About openICPSR

A service of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), openICPSR is a self-publishing repository for social, behavioral, and health sciences research data. openICPSR is particularly well-suited for the deposit of replication data sets for researchers who need to publish their raw data associated with a journal article so that other researchers can replicate their findings.

Your deposit to openICPSR involves no cost to you, involves very little effort, and ensures that your data collection is preserved for the long-term. Other benefits include:

  • up to 30GB in storage space, 
  • up to 1,000 files and folders per deposit,
  • immediate publication with citation and persistent identifier (DOI), 
  • meeting funder requirements for shared data, 
  • ensuring shared data meet the FAIR principles, 
  • increased discoverability via ICPSR's data catalog and major search engines,
  • increased research transparency via links to publications, 
  • demonstrated impact of your research via usage statistics, 
  • options for sharing and preserving restricted-use (sensitive) data securely, 
  • flexible licensing options, 
  • no cost dissemination to other data users, and 
  • reducing/eliminating your costs to maintain the data over time.

All data collection deposits to openICPSR are expected to connect with or expand upon the scientific investigation of the social dimensions of human lives and to include data, code, and documentation necessary to understand and/or replicate the depositor’s research. openICPSR offers fully-hosted research data services for organizations and journals interested in showcasing their data collections and tracking the impact of their work. Learn more about the benefits of launching a tailored openICPSR repository.

Start Your Deposit

ICPSR's Role

ICPSR does not improve or alter datasets deposited in openICPSR in any way. Data are preserved as-is and distributed in the same condition and format submitted by the depositor. For best practice in preparing data for sharing, please refer to ICPSR's Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving.

Interested in ICPSR reviewing and enhancing (curating) your data collection? Visit the ICPSR Deposit page or contact ICPSR Acquisitions. ICPSR may also occasionally choose openICPSR data collections to curate and add to its General Archive.

Confidentiality and Copyright

Investigators submitting data to openICPSR are entirely responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of research subjects. The presence of identifiable or sensitive information must be indicated during the submission process, and, if present, the data collection will be published as restricted access to ensure confidentiality and privacy. Although ICPSR does not routinely review submissions for disclosure risk, if risk to participant anonymity is brought to our attention, ICPSR reserves the right to make the data unavailable or restrict access as appropriate. 

Investigators are also required to affirm that they have the right to publish this material. ICPSR requires a license for the distribution of data, but copyright remains with the author.

Questions?

Interested in your own branded openICPSR repository with additional size capacity and reporting functionality? Visit the openICPSR Repositories page.

For additional information, please consult the FAQs or contact us at icpsr-help@umich.edu.