A digital repository whose mission, governance, technical infrastructure, and procedures have been independently assessed against a recognised standard (e.g. CoreTrustSeal, nestor seal, ISO 16363) and judged trustworthy to preserve digital content over the long term.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A national data centre certified to CoreTrustSeal hosting climate datasets.
Is an instance
An ISO 16363-certified national archive accepting scientific research data deposits.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A personal Dropbox folder is not a trusted digital repository.
Not an instance
A self-styled 'archive' with no third-party certification is not a TDR in the technical sense.

Editorial commentary

The ‘trusted’ in trusted digital repository is a third-party-assessed status, not a self-claim. Standards differ in depth and scope: CoreTrustSeal (16 requirements, lightweight self-assessment + peer review) is the most widely adopted baseline; nestor seal (DIN 31644) is the German standard; ISO 16363 (audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories) is the most rigorous. Funders and policy bodies increasingly require deposit into a trusted repository as a condition of funding.

References

Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, 'Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS)', ISO 14721:2012.
ISO 16363:2012, Space data and information transfer systems — Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories.

Also known as

TDR · Certified repository

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Trusted digital repository"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/trusted-digital-repository" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/trusted-digital-repository",
  "name": "Trusted digital repository",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/trusted-digital-repository",
  "description": "A digital repository whose mission, governance, technical infrastructure, and procedures have been independently assessed against a recognised standard (e.g. CoreTrustSeal, nestor seal, ISO 16363) and judged trustworthy to preserve digital content over the long term.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/trusted-digital-repository",
  "sameAs": [
    "TDR",
    "Certified repository"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:10:36",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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