General - Frequently Asked Questions
- Mandy Gooch
What is UNC Dataverse?
UNC Dataverse is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's data repository. It is available to all UNC-CH faculty, students, and staff, as well as affiliated partners for sharing and preserving research data and data related materials. UNC Dataverse is managed and maintained by the Research Data Management Core.
Users are encouraged to explore the tool using our UNC Demo Dataverse, our video tutorials, as well as the UNC Dataverse user guide. If you have further questions, please Submit a Help Ticket.
What is Dataverse?
Dataverse is an open source web-based repository platform for sharing, preserving, and finding research data. It was developed by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and has been enhanced and adopted by many institutions across the world. For a brief overview of Dataverse's history and features, please view the video below, or visit The Dataverse Project.
Dataverse vs. Dataset
A dataverse is a collection that can hold datasets as well as other dataverse collections. You can think of it as a container as depicted below.
This structure permits users to organize their research in various ways. For examples of how you can organize your data within UNC Dataverse, please see the Dataverse Organization Examples in the UNC Demo Dataverse (Coming Soon).
Who manages UNC Dataverse?
UNC Dataverse is managed and maintained by the Research Data Management Core (RDMC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Systems development and technical support is provided by the Research Data Architecture team. Data management planning, archiving, and training is provided by the Research Data Stewardship team.
Learn more about our staff and expertise.
Why should I deposit my research data in UNC Dataverse?
Sharing and preserving research data is an important part of the research lifecycle. By depositing your data in a data repository like UNC Dataverse, you are ensuring that your research is accessible and reusable well into the future. Not only is this beneficial for your own research needs, but it permits others to build upon your work to advance scientific inquiry and discovery.
The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy has released various memos (2013, 2022) charging federal funding agencies with developing and honing their data management and sharing policies for all funded research. In order to comply with these policies, researchers must share the outputs of their research with the public in appropriate data repositories.
In addition to government mandates, research communities are quickly adopting the FAIR Principles for making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. These principles offer guidance for ensuring that data are properly preserved, described, and shared for future access and reuse. UNC Dataverse is FAIR compliant.
What is the difference between putting my data in UNC Dataverse vs. other cloud storage options such as Dropbox or OneDrive?
While Dropbox and OneDrive may be approved and viable options for storing data during the active phase of your research, they are not long-term preservation and access platforms. Additionally, they do not support FAIR Principles for making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
Using an established and trusted data repository like UNC Dataverse to share and archive your data ensures your research outputs and hard work are well described and findable now and into the future.
Through UNC Dataverse, users can understand the context and licensing of your data thanks to standardized metadata and customizable terms of use provided by a data repository. UNC Dataverse is built on recognized preservation technology that performs checks and audits on files and is backed up regularly to multiple servers across the country, meaning your data are safe from corruption and loss. The Research Data Management Core staff are also fully committed to the long-term preservation of research data and have developed policies around data archiving and security best practices and standards.