re3data (the Registry of Research Data Repositories) is a curated, discipline-spanning directory of research data repositories that lets researchers filter by persistent identifiers, licences, metadata standards and certifications to find a FAIR-compliant home for their data — and lets repository managers apply for a free, editorially reviewed listing.
re3data is a global registry, launched in 2012 and maintained by a partnership that includes DataCite, cataloguing research data repositories across every academic discipline.
- What is re3data?
- How do I search re3data for a FAIR-compliant repository?
- What do re3data’s icons and certifications mean?
- How do I list a repository in re3data?
- How does re3data compare with Google Dataset Search and other registries?
- Common questions about re3data
- What this means for institutions, funders and publishers
- The takeaway
What Is re3data?
re3data is a registry, not a repository itself — it describes and indexes the repositories that store data. The service was initiated in 2012 as a joint project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and today it is run in partnership by DataCite, the Berlin School of Library and Information Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Helmholtz Association’s Open Science Office, KIT Library and Purdue University Libraries.
According to the peer-reviewed description of the service published in Scientific Data (Pampel et al., 2023, DOI: 10.1038/s41597-023-02462-y), re3data indexed over 3,000 research data repositories spanning every academic discipline. Each entry follows the re3data.org Schema for the Description of Research Data Repositories (Vierkant et al., 2013, DOI: 10.2312/re3.004), and all registry metadata is released under a CC0 licence, while the website itself is CC-BY.
Several major research funders and publishers point researchers to re3data directly in their own data policies, including Springer Nature, the European Commission in its Horizon Europe Programme Guide, and the US National Science Foundation, which cites it in guidance for making research data discoverable and citable.
How Do I Search re3data for a FAIR-Compliant Repository?
The FAIR data principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable — describe what a well-run repository should deliver, not a certification a repository “has.” re3data operationalises this by letting you filter its listings on the specific attributes that make a repository FAIR in practice, rather than asking you to take a marketing claim at face value.
- Start from your discipline or data type, not the repository’s name — browse by subject or content type, or search by keyword.
- Filter for Findable by restricting results to repositories that assign persistent identifiers such as DOIs.
- Filter for Accessible using the access-type filter (open, restricted, embargoed) to match your funder’s or journal’s access requirement.
- Filter for Interoperable by selecting repositories that document a recognised metadata standard for their discipline.
- Filter for Reusable by narrowing to repositories that publish a clear data licence and provenance information.
- Cross-check the detail page for the repository’s terms of use, certification status and API availability before committing.
This filter-first approach is the practical difference between re3data and a generic web search: instead of assessing FAIR compliance yourself from a repository’s homepage, you narrow the field using the same structured metadata re3data’s editors collected and verified.
What Do re3data’s Icons and Certifications Mean?
Every repository record in re3data displays a row of icons that summarise its key properties at a glance, so you do not have to read a full policy page to screen out unsuitable candidates.
| Icon/attribute | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Persistent identifier (e.g. DOI) | Datasets receive a citable, stable identifier — core to the Findable principle |
| Licence | Reuse terms are stated explicitly, rather than left ambiguous |
| Metadata standard | The repository documents which schema it uses, aiding interoperability with other systems |
| Data access policy | Access conditions (open, restricted, embargoed) are formally published |
| Certification (e.g. CoreTrustSeal) | An independent body has assessed the repository’s trustworthiness and long-term sustainability |
The CoreTrustSeal certification is the one worth prioritising if your funder or journal requires a “trusted repository”: it is an independent, internationally recognised assessment, and re3data surfaces which listed repositories hold it without you needing to check a separate certification register.
How Do I List a Repository in re3data?
Repository managers can apply for inclusion free of charge, but re3data applies fixed minimum requirements before any listing goes live, and every submission passes through two independent reviewers rather than a single editor.
- The repository must be operated by a legal entity with institutional continuity — a library, university, government agency or comparable sustaining organisation, not an individual or informal project.
- Access conditions and terms of use for both the data and the repository interface must be stated clearly and publicly.
- The repository’s primary purpose must be research data, not general document or publication hosting.
- An English-language graphical user interface must be available, even if other languages are also supported.
Once a repository is suggested through re3data’s submission form, an editorial reviewer analyses the site against the schema fields, a second reviewer checks the entry, and the record is then published and dated for future re-verification. Repository managers should expect to supply the repository’s URL, subject coverage, metadata standard, licensing terms and any certifications already held — the more of this documented up front, the faster the review.
How Does re3data Compare with Google Dataset Search and Other Registries?
Researchers and repository managers often conflate re3data with adjacent tools that serve a related but distinct purpose. Choosing the wrong one wastes time — a “research data repository” query and a “dataset” query are not the same search.
| Tool | What it covers | How entries get in | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| re3data | Research data repositories, all disciplines | Editorial review against a fixed schema, two reviewers | Choosing a discipline-appropriate, FAIR-aligned repository to deposit in |
| Google Dataset Search | Individual datasets carrying schema.org/DCAT markup anywhere on the web | Automated crawl, no human review | Discovering a specific published dataset, not evaluating a repository’s trustworthiness |
| FAIRsharing | Standards, policies, databases and repositories | Curated, cross-linked to funder policies | Checking which metadata or reporting standard a repository should follow |
| OpenDOAR | Open-access repositories, largely publication-focused | Curated | Finding an institutional repository for papers, not primarily research data |
In practice, re3data helps you pick where to deposit before publication; Google Dataset Search helps a reader find a dataset already deposited somewhere. Using re3data first closes the loop between deposit and later reuse.
Common Questions About re3data
What is re3data?
re3data is a global, editorially reviewed registry of research data repositories covering every academic discipline. It does not host data itself; it describes repositories using a standardised schema so researchers, funders, libraries and publishers can identify one that meets their access, licensing and metadata requirements.
What is the best data repository?
There is no single “best” repository — the right choice depends on discipline, data type and funder requirements. A discipline-specific repository listed with a relevant metadata standard is usually preferable to a generic one; re3data’s filters are built to surface that fit rather than a single ranked answer.
What is data deposition in a repository?
Data deposition is the act of submitting a dataset, with its associated metadata, into a repository so it is preserved, made accessible under stated terms, and assigned a persistent identifier. Depositing in a repository listed on re3data helps satisfy funder and journal data-availability requirements.
Who owns the research data?
Ownership of research data typically rests with the employing or funding institution, not the individual researcher, though the principal investigator is usually the named data steward responsible for its curation, publication route and reuse conditions during and after the project.
What This Means for Institutions, Funders and Publishers
For institutional research offices, re3data is a low-cost way to steer researchers toward compliant repositories without maintaining a bespoke internal directory. For funders and publishers that already cite re3data in policy — as Springer Nature, the European Commission and the NSF do — the registry functions as a shared reference point for “an appropriate repository,” reducing disputes over whether a chosen repository meets a data-sharing mandate.
For repository managers, a re3data listing is closer to infrastructure hygiene than marketing: it is free and checked against a stable schema, and being absent from it makes a repository invisible to funder-policy language that increasingly names re3data by default.
The Takeaway
re3data solves two distinct problems with one registry: it gives researchers a filterable, evidence-based way to find a FAIR-compliant repository, and it gives repository managers a clear, no-cost path to visibility once they meet its inclusion criteria. Neither task requires guesswork if the registry’s filters, icons and submission schema are used as designed rather than treated as a simple search box.
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