NIH Data Management and Sharing

Some programs or solicitations may specify a repository for sharing and archiving data. In cases where a repository is not specified, see any of the below resources for lists of repositories that are acceptable for data sharing in certain contexts.

Note: The University of New Mexico is a member institution of the Dryad data repository. Dryad is included in the list of acceptable generalist repositories.

• Generalist Repository Ecosystems Initiative (GREI) Best practices for sharing data in a generalist repository

National Data Archive FAQ

The above image is from the Fred Hutch Cancer Center Data Science Lab course, "NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy," Chapter 4: "Data Management and Storage." https://hutchdatascience.org/NIH_Data_Sharing/data-management-and-storage.html

NIH strongly encourages the use of established repositories to the extent possible for preserving and sharing scientific data. From the NIH website:

• For some programs and types of data, NIH and/or Institute, Center, Office (ICO) policy(ies) and Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) identify particular data repositories (or sets of repositories) to be used to preserve and share data.
  • For data generated from research subject to such policies or funded under such FOAs, researchers should use the designated data repository(ies).
• For data generated from research for which no data repository is specified by NIH, researchers are encouraged to select a data repository that is appropriate for the data generated from the research project. Be sure to consult the list of desirable characteristics and the following guidance:
  • Primary consideration should be given to data repositories that are discipline or data-type specific to support effective data discovery and reuse. For a list of NIH-supported repositories, visit Repositories for Sharing Scientific Data.
  • If no appropriate discipline or data-type specific repository is available, researchers should consider a variety of other potentially suitable data sharing options:
    • Small datasets (up to 2 GB in size) may be included as supplementary material to accompany articles submitted to PubMed Central (instructions).
    • Data repositories, including generalist repositories or institutional repositories, that make data available to the larger research community, institutions, or the broader public.
    • Large datasets may benefit from cloud-based data repositories for data access, preservation, and sharing.

Help with NIH DMS plans is available from multiple research support services.