As of 2018, MSU Library recommends publishing research data in third-party data repositories.

Data Publishing Services

The Library recommends that researchers use third-party data repositories to publish research data. There are nearly a thousand data repositories in the United States (see re3data), many of which provide services and policies that ensure their trustworthiness and suitability for institutional research data. A list of recommended data repositories is available on the MSU Library Data Services data publication page.

Please contact uswith any questions!

Upcoming Data Discovery Initiatives

To support discovery and access for MSU research datasets, the Library is in the process of building a Dataset Search tool that will facilitate discovery of MSU research datasets that are published in third-party data repositories. The Dataset Search will provide an interface where all published research datasets from MSU will be searchable and accessible. A study conducted by MSU Library faculty suggests that research data are more likely to be discovered and reused if they are (1) archived in a discipline­-specific repository; and (2) indexed in multiple places online.Responding to the results of that study, the Library encourages data publishing in discipline­-specific repositories, and will support research data discovery through the upcoming Institutional Research Data Index. In this way, the Library continues to promote increased discovery, reuse, and citation of research data.