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thing
4
Data discovery
Repositories and portals play an important role in making research data discoverable and accessible.
Getting started Learn more Challenge me
explore Research Data Australia to find research data
what's in (and what's not in) the 2,000+ data repositories in re3data?
can we Trust that repository and how would we know?
Repositories for data

Getting started

Repositories for data discovery

Repositories enable discovery of data by publishing data descriptions ("metadata") about the data they hold - like a library catalogues describes the materials held in a library.  Most repositories provide access to the data itself, but not always.

Data portals or aggregators draw together research data records from a number of repositories. eg Research Data Australia (RDA) aggregates records from over 100 Australian repositories.

  1. Click on this RDA record from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre: Weddell seals in Antarctica
  2. Have a close look at the record to see the ways the Australian Antarctic Division has made this record discoverable and accessible.  Note how many times this dataset has been cited and how to cite this data.  We will look at data citation in more detail in Thing 7.
  3. Spend a few minutes exploring RDA.
    • Try browsing or searching on a topic of interest.
    • See which institutions contribute metadata records to RDA.
    • Explore a record or two in depth.

Consider: the future impact of having a national research data catalogue.

Learn More 

Finding data repositories

What data repositories exist and how are Australian researchers sharing their data?

  1. Start by going to re3data.org
  2. Click on Browse > By Country > click on Australia in the map
  3. How many repositories are listed for Australia? Does this represent all the research data repositories Australia has to offer? Is anything missing?

Consider: one idea for how you think improved discovery of Australia's research data repositories, and the data records they contain, could be achieved.

Challenge me

Evaluating data repositories

What makes a "good" data repository?

Finding a data repository to suit your needs requires careful evaluation of the options available in order to make an informed choice.

Have a look at one or both of these resources:

  1. DCC checklist for evaluating data repositories
  2. CoreTrustSeal Data Repositories Requirements

Consider: your experiences or thoughts on evaluating data repositories: have you used either or both of these resources? Would you?