Depositor Checklist
The DSDR Depositor Checklist is for researchers and data depositors preparing to submit materials to DSDR. If you have questions or concerns, email dsdr-data@umich.edu and we will work with you to resolve any issues. Although not every item in this checklist is required, submitting complete, accessible files and information supports replication and reuse of your data.
Ease of Understanding:
- File and folder structure named with unique, descriptive titles; if providing multiple datasets, ensure the dataset-documentation pairing is clearly identified
- