposit consultation.

Why do I need to have good metadata and readme information?

To assist users in interpreting the data for potential replication or reuse, you should add information that helps tell others exactly how you created and used your datasets. For example, tabular data can still be hard to read if someone doesn't know what your column headers or variable names mean. Projects are varied, and you should not assume someone can figure out what you did. A readme file, code sheet, or data dictionary can help mitigate confusion and help your data align with our charge to make research data findable, accessible, discoverable, and reusable (FAIR). These elements can be uploaded directly into your dataset or added to the metadata.

For more information, see:

What is the best license for my dataset? Should I use CC-by?

Public Domain CC0

We recommend using CC0 and adding a suggested citation because, in most cases, data (collection of facts) might not be eligible for copyright protection and ultimately creates an unnecessary barrier to re-use. For further reading, see This post from the University of California’s Office of Scholarly Communication provides an overview of the situation and recommends the CC0 license for many kinds of data. The Open Database License (ODC-By) also has an attribution variant. See also our quick guide on licensing and data.

For depositors with Repository accounts

Why do I need an ASU Research Data Repository account, and how do I request one?

How do I add users or co-owners to my datasets?

How do I add people outside of ASU to manage my datasets?

What happens to my account when I leave ASU?

How does a guestbook count downloads?

How do I get my folders to appear in a specified order for the tree view?

Can I add a custom subject to the Subject field?

Frequently asked questions are also available in The ASU Library Ask-a-Librarian Research Data Repository FAQs.