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For Librarians

The Texas Data Repository is a platform for publishing and archiving datasets (and other data products) created by faculty, staff, and students at Texas higher education institutions. The repository is built in an open-source application called Dataverse, developed and also used by Harvard University.

The repository is hosted by the Texas Digital Library, a consortium of academic libraries in Texas with a proven history of providing shared technology services that support secure, reliable access to digital collections of research and scholarship (http://www.tdl.org). 

Benefits for Researchers

• Compliance with funding requirements. The Texas Data Repository helps researchers comply with funder mandates (including federal agency mandates) for data archiving and sharing, and provides resources for developing data management plans and grant applications.
• Reliable, managed access for data. The Texas Data Repository provides a convenient and reliable place to collect and share data. And by depositing data there, researchers benefit from the TDL's focus on long-term access and preservation of your content.
• Increase their scholarly impact. By publishing their data in the Texas Data Repository, they give that data a DOI, making it easy for others to cite reliably. Content is indexed in search engines, making it more likely to be found; and the repository tracks and displays downloads, so that researchers can see a measure of the impact of their work.
• Collaboration with research teams. Some situations may necessitate restricting access to data, at least for a period of time. The Texas Data Repository allows researchers to share data with a select group of colleagues, version data, and publish it when ready. Researchers or repository managers can also de-accession data in rare cases when its necessary.
• Access to local support through their institution's library. Along with robust technical support from the Texas Digital Library, users of the Texas Data Repository can rely on trained librarians at their home institution to assist with multiple phases of the research cycle, including data management planning, preparing for data publishing, and long-term data curation.

What can researchers deposit?

• Researchers can deposit a wide variety of data and related electronic materials to the Texas Data Repository, including spreadsheets, sensor and instrument data, surveys, GIS data, and imagery, along with associated material such as codebooks or data dictionaries. Any individual file uploaded to the repository must be under 4GB, though any uploads over 2GB, and some below that threshold, may be slow or stall due to variables outside of TDL's control. Please email support@tdl.org if you having trouble uploading files. If you have files over 4GB, we will consider support options on a case by case basis and in consultation with your Institutional TDR liaison.
• The Texas Data Repository encourages data deposit from all disciplines and can accept any type of data file, though it is advisable to provide data in non-proprietary formats in order to ensure broader use for researchers with access to different analytic software.
• By default, published data is assigned a CC0 license, which releases them to the public domain, so that others may freely access and build upon the work. Researchers can alter this license and create custom terms of use for their data if appropriate. 
• The Texas Data Repository does NOT accept content that contains confidential or sensitive information and requires that contributors remove, replace, replace, or redact such information from datasets prior to upload. Confidential and sensitive information includes any identifiable information that would enable re-identification of human subjects (such as social security numbers; credit card numbers; medical record numbers; health plan numbers; biometric identifiers, etc. (See Terms of Use for more detail.)

Benefits for TDL Member Libraries

• Support for the Research Data Lifecycle. Libraries have an opportunity to be an integral part of the Research Data Lifecycle, providing their campus with a platform that supports grant-seeking, data management planning, data curation, data sharing, and long-term preservation.
• Flexibility for large and small institutions. The Texas Data Repository can be used effectively by institutions of many different sizes and staffing levels. It can be deployed as a "self-service" repository for researchers, with minimal service provided by the local institution. Alternately, it can be embedded within a suite of services such as data consultation and curation that the library provides.
• Collaboration management and mutual support. TDL member institutions will continue to work together to develop and manage the repository and provide essential training for librarians in data management, creating a truly collaborative and mutually supportive service.
• Showcasing institutional contributions. The Texas Data Repository allows institutions to collect and showcase the important work done by faculty, students, and staff at their institutions.

Responsibilities of member libraries

TDL member institutions that participate in the data repository service will be expected to identify one or more people who can fulfill the following responsibilities.

