Digital Commons Data @ USF

Digital Commons Data @ USF (DCD), maintained by USF Libraries, is a repository for USF affiliates to publish and preserve digital data for public use and future accessibility. Depositing research materials (e.g., datasets, coding manuals, images, video, etc.) associated with publications and/or grant-funded projects helps researchers share information and comply with data sharing policies.

In DCD, you can create data collaboration workflows, leveraging versioning capabilities to organize, annotate, and share your materials in one project environment. Datasets records - designed to be FAIR - are discoverable from a number of search engines, including Google Dataset Search, DataCite, OpenAIRE, and Data Monitor. All submissions will undergo a curatorial review prior to the data being made publicly available and be assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for citation purposes.

All currently affiliated members of USF can deposit their data in the repository. Interested students should contact us at usflibraries-datamgmt@usf.edu before uploading content.

DCD helps you:

• Share your data with the world with a digital object identifier (DOI)
• Increase your reach and impact through data citation and discoverability
• Protect access to your data through long-term archiving and preservation
• Prepare your data for open access
• Develop appropriate standardized metadata
• Fulfill funder and/or journal publisher data sharing mandates
• Make your data FAIR

Datasets are required to have a title, description, and at least one named contributor. Datasets must be scientific in nature and consist of research data. For example, raw or processed experimental or observational data is acceptable, rather than the narrative research article which may have resulted from the research. Datasets must NOT have already been published, and therefore may not already possess a DOI. They must NOT contain:

• Executable files or archives that are not accompanied by individually detailed file descriptions
• Copyrighted content (audio, video, image, etc) to which you do not own the copyright
• Sensitive information (for example, but not limited to, patient details, dates of birth, etc.) 

• Primary investigators can always deposit data. 
• If the PI is a graduate student, they will need to identify their research advisor.

• Members of the research team may also deposit data, but will need to provide contact information about the project's PI.

DCD allows for a wide range of data types, including statistical data, geospatial data, text, audio-visual, archival, and 3D. Published works should not be included, but rather added to Digital Commons @ USF. 

• USF Libraries is committed to making Data FAIR and can help research ensure their data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
• Each dataset file can be a maximum 100GB. However, a project can include multiple datasets.

The data management team includes library faculty and staff across USF campuses, and we are here to help support your research and data management needs. Some of our work includes:

• Helping USF researchers move their work through the various stages of the research lifecycle
• Consultation on data management plan creation
• Advocating for author rights and promotes scholarly publishing literacy
• Partnering with faculty to present and preserve their research online
• Preserving long-term access to digital content via an institutional repository of USF scholarly publications and a digital repository for primary source collections

Feel free to contact us to discuss ways in which we can support your project.