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Research Data Management: Data Storage

A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end

NWU Institutional Repository (Boloka)

Welcome to Boloka, the open-access Institutional Repository of the North-West University (NWU-IR). This digital archive collects, preserves, and distributes research material created by NWU members.

The aim of the NWU-IR is to increase the visibility, availability, and impact of North-West University's research output through Open Access, search engine indexing, and harvesting through several initiatives.

Data Repository @NWU

North-West University

The North-West University has its own Institutional Data Repository, DaYta Ya Rona, powered by Figshare. This Repository facilitates data publishing, sharing, and collaboration in academic research, allowing NWU to manage and, in some cases, showcase its data to the wider research community.

Research data repositories

Digital Research data is best preserved and published using a research data repository. A repository enables publishing, preserving, and curating data underpinning published research. It is an online database archive that manages the long-term storage and preservation of digital resources and provides a platform for the data to be accessible, discoverable and citeable. Research funding agencies increasingly mandate that the data generated during research projects they pay for be preserved and made available to others for ten years or more beyond the point of research publication. Some publishers provide data centres for that purpose. Some journal publishers specify repositories in which data may be deposited.

Benefits:

  • Enables publication of research data with a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for citation.
  • Enables the preservation and curation of research data beyond the lifetime of a project.
  • Anyone can search the Repository for data.
  • Major search engines index the data content and enable anyone to search for the data.
  • Enables compliance with Research Councils and other major funding bodies’ policies.
  •  Improve the reproducibility of your research findings
  • Receive credit via the citation of your data in future research
  • Ensure that your data can be re-used, re-analysed, or combined with other datasets in future to contribute to the advancement of your field
  • Ensure you can locate and access the data in the future without having to manage and maintain it actively.

Finding Datasets and other Repositories