• Serve as a contact person for faculty, staff, or students as their institution needing help using the data repository.
• Maintain an institutional landing page within the data repository that showcases data deposited by faculty, staff, and students at their institution.
• Serve on a standing TDL committee of data repository liaisons that will provide oversight and consultation to TDL's management of the repository, and that will serve as a central avenue for communication and promotion of repository-related news and changes. 
• Act as a liaison to other units in the institution (e.g. contracts office or IT department) required for setup and maintenance of the repository.

More information

• User Guides, policy information, and other documentation are available on the Texas Data Repository User Documentation website.
• Contact the TDL Helpdesk with questions about the Texas Data Repository. Email support@tdl.org or go to https://tdl.org/support/helpdesk/.

For Researchers

The Texas Data Repository (http://data.tdl.org/) is a platform for publishing and archiving datasets (and other data products) created by faculty, staff, and students at Texas higher education institutions. The repository is built in an open-source application called Dataverse, developed and used by Harvard University.

The repository is hosted by the Texas Digital Library, a consortium of academic libraries in Texas with a proven history of providing shared technology services that support secure, reliable access to digital collections of research and scholarship (http://www.tdl.org/). For a list of TDL participating institutions, please visit https://tdl.org/members/. 

Reasons to deposit your data

1. Comply with funding requirements. The Texas Data Repository can help you comply with funder mandates (including federal agency mandates) for data archiving and sharing, and gives you resources for developing data management plans and grant applications.
2. Ensure reliable, managed access for your data. The Texas Data Repository gives you a convenient and reliable place to collect and share your data. And by depositing data there, you benefit from the Texas Digital Library's focus on long-term access and preservation of your content.
3. Increase your scholarly impact. By publishing your data in the Texas Data Repository, you give your data a DOI (or "digital object identifier"), making it easy for others to cite the data set reliably. Your work will also be indexed in search engines, making it more likely to be found. Finally, you can track the number of times users access it, and if you want, you can also ask them to register in a "guest book" when they download your data.
4. Collaborate with research teams with flexible options for data access. Some situations may necessitate restricting access to data, at least for a period of time. The Texas Data Repository allows you to share your data with a select group of colleagues, version your data, and publish it when you're ready. In rare cases, you may need to de-accession data, which the repository also enables.
5. Have access to local support through your institution's academic library. Along with robust technical support from the Texas Digital Library, you can rely on trained library liaisons at your home institution to assist with multiple phases of the research cycle, including data management planning, preparation for data publishing, and long-term data curation.

What you can deposit (Short Version)

• You can deposit data in any file type.
• You can deposit data from any research discipline.
• You can edit the license that governs re-use of the data.
• You cannot deposit data that contains confidential or sensitive information.

What you can deposit (Long Version)

• Researchers can deposit a wide variety of data and related electronic materials to the Texas Data Repository, including spreadsheets, sensor and instrument data, surveys, GIS data, and imagery, along with associated material such as codebooks or data dictionaries. Any individual file uploaded to the repository must be under 4GB, though any uploads over 2GB, and some below that threshold, may be slow or stall due to variables outside of TDL's control. Please email support@tdl.org if you having trouble uploading files. If you have files over 4GB, we will consider support options on a case by case basis and in consultation with your Institutional TDR liaison.
• The Texas Data Repository encourages data deposit from all disciplines and can accept any type of data file, though it is advisable to provide data in non-proprietary formats in order to ensure broader use for researchers with access to different analytic software.
• By default, published data is assigned a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which releases them to the public domain, so that others may freely access and build upon the work. Researchers can alter this license and create custom terms of use for their data if appropriate.
• The Texas Data Repository does NOT accept content that contains confidential or sensitive information and requires that contributors remove, replace, or redact such information from datasets prior to upload. Confidential and sensitive information includes any identifiable information that would enable re-identification of human subjects (such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, medical record numbers, health plan numbers, biometric identifiers, etc.) See Terms of Use for more detail.

