West Virginia University has entered into a membership agreement with Dryad to provide easy access to a generalist data repository for all WVU faculty and researchers. This agreement — coming to fruition in response to the increase in federal and private mandates requiring funded researchers to make their research publicly accessible within one year of publication — builds on the shared University mission and commitment to its R1 status.
To help support WVU researchers in meeting data sharing requirements, the WVU Research Office, working with WVU Libraries, evaluated available generalist data repositories and selected Dryad, an open-access data repository where researchers can publish and publicly share research data. Started by a community of researchers, Dryad is used worldwide to meet funder and publisher mandates for data publication. The platform makes it easier to share, find, use, and cite data, and is ready-made for emerging data sharing requirements.
With this agreement, WVU faculty and researchers have access to:
- Data curation at Dryad – Ensures metadata quality; verifies data are accessible, usable, and licensed for sharing; and supports authors.
- Data publishing at Dryad – Increases discoverability of data, connects data with other research outputs, promotes data citation, and makes data count.
- The Dryad platform – Offers a smooth and easy publishing experience for authors, integrates readily with publisher workflows, runs on open-source software, and may be accessed via open API.
Additionally, WVU’s Dryad membership allows WVU researchers to deposit all datasets 10GB or smaller for free while datasets larger than 10GB are billed individually.
To introduce WVU faculty and researchers to Dryad, a virtual workshop, hosted by Dryad, has been scheduled for March 10 at 11:30 a.m. In the workshop, attendees will learn: when and why Dryad is a good choice for your data; how Dryad helps you comply with data sharing policies; how to prepare your data for sharing; how to submit to Dryad and what happens along the way; which metrics to use; and how to find support and resources.
Interested participants should register online in advance.
To get started with Dryad, visit libguides.wvu.edu/rdm/dryad for information on how to access, as well as overall guidance on how to use the platform. For questions, email researchdata@mail.wvu.edu.