Cheat Sheet on Publishing Research Data on Zenodo

Publishing Research Data on Zenodo Zenodo is a free repository for research data and other outputs, developed and hosted by CERN and open to all researchers. It allows you to publish datasets in line with the FAIR principles and receive a Digital Object Identifi er (DOI) for your work. Step-by-step guideline The following steps guide you through the process of publishing your research data on Zenodo: 1. Create a Zenodo Account: If you do not already have a Zenodo account, visit https://zenodo.org/ and click on «Sign Up» to create an account. You can also sign in with an existing GitHub or ORCID account. We recommend to register with your ORCID. 2. Create a New Upload: After signing in, click on «New Upload». You can drag-and-drop the fi les you want to upload or select them manually. Use reusable, open fi le formats wherever possible. Our website lists recommended fi le formats. You may upload not only data but also supporting documentation such as readme fi les or codebooks. You can also upload a ZIP archive to keep the hierarchical structure of your fi les. 3. Select a Community: A community on Zenodo is a curated collection of research outputs related to a specifi c institution, project, or thematic area. Choose a community before publication. We recommend to add your dataset to the community «Research Data University of Basel» to indicate your affi liation with the University of Basel and get help with data curation. After publishing your dataset, you can also add more communities (e.g. the community of your research group). Research Data Management Network https://researchdata.unibas.ch • This work is licensed under CC-BY 4.0. • [email protected] Illustration by [email protected], modifi ed 4. Describe Your Dataset and Fill in Metadata: After you have added your fi les, fi ll in the metadata to make your data fi ndable and accessible (* indicates information required by Zenodo): a. Basic Information: • Digital Object Identifi er (DOI) (*): You receive a DOI for your data, making it uniquely identifi able and citable. You can even reserve a DOI before publication and cite it in your manuscript. If your dataset has been published elsewhere and already has a DOI, you can enter it here. You should not register two different DOIs for one dataset. • Choose the resource type (*): Select «dataset» even if your dataset includes images or other media types. • Title (*): Choose a clear, descriptive title that indicates content, scope, and specifi city. • Publication Date (*): The publication date in Zenodo refl ects the moment your dataset becomes publicly available. By default, this is set to the day you create the draft upload. You can also manually set a different publication date. The publication date is part of the dataset’s citation metadata. • Creators (*): Add all individuals responsible for data creation and ideally link their ORCID. Creators appear in the citation and are credited as authors. • Description: Describe your data as accurately as possible so that other researchers can understand what the data is about. You can use Markdown to format and structure the description. • Licenses: To ensure your data is reusable, you must choose a suitable license. Zenodo offers a variety of licenses, including Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Generally, we recommend CC BY for copyrighted content and CC0 for uncopyrighted content. Ensure your license choice is refl ected both in the metadata and within the dataset fi les. b. Recommended Information: • Contributors: Add individuals or organizations who supported the work (e.g. technical staff) but are not considered dataset authors. • Keywords and subjects: Enter relevant keywords that describe your data and make it easier to fi nd. Zenodo supports controlled vocabularies – check the tooltip for suggestions. • Languages: Specify the main language of your dataset. For multilingual datasets, choose the dominant or most relevant language. For non-textual data (e.g. images), indicate the language of the accompanying documentation. • Dates: The fi eld allows you to add relevant dates associated with your dataset, such as when the data were collected. You can add multiple dates, each with a type and description. This helps users understand the timeline of your dataset and improves metadata quality. • Version: The information in this fi eld tells users which version of your dataset they are currently viewing and makes updates traceable and citable. It is recommended to use semantic versioning, where a structured sequence of numbers (e.g., v1.3.4) refl ects the type of changes — major changes, minor improvements, or small corrections. Other types of versioning, such as date-based, can also be used as long as they are applied consistently. Research Data Management Network https://researchdata.unibas.ch • This work is licensed under CC-BY 4.0. • [email protected] Illustration by [email protected], modifi ed c. Zenodo provides additional metadata fi elds. Check if they are relevant to you: • Funding (Awards/Grants): Include funding sources, if applicable. • Alternate Identifi ers: Include other identifi ers for the same resource to enhance crossreferencing and discoverability across platforms. Examples include handle or PURL (commonly used in institutional repositories), database accession numbers or OSF ID (if the dataset is hosted or mirrored on the Open Science Framework). • Related Works: Link to relevant publications or related datasets. Ideally, you should both link from the dataset to relevant publications and include the link (DOI) to the supporting data in your publications. • References: List works cited or referenced by your submission. This is useful for providing context, especially for datasets or software that support or result from published research. • Software: Link to software that was used to generate the data or that is associated with the publication. This helps others understand, reproduce, or build upon your work. • Publishing Information: Provide details like journal name, volume, issue, and page numbers if the dataset has been formally published, e.g. in a data journal. This adds bibliographic context. • Conference: Specify the name, acronym, location, and date of a conference if the dataset was created and/or presented there. • Domain-specifi c fi elds: Add metadata specifi c to your research discipline (e.g., geographic coverage for environmental datasets, species name for biological studies). This improves discoverability with in specifi c research communities. 5. Visibility: Determine who should have access to your data. Your data should be as open as possible, but as closed as necessary. Choose between: • Open Access: The metadata and fi les are publicly accessible. • Restricted Access: The metadata are publicly accessible. The fi les can only be accessed by users specifi ed in the permissions. • Restricted Access with an Embargo: Access to the data is fully restricted for a defi ned period of time. If you belong to the University Hospital Basel or the Medical Faculty and work with sensitive data, check the processes of the faculty’s Data Access Committee. Research Data Management Network https://researchdata.unibas.ch • This work is licensed under CC-BY 4.0. • [email protected] Illustration by [email protected], modifi ed Need help? Consult the Zenodo help pages or contact the coordinators of the Research Data Management Network or the data stewards at your faculty. 6. Publish and Maintain Your Data: Once you’ve fi lled in all the information, click «Publish» to complete the upload. • It is also possible to save a draft and publish it later. • Be aware that you cannot delete or modify published datasets. Only metadata can be changed or a new version uploaded. Contact Zenodo support in case of an exceptional deletion request. • Remember to maintain your data after publication. Respond to questions from other researchers and update your data if necessary. Zenodo allows you to upload new versions of your dataset at any time by clicking «New version». Each version receives its own DOI, while all versions are also linked through a concept DOI. • Add the information on the published dataset to UNIverse, the Research Portal of the University of Basel. Please select «dataset» as entry type. Enter the same metadata (e.g., title, creator) as on Zenodo and the DOI of the dataset, but do not upload the data itself to UNIverse. GitHub Integration: A Zenodo/GitHub integration allows you to archive a GitHub repository on Zenodo and get a DOI. Zenodo issues a new DOI each time you create a new GitHub release. Check the help pages of Zenodo and GitHub for more information. Research Data Management Network https://researchdata.unibas.ch • This work is licensed under CC-BY 4.0. • [email protected] Illustration by [email protected], modifi ed