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Data Management for Research

Sharing Data

The benefits of sharing data include:

  • You want to bring more visibility to your research
  • You want to support open science and open research
  • You are required to share your data due to journal requirements or a grant funding mandate
  • Your lab PI requires all lab members to share data openly
  • You just want to share your data!

Creating and sharing open data usually entails taking your data and depositing it into a repository where other researchers can download and use your data. When you are getting ready to share data, consider the following:

  • Is the data described well (through a codebook, README file, etc.)?
  • Are there any security restrictions or ethical considerations I need to be aware of before sharing this data?
  • Do I have the data saved (preferably) in an open, non-proprietary format, such as CSV rather than XLSX?
  • Am I putting the data into a data repository where other people can easily find it and download it?

Considerations for sharing data

Before sharing your data, it is important to ask yourself several questions to ensure you are ethically sharing your data and considering intellectual property and security concerns.

  • Do you have approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to share your data? Generally, you make plans to share your data in the initial application stage and inform your participants of this through your informed consent form. If you did seek IRB-approval for your research and are unsure of your data-sharing capabilities, please visit the CMU IRB website to get more information!
  • Does the data include any personally identifiable information (PII) such as full names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, bank account numbers, passport numbers, or email addresses? Any data you make public should be de-identified and include no PII. 
  • Can you ensure the data was ethically collected without harming certain populations, including Indigenous communities, LGBTQ+ communities, and communities of various socioeconomic status?

Data Repositories 

There are a variety of repositories available for sharing research data. At CMU, we offer KiltHub, CMU's institutional repository. Explore re3data.org, a registry of research data repositories, for discipline-specific repositories in your feild. 

KiltHub

The KiltHub Repository is the comprehensive institutional repository and research collaboration platform for research data and scholarly outputs produced by members of Carnegie Mellon University and their collaborators. KiltHub collects, preserves, and provides stable, long-term global open access to a wide range of research data and scholarly outputs created by faculty, staff, and student members of Carnegie Mellon University in the course of their research and teaching. 

Users can make all of the products of your research openly available and citable with CMU’s institutional repository. KiltHub meets most funding agency requirements for sharing data in an open, stable data repository. For more information on submitting your work to KiltHub, please contact Katie Behrman (kbehrman@andrew.cmu.edu). 

While KiltHub is an excellent option, there are a variety of other data repositories options available. Many funding agencies, such as NIH, will provide a list of acceptable or recommended repositories.

Example KiltHub language:

Provided by the University Libraries, KiltHub (kilthub.cmu.edu) is the comprehensive institutional repository and research collaboration platform for research data and scholarly outputs produced by members of Carnegie Mellon University and their collaborators. KiltHub complies with funder mandates around making data openly accessible and stored in perpetuity. Built upon the FigShare platform, KiltHub collects, preserves, and provides stable, long-term global open access to a wide range of research data formats. All datasets and scholarly outputs published on KiltHub receive their own DOI, recommended citation, a machine-readable copyright license, are indexed in Google, and are tracked to measure downloads and citations. Carnegie Mellon University Libraries faculty and staff facilitate the deposit and publishing of research data in KiltHub repository, as well as provide support in metadata, data organization, and ensuring that all research products (i.e. datasets, code, stimuli, publications) are linked and discoverable.

Sample Open Datasets in KiltHub: 

Contact

If you are unsure of the data management policies or practices best suited for your research, or if you have any other questions, please contact the University Libraries Data and Publishing Services team.