About NIH-Supported Data Sharing Resources
Welcome to the BMIC Sharing Repositories website new look and feel with some added features to improve your user experience! We look forward to continuing this improvement effort to iteratively bring you regular updates with additional content and modernized features to better meet your repository search needs.
NIH has a longstanding commitment to making the results of NIH-funded research available. Responsible data management and sharing has many benefits, including accelerating the pace of biomedical research, enabling validation of research results, and providing accessibility to high-value datasets.
NIH encourages the sharing of data whenever possible and encourages researchers to select the repository that is most appropriate for their data type and discipline. Several NIH policies provide guidance about how, when, and where researchers are expected to make the results of NIH-funded research available.
To help researchers locate an appropriate repository for sharing or accessing data, BMIC maintains lists of domain-specific and generalist data sharing repositories that are each described by several properties (See Repository Properties Definitions below). The listed Institute, Office, or Center (ICO) may fund the repository in whole or in part, or the repository may house data related to the ICO’s research focus. In general, NIH does not endorse or require sharing in any specific repository and encourages researchers to select the repository that is most appropriate for their data type and discipline (though such specification does exist for particular initiatives).
Domain-specific repositories are typically limited to data of a certain type or related to a certain discipline. Generalist repositories accept data regardless of data type, format, content, or disciplinary focus. Investigators may also have access to an institutional repository that would be suitable for sharing data and may consider contacting their institution’s library to learn more.
Contact Us
To report a missing NIH-supported repository or to provide other feedback,
please contact us at custserv@nlm.nih.gov using the subject line,
“BMIC Data Sharing Repository Inquiry.”
Repository Properties Definitions
Data Deposit Timeframe
The timeframe of the research project data collection and therefore data deposit, which may be:
The repository accepts data collected at any point in time, with no specific end date for collecting data.
The repository accepts data collected during a research project with a defined beginning and end. That is, no new data will be collected after the research project ends.
Data Access Policy
The policy a repository has for providing access to the data, which may be:
The repository makes data accessible for cost-free re-use by other investigators. An investigator may or may not be required to submit an access request to the repository for approval.
A repository that does not meet the definition of open data access. For example, a repository that makes data available only to other investigators who are part of the original research team that collected the data.
Data submission policy
The policy a repository has for what types of data and who may submit research data, which may be:
The repository accepts data from a broad set of investigators. Ideally, any investigator with relevant data can submit data, but narrower sets of investigators are permissible, e.g., any investigator funded by a particular NIH ICO.
A repository that does not meet the definition for open data submission. For example, one that accepts data only from a particular project team or small, closed group of funded investigators.
Funding support
An indicator of whether the repository is currently supported by NIH.
The repository currently supported by NIH. This may mean that the repository is owned and operated by NIH such as the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR). Alternatively, the repository may be funded extramurally through a grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or other transaction agreement (OTA).
The repository is not currently supported by NIH.
Support funding duration
The duration of time over which support funding is expected, which may be:
NIH (or other sponsoring organization) expects to support the data repository for the foreseeable future.
NIH (or other sponsoring organization) only expects to support the data repository for a time-limited period.