PANGAEA is an open-access data library and publisher for georeferenced Earth and environmental science data, jointly operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at the University of Bremen, Germany. It functions as Germany’s designated polar data center and is one of the largest discipline-specific repositories for observational and experimental data in the earth, environmental, and life sciences. For a research administrator advising on data management plans (DMPs), PANGAEA is worth knowing specifically because it operates as a data publisher, not merely a storage archive: every accepted dataset is edited, structurally harmonized, assigned a persistent DOI, and made independently citable, in some cases alongside a formally linked journal article.
What Makes PANGAEA a “Publisher” Rather Than Just a Repository
The distinction matters for compliance narratives. A domain repository stores and serves data; a data publisher additionally edits, reviews, and formally issues each dataset as a citable scholarly output, the same way a journal issues an article. PANGAEA’s own editorial process (below) is what earns it this designation, and it is the model CASRAI’s data publication practices guide describes as the “repository deposit with a DOI” route to formal data publication, distinct from looser sharing or deposit-only arrangements.
Scope: What Data PANGAEA Accepts
PANGAEA accepts georeferenced observational and experimental data across the earth, environmental, biodiversity, and life sciences, with a strong disciplinary emphasis on polar and marine research reflecting its host institutions’ remits. Typical submissions include oceanographic and atmospheric measurements, sediment and ice-core data, biodiversity and ecological survey data, and other spatially or temporally referenced environmental observations. This positions PANGAEA alongside other domain repositories CASRAI has covered for adjacent disciplines, such as the NASA Exoplanet Archive for astronomical data, though PANGAEA’s remit is earth-system rather than space science.
The DOI-Based Data Citation Model
Every dataset published through PANGAEA receives a persistent DOI, resolvable and independently citable regardless of whether the underlying journal article it accompanies remains available. This follows the same logic behind the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles: a dataset is a first-class scholarly product, not a supplementary file, and should be citable, discoverable, and given credit on its own terms. PANGAEA datasets can be published as standalone citable outputs, or as part of a citable data collection tied to a specific journal article, a distinction covered further below.
Editorial Curation and Quality Control
PANGAEA runs a structured editorial process rather than accepting raw file uploads for direct publication. Per PANGAEA’s own submission documentation, the workflow generally involves: an initial submission through a data submission form, with ongoing communication tracked through an internal issue-tracking system; a quality-assurance stage in which editorial staff (scientists with earth and life sciences backgrounds) check the completeness and consistency of both metadata and data; conversion and preparation of the data into PANGAEA’s standardized, machine-readable publication format; and a final author review step before the dataset is formally published. PANGAEA notes that, depending on the size and complexity of a submission, this editorial process can take up to several weeks. This curation step is a meaningful part of what distinguishes a “published” dataset from a self-deposited one, and is the kind of process funders and journals increasingly expect a data management plan to point to when it names a repository.
The Journal Partnership Model: Data Papers and Linked Datasets
PANGAEA supports two related but distinct publication patterns that connect a dataset to the journal literature:
- Data papers / data journal partnerships. PANGAEA is a long-standing data host for data-paper journals such as Earth System Science Data (ESSD) and Springer Nature’s Scientific Data, where a peer-reviewed article describing the dataset is published alongside a PANGAEA-hosted, DOI-cited dataset. CASRAI’s data papers vs. dataset records comparison covers how this model differs from a plain repository deposit.
- Supplementary/linked data for conventional articles. For journals that don’t run a dedicated data-paper track, PANGAEA supports pre-publication, password-protected access to data supplements so journal editors and reviewers can evaluate underlying data during peer review, and supports embedding live data references directly on a published article’s page once the dataset and article are both public.
In both cases, the practical effect for a research administrator is the same: the data DOI and the article DOI become two independently trackable, cross-linked scholarly outputs, which strengthens funder reporting and makes the dataset discoverable even to readers who never open the article.
Licensing
PANGAEA datasets are published under a choice of Creative Commons licenses selected by the submitting researcher, allowing reuse terms to be set explicitly rather than left ambiguous, consistent with the licensing expectations covered in CASRAI’s broader FAIR Data Principles material.
Accreditation and Fit With FAIR/Open-Science Compliance
PANGAEA states that it holds certification from CoreTrustSeal, is a member of the World Data System (WDS) of the International Science Council, and holds recognition from the World Meteorological Organization. It also explicitly frames its practices around the FAIR Data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). For a research administrator evaluating repository choice against a funder mandate, this combination, third-party trustworthy-repository certification plus an explicit FAIR commitment, is exactly what CASRAI’s CoreTrustSeal certification guide describes reviewers looking for when a DMP names a specific repository: independent evidence that the repository will remain accessible and well-governed beyond the life of a single award, not just a claim to that effect.
How PANGAEA Fits Into a Data Management Plan
When earth, environmental, polar, or marine-science data is in scope, naming PANGAEA in a DMP’s Data Management Plan repository-selection section does more compliance work than naming a generic institutional or generalist repository, precisely because it is a certified, discipline-matched, editorially curated venue rather than a self-service deposit target. Funder and journal data policies that reference domain-appropriate repositories, and increasingly they do, are satisfied more directly by a domain repository with a demonstrable curation and citation process than by a generalist alternative. CASRAI’s how to choose an open data repository guide covers the general decision criteria (subject fit, certification, licensing, cost) that make PANGAEA the stronger fit specifically for earth and environmental science outputs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is PANGAEA free to use?
PANGAEA operates as a publicly funded, open-access data library; researchers do not pay a per-dataset publication fee to deposit and publish data through PANGAEA in the way they might pay an article-processing charge to a journal. Confirm current terms directly on PANGAEA’s submission pages before committing a DMP to specific cost assumptions, since funding and fee structures for research infrastructure can change.
Does PANGAEA only accept polar and marine data?
No. Polar and marine science are PANGAEA’s strongest disciplinary emphasis, reflecting its host institutions, but its stated scope covers georeferenced observational and experimental data across the earth, environmental, and biodiversity sciences more broadly.
How is PANGAEA different from a generalist repository like Zenodo or Figshare?
A generalist repository like Zenodo or Figshare accepts data from any discipline with minimal subject-specific curation. PANGAEA is a domain repository: submissions go through discipline-expert editorial review, structural harmonization into standardized formats, and are frequently formally linked to companion journal articles through data-paper partnerships, a level of curation a generalist platform does not provide.
Can a dataset be published in PANGAEA without an accompanying journal article?
Yes. PANGAEA publishes datasets as standalone, independently citable outputs with their own DOI; a linked data paper or supplementary-data relationship to a journal article is common but not required.
This guide reflects PANGAEA’s own published documentation as of 2026 (pangaea.de); dataset counts and specific policy terms should be reconfirmed directly on PANGAEA’s site before being cited in a funder-facing document, since repository statistics and terms change over time.
