Research Guides: SMU Research Data Repository (RDR) User Guide: About

About

SMU Research Data Repository (SMU RDR) is a tool and service for all researchers to store, share and publish their research data. SMU RDR accepts a wide range of research data and outputs generated from research projects.

This guide contains instructions on how to use SMU RDR and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). You may also refer to the Research Data Management Guide on best practices to organize, document and manage your data.

Storage space of 100GB per user, securely hosted on Amazon S3 with regular backups
Long-term data retention for at least 10 years to help you meet requirements from SMU Research Data Management Policy
A collaboration tool to share data with SMU or external researchers
Research impact as your data will be citable with a DOI, discoverable in search engines including Google Dataset, and sharing underlying data may bring higher citations to your publications.

SMU RDR only accepts research data and/or the descriptive information about research data, which is related to any academic research that involves at least one SMU person. Please refer to the definition of Research Data as defined in SMU Research Data Management Policy:
Research Data is the information or data in whatever format or form collected, observed, generated, created and/or obtained, used, transmitted, stored, backed up or destroyed during the entire course of a research project. Research Data includes data to allow others to replicate the research work, and ensure reproducibility of one’s results, which may include but is not limited to numerical, textual or visual data, original or derived datasets, software codes, audio or video recordings, field notebooks, interviews and questionnaires.

You may not upload any research data that:

contain personally identifiable information that has not been anonymized to conceal the identity of individuals
contain confidential information, the upload of which constitutes a violation of external agreements, contracts or applicable law
classified as Sensitive or Highly Sensitive as defined by the Research Data Classification Guidelines in SMU Research Data Management Policy.

Here are some possible use cases:

To store and backup your data. You can upload your data and save it as a private record. This means other SMU users or the public cannot get access your data. See "How to Upload".

To share data privately with another person. You can conveniently share data with a peer reviewer or a collaborator. See "How to Collaborate".
To publish a descriptive record about your data. This record usually describes your dataset and tells others how to make a request, but you maintain full control over who can get access. The actual data files may be hidden, embargoed or stored elsewhere. See "How to Publish".
To publish data openly on the web. You can make data fully open access to meet publisher or funder requirements, or if you are a supporter of Open Science. See "How to Publish".