About

Purpose

The purpose of Washington University Research Data repository (WURD) is to provide an institutional solution for Washington University affiliates’ research datasets. Researcher submitted datasets are generally public, open access, but we do have a few other types of collections, some of which have access restrictions.

What makes a “collection”?

Data submitted by WashU Researchers is placed in the WashU Researcher Data collection. Data that are placed into a collection outside of the WashU Researcher Data collection are put there for functional purposes to indicate 1) access restrictions, or 2) large, thematic connections between datasets. A thematic collection is made up of more than 20 datasets that can be connected by a clear theme.

Curation

Data curation is a process by which we review datasets and evaluate whether they are meeting institutional, community and federal data sharing standards. This includes guidelines outlined in the OSTP 2022 memo on public access to federally funded research, the Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research, and the FAIR data principles.

FAIR Data

FAIR data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

With each submission, Data Services assesses it for FAIRness:

Retention

Datasets are retained for 10 years and receive a curatorial review. When a dataset reaches 10 years it is assessed in cooperation with the submitter to ensure it's in receivng the proper stewardship. It may be reviewed at other times as well, for example during a platform migration.

Preservation

Published datasets receive PREMIS metadata and integrity checks as well as being exported to our local instance of Archivematica and stored in an additional location.

Who We Are

Data Services

The Data Services team administer the repository and curate datasets for WashU affiliated faculty.

The local curation team includes:

Data Curation Network (DCN)

The Data Curation Network is a membership organization of institutional and non-profit data repositories whose vision is to advance open research by making data more ethical, reusable, and understandable. When necessary, we send datasets to the DCN for curation.

Other members of the DCN include: