Office of Polar Programs Data Repositories and Resources

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) policy on dissemination and sharing of research results states that principal investigators (PIs) are expected to share the data, physical samples, code and other supporting materials (characterized as "data" below) created or gathered in the course of work under NSF-funded awards with other researchers and the public within a reasonable time. 

Data-sharing holds numerous benefits, including enabling broader research collaboration, facilitating transparency, solidifying confidence in scientific research, enabling reuse of data or samples and providing increased resources for teaching and education purposes. Research articles containing a link to data in a repository have markedly higher usage and visibility. 

Discoverable and citable data also serve to reduce barriers to entry for junior researchers, scientists from underserved communities, and researchers from underrepresented and minority groups, thus enabling improved implementation of open science principles. With these aims in mind, the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (OPP) expects all data, samples and code to be as open as possible within ethical parameters.

As expressed in NSF 22-106 ("Dear Colleague Letter: Office of Polar Programs Data and Sample Management Policy"), instead of generalist repositories, OPP PIs should make full use of community-accepted, disciplinary repositories. OPP-funded data centers can support PIs in developing and implementing their data management plans (DMPs) which will provide open, ethical and timely access to quality-controlled and fully documented data, samples, software/code and products during and at the conclusion of the project.

In addition to conversations with the relevant program officer(s), this resource page is intended to help OPP PIs identify appropriate repositories and resources as they develop and implement DMPs. Each DMP should be appropriate for the data, software/code, physical samples and other research materials being generated, and each should reflect the best practices and standards in the area(s) of research being proposed (e.g., Indigenous Knowledge protocols, vertebrate subject protocols, environmental regulations, permitting, etc.).

Considerations include the following: 

• The repository must be a long-lived and publicly accessible archive, except with well-justified and special program officer permission (e.g., in the case no appropriate public repository exists).
• The repository must mint persistent unique identifiers (e.g., DOI for data/code, IGSN for samples and ORCID for authors) and label products with an open/appropriate license (e.g., Creative Commons' CC-0 or CC-BY or Traditional Knowledge (TK) labels for data, and MIT, BSD or others for software/code).
• The repository should adhere to standards that help them align with the FAIR data principles (findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability) and the CARE principles for Indigenous data governance (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics) (e.g., TRUST principles and/or CoreTrustSeal).
• The Arctic Sciences Section prefers data to be deposited in the Arctic Data Center (ADC), although specialist disciplinary repositories may also be appropriate for primary or secondary data deposit (e.g., for sensitive data or to increase findability).
  • As part of the data submission process, metadata should be submitted to the data repository describing observing sites (stations, plots, moorings and other fixed platforms) as well as mobile platforms (buoys, vessels, aircraft, etc.).
  • If you are managing data related to sustained Arctic observations, PIs should follow recommendations from the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON), consult the Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP), and include observing-level metadata along with the sample-level metadata that they report/archive.
• The Antarctic Sciences Section prefers data to be deposited in a disciplinary repository, with metadata required to also be reported to the U.S. Antarctic Program Data Center (USAP-DC).

OPP funds data centers to help PIs and researchers to meet their needs for archiving and sharing data and products — including support for the development of DMPs, minting DOIs, facilitating data access, providing training, and more. OPP recommends that PIs:

• Communicate early with target repositories to ensure that appropriate resources are available.
• Use archived examples and/or the repository's preferred tool to create DMPs (e.g., the DMPTool for the ADC or ezDMP for the USAP-DC)
• Take advantage of free training in general data management best practices and the use of NSF-funded repositories and community offices (e.g., ADC, USAP-DC, ESIP and others).
• Share DMPs with OPP-funded repositories to help the repositories serve users, provide examples for others, and encourage accountability.

• Arctic Data Center (ADC)
  • Data submission guidelines
• Antarctic Meteorological Research & Data Center (AMRDC)
• Biological & Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)
• Environmental Data Initiative for LTER data
  • Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER Data
  • McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER Data
  • Palmer Station Antarctica LTER Data
• Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA)
• Antarctic Core Collection at the Marine & Geology Repository
• NSF Ice Core Facility (ICF)
• Polar Geospatial Center (PGC)
  • Topographic maps and aerial photographs of Antarctica are also available from the USGS.
  • The USGS U.S. Antarctic Research Center also has a searchable database of Antarctic place names, maps, and photographs.
  • With funding from NSF, the USGS, NASA and the British Antarctic Survey have collaborated to provide the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) and the MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica (MOA).
• Polar Rock Repository (PRR)
• U.S. Antarctic Program Data Center (USAP-DC)
  • The American Geosciences Institute maintains the world's most complete Antarctic bibliography. (NOTE: The bibliographies were last updated on September 30, 2011, except for limited additions regarding permafrost-related publications.)
  • Includes the former Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC), previously hosted at NSIDC

• CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (CCHDO) for hydrographic data
• CUAHSI Hydroshare for hydrologic data
• EarthChem Library (ECL) for geochemical and chronological data
• GenBank for sequence data
• NSF SAGE Facility for seismological data
• Informal Cosmogenic-nuclide Exposure-age Database (ICE-D) for cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating data
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
• Joint Archive for Shipboard ADCP (JASADCP) for ocean current data
• Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS) for marine geological/geophysical data
• NSF NCAR Research Data Archive (RDA) for meteorology, atmospheric parameters, etc.
• National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) for paleoclimate data
• National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) for cryospheric data - PIs will need a letter of collaboration
• NSF Division of Ocean Sciences approved repositories for oceanographic data
• Qualitative Data Repository (QDR)
• SESAR for sample information and registration
• tDAR - The Digital Archaeological Record
• NSF GAGE Facility

• Zenodo (Note that while GitHub may be appropriate for code collaboration and versioning, it is not an appropriate long-lived archive. GitHub can easily deliver a static, citable version to a generalist repository like Zenodo, which will mint a DOI, with metadata reported to the ADC and/or USAP-DC, or static versions can be deposited in appropriate disciplinary repositories above, which will also mint a DOI.)
• Searchable global registries of data repositories provide information on indexed repositories to help researchers identify the most appropriate ones, for example, Registry of Research Data Repositories ; and Designing Materials to Revolutionize our Future Software & Data.

OSTP Guidance to Make Federally Funded Research Freely Available Without Delay (August 2022)

• NSF Public Access Repository
• NASA's Transformation to Open Science (TOPS) initiative
• Curating for Reproducibility (CURE) resources for data quality review

If you have suggestions for repositories or resources that should be included on this list, please contact oppdata@nsf.gov and oppcomms@nsf.gov.