Get Started

• Log in to http://data.tdl.org using your institutional username and password.
• Optionally, create a new "dataverse" for collecting all your datasets in a single location.
• Add a dataset, which can include multiple files such as raw data files and supplementary materials.
• To help others discover and understand the data, provide some information (aka "metadata" or "data documentation") about what you've uploaded in the forms provided.
• Hit publish! Or, if you would like to restrict access to the data, you can share only with a select few.

Get help...

• ...from the Texas Digital Library Helpdesk.
  • Email support@tdl.org or go to https://tdl.org/support/helpdesk/
  • The TDL hosts and manages the Texas Data Repository platform and can help with any questions or technical difficulties you encounter.
• ...from the User Guides
  • Visit the User Guide for more information about the Texas Data Repository.

For Administrators

The Texas Data Repository is a platform for publishing and archiving datasets (and other data products) created by faculty, staff, and students at Texas higher education institutions. The repository is built in an open-source application called Dataverse, originally developed and used by Harvard University.

The repository is hosted by the Texas Digital Library (TDL), a consortium of academic libraries in Texas with a proven history of providing shared technology services that support secure, reliable access to digital collections of research and scholarship (http://www.tdl.org).

Benefits of a Texas Data Repository

• Compliance with funding requirements. The Texas Data Repository helps researchers comply with funder mandates for archiving and sharing, and supports research grant-seekers by having the infrastructure available at the time of proposal. 
• Reliable, managed access for data. The Texas Data Repository provides a convenient and reliable place to collect and share data. And by depositing data there, researchers benefit from the Texas Digital Library's focus on long-term access and preservation of scholarly content.
• Increase scholarly impact. By publishing their data in the Texas Data Repository, researchers give their data credibility through a unique, citable, and a persistent online identifier (i.e. a Digital Object Identifier), which makes it easy for others to cite reliability.
• Collaboration with research teams. Some situations may necessitate restricting access to data, at least for a period of time. The Texas Data Repository allows researchers to share their data with a select group of colleagues, version the data, and publish it when they're ready.
• Access to local support through their institution's library. Along with robust technical support from the TDL, users of the Texas Data Repository can rely on trained librarians at their home institution to assist with multiple phases of the research cycle, including data management planning, preparation for data publishing, and long-term curation.
• Efficient use of resources. By pooling resources across multiple institutions, the Texas Data Repository realizes cost savings through a shared infrastructure while showcasing local contributions through university-branded data collections and local library services. Each institution can focus its resources on unique services that meet local research community needs.

The Basics: How a Texas Data Repository Will Work

• The Texas Data Repository is designed for regular to mid-sized datasets (individual file sizes up to 2 GB), which comprises the majority of research data. These data can include:
  • Data from any scholarly discipline and in any file type
  • Materials such as codebooks and other supplementary documentation
  • Data that does NOT contain confidential or sensitive information (like social security numbers or other identifiers)
• Researchers can deposit a wide variety of data and related electronic materials to the Texas Data Repository, including spreadsheets, sensor and instrument data, surveys, GIS data, and imagery, along with associated material such as codebooks or data dictionaries. Any individual file uploaded to the repository must be under 4GB, though any uploads over 2GB, and some below that threshold, may be slow or stall due to variables outside of TDL's control. Please email support@tdl.org if you having trouble uploading files. If you have files over 4GB, we will consider support options on a case by case basis and in consultation with your Institutional TDR liaison.
• The Texas Data Repository does not accept data sets (which can contain multiple individual files) larger than 10 GB.
• Researchers affiliated with participating TDL member institutions will be able to:
  • Store and organize data sets and upload files
  • Maintain multiple versions of data sets
  • Share data sets online with trusted colleagues OR release data for public access online
  • Get recognition and proper academic credit for their scholarly work through a data citation with a persistent identifier (i.e. a DOI, or digital object identifier)
• Library faculty or staff at each of TDL's participating member institutions will provide local assistance to researchers at their institution as they prepare and deposit their data.
  • Each participating university will have its own branded "dataverse" within the overall repository, which it can use to showcase its researcher contributions.

Facts about Research Data and the Importance of Reproducibility

• Texas institutions of higher learning produce vast amounts of research data. In 2014, research expenditures at Texas institutions of higher education collectively was $4,522,990,861. Nearly half of those expenditures (>$2 billion) came from federal agencies.¹
• Funding agencies and institutions increasingly require that products resulting from funded research (both articles and the underlying data) be made publicly accessible:
  • In February 2013, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy mandated that each Federal agency with over $100 million in annual research and development expenditures develop a plan to support increased public access to the results of research.²
  • Besides US Agency funders, 42 funder institutions worldwide require data archiving.³
• Transparency of methods and reproducibility of results are key values of science, as they enable testing and validation.
  • By providing technical infrastructure to enable data sharing and robust description of methodology – and by training up a generation of library personnel able to assist researchers in managing their researcher in managing their research data effectively – the Texas Data Repository will help facilitate a culture of reproducibility within the sciences.⁴

More about the Texas Digital Library

• The Texas Digital Library (TDL) is a consortium of academic libraries in Texas that provides shared services in support of research and learning. The TDL currently has 22 academic library members, including the state's largest research institutions.
• Since 2005, TDL member institutions have worked together to develop a set of services that support discoverability, access, and preservation of the unique research and archival collections of its member institutions. These include hosted online repositories, online scholarly journals, and thesis and dissertation publishing.

Technical Infrastructure and Security Policies

Systems security. The Texas Digital Library actively works to ensure the accuracy, integrity, authenticity, and permanence of the digital content that it manages, as well as the security of the services and platforms that it provides.

• The Texas Data Repository is hosted in Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud security services and support (https://aws.amazon.com/security/) including segmentation and firewalls, API endpoints allowing HTTPS access, SSL encryption, network monitoring and protection, and identifying management and authentication.
• TDL updates its Operating Systems (OS) quarterly at a minimum, and immediately when urgent security patches are available.
• The Texas Data Repository uses a federated authentication application (Shibboleth) to ensure that only faculty and staff from TDL member institutions can deposit or administer data. Only users that log into the repository using their university credentials (signifying their connection to that TDL member institution) have permission to deposit data in the repository unless granted that permission explicitly by TDL staff.
• Only TDL staff maintain root access to the repository. A controlled number of library personnel – one user account per participating member institution – will have special privileges for administering an institutional collection of research data deposited by users from their university.
• The TDL backs up data in the Texas Data Repository according to its organization-wide backup policy, maintaining copies of data in three distinct locations.

Data Access policies. The TDL encourages the use of the Texas Data Repository for open publication of data, in order to maximize its re-use, but provides flexible options for restricting access to a few or no other individuals.

• All data published in the repository is published by default under a "no rights reserved" (CC0) license; however, depositors can choose other licensing options or create a custom re-use policy for their published data. They may also choose not to publish their data at all, but simply to achieve it for safe-keeping or limited sharing on a case-by-case basis.

Policy on Confidential and Sensitive Data. The Texas Data Repository does NOT accept content that contains confidential or sensitive information (even if it remains unpublished in the system), and requires that contributors remove, replace, or redact such information from datasets prior to upload.

• Users that wish to deposit data into the repository must assent to a usage agreement that includes these terms and conditions. The full usage agreement is available on the Data Repository Confluence on the Terms of Use page.

¹ "Research Expenditures Summary, September 1, 2013-August 31, 2014: Texas Universities and Health-Related Institutions." Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, March 2015. http://bit.ly/2blUz25

² John Holdren. "MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES." Executive Office of the President Office of Science and Technology Policy, February 22, 2013. http://bit.ly/2bCxDTt

³ "Sherpa/Juliet – Some Juliet Statistics." (2015, December 7) Retrieved from http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/stats.php?la=en&mode=simple.

⁴ Julia Belluz, Brad Plumer, and Brian Resnick. "The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists" Vox.com. July 16, 2016. http://bit.ly/2bgVTtt