Storing, Sharing and Archiving Data

A primary purpose of the Research Data Management process is to store data and its accompanying documentation for future access by yourself or other interested researchers.

For advice on securely storing data at Western, please see Data Security and Confidentiality for solutions sanctioned by Western's Research Ethics Boards.

Before considering where to archive your data, first consider what file formats to use; open and widely used formats are more preservation friendly than closed and obscure formats. The UK Data Archive has a useful list of recommended file formats for different types of data.

Depending upon your field of research, there may be recognized locations where data may be (or expected to be) deposited. If there is an archive that is standard in your field, that is often the best option. If not, consider one of the following.

• Western University Repository on Borealis (Quick Guide)

  Borealis is a project of the Ontario Council of College and University libraries to provide a Canadian-hosted platform for sharing and archiving research data. It is implemented using the Dataverse platform, making it easy for researchers to deposit data, create appropriate metadata, and keep track of different versions of their data files.  For assistance with creating a dataverse on Borealis, please contact the Research Data Management team by e-mail. Data can be made available openly, restricted, or only shared within a specific research team.

• The Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR) (FRDR Quick Guide)
  FRDR is a national option for sharing Canadian research data at no cost. FRDR allows for larger datasets than Dataverse can handle with storage allocations in the terabytes available. Supported by Compute Canada.

• ICPSR, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
  ICPSR is the most prominent North American data repository for the social sciences, and provides access to a set of tools for various aspects of data management. Bit-level self-deposits are free through openICPSR site for individuals at ICPSR member institutions such as Western.