A non-profit generalist research data repository operated by Dryad Data Inc. (in partnership with the California Digital Library) that publishes peer-reviewed-paper-linked datasets, mints DataCite DOIs, and applies curation review before publication.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 17 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A dataset accompanying an evolutionary-biology paper deposited in Dryad with a DataCite DOI and CC0 licence.
Is an instance
Dryad-Zenodo cross-linking where the data are in Dryad and the analysis software in Zenodo.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A discipline-specific repository such as TreeBASE is not Dryad.
Not an instance
An institutional repository is not Dryad.

Editorial commentary

Dryad was founded in 2007 by a consortium of biological journals to host datasets accompanying papers. Its workflow is journal-integrated: a researcher submits a dataset alongside a manuscript; Dryad curators review for completeness; the dataset is published with a DOI and linked to the article. Dryad operates a CC0-default licence, encouraging maximally reusable deposits. Dryad partners with Zenodo for software deposits (Zenodo handles software, Dryad handles data, with cross-links). Dryad’s preservation copy is held in Merritt (California Digital Library), which holds CoreTrustSeal certification — Dryad’s curation and publishing layer is not itself separately certified.

References

Dryad Data Inc., ‘Dryad Data Repository’ (datadryad.org).

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Dryad (concept)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dryad-concept" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dryad-concept",
  "name": "Dryad (concept)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dryad-concept",
  "description": "A non-profit generalist research data repository operated by Dryad Data Inc. (in partnership with the California Digital Library) that publishes peer-reviewed-paper-linked datasets, mints DataCite DOIs, and applies curation review before publication.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dryad-concept",
  "sameAs": [],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-17T17:13:18",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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