Share and reuse research data
The sharing and reuse of research data:
- improves accountability and integrity of research
- helps to validate research findings
- reduces the cost associated with duplication
- can lead to an enhanced research profile and potential new collaborations.
Find and reuse research data
Visit our Research data guide for sources of published research from government websites, data catalogues, institutional repositories and more.
Make your data available for reuse
When planning to share your data, consider whether you have:
- the authority to share it - are there terms and conditions applying to the use of the data?
- ethical obligations that restrict whether or how you share the data.
Some research data should not be shared, e.g. commercial or intellectual property related data and human identifiable data. Contact your Research Partnership Manager if you are not share if you can share your data.
Publish in a data repository
You can make your data discoverable and available for reuse by publishing either your dataset or metadata about the dataset in a data repository.
UQ eSpace
UQ eSpace is the official institutional data repository for The University of Queensland.
Adding datasets to UQ eSpace ensures your work is:
- FAIR and discoverable to a wide audience
- indexed by Research Data Australia and Clarivate's Data Citation Index
- allocated a direct object identifier (DOI) for citation and tracking
- published with an appropriate licence.
Check Licensing (below, on this page) for more information.
Other repositories
Check Research Data Australia to find a data repositories. When choosing a repository, evaluate it against your requirements before depositing your data. Consider factors such as:
- sustainability and ongoing funding
- preservation policy or plan
- audience
- licencing and access arrangements
- inclusion of appropriate metadata elements to ensure the discoverability of the data
- commitment to FAIR data principles
- policy on reuse of data and data citation.
Access levels
You can apply different levels of access when sharing your research data. Check if you have any obligations to make your data Open or Mediated Access.
Try to make your data as open as possible. Check our Open data page for more information.
Open Access
Publicly available for access, use, reuse and redistribution.
Mediated Access
Requires the researcher to approve access to the data before use by another researcher.
It allows the data to be accessed and used in line with ethics requirements or other contextual conditions. Visit Request access to data for advice on agreements for sharing and accessing research data.
Closed Access
Closed data is not suitable for sharing. If a dataset is not to be shared or reused it should be archived in an appropriate facility rather than published. Consider what you can publish before deciding on closed access. Even sensitive data can be shared with the right treatment.
Licencing project data
UQ eSpace
The University of Queensland provides standard licence agreements for researchers publishing datasets in UQ eSpace. The licence agreement ensures downloads and reuse of data is properly acknowledged and attributed.
The Publish a dataset with UQRDM and UQ eSpace guide explains how to:
- create a dataset in UQ Research Data Manager
- publish a datset to UQ eSpace
- manage and grant access to your datasets.
Creative Commons licences
Creative Commons provides a range of licences from very open to quite restrictive.
You may need to consider which licence to choose if you are publishing your project's data in an international repository that relies on Creative Commons Licences. Learn more about Creative Commons licences.