Social Science Data Services
Finding and Managing Data for Research

Data Services > Archiving & Disseminating Your Data

Archiving & Disseminating Your Data

The MIT Libraries are committed to support MIT faculty and researchers in their role as producers of data. There exist many compelling reasons for archiving and disseminating your data, including:

• publicizing your work,
• enabling other researchers to utilize and build upon your research,
• ensuring long-term access to your data, and
• meeting the requirements of grantors to make your data available in a data archive or library.

Three primary options exist for archiving and disseminating your data:

1. DSpace

DSpace is a digital repository created to capture, distribute and provide stable long-term storage for digital products of MIT faculty and researchers. It provides digital distribution and long-term preservation for a variety of formats including datasets and more. Authors can store their digital works in collections that are maintained by MIT communities.

For more information on how to deposit your data into DSpace, contact the DSpace Product Manager.

2. Harvard-MIT Data Center (HMDC)

HMDC provides the MIT community to load and distribute data sets produced at MIT. Its repository is DDI-compliant (using the Dataverse Network software), and provides several important features, including:

• format conversion
• subset selection generation
• on-line data analysis
• cross searching with data from other collections, such as the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
• the ability for MIT faculty or groups to create customized collections for data that they load

3. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

ICPSR maintains a vast archive of social science data that it then makes available to its members, such as MIT, and to the larger public in some cases. ICPSR has a large staff able to guide you in preparing your data for archiving and distribution. For more information on how to prepare your data for archiving, see their Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving. For information on working with ICPSR, see their page on Depositing Data.

Data Documentation:

In order for others to utilize your data, it is vital to properly document both the research project and the structure of the data file. This can be done using the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), an XML schema for the documentation of social science data. As data documentation can be time-consuming and require a lot of support, the Libraries' Metadata Services Unit can help you in this process.

Confidentiality

Concerned about confidentiality issues regarding your research data? If depositing your data with ICPSR, their staff will review your data for the presence of confidential information; see confidentiality review.

Regardless of where you deposit your data, you should consult the MIT Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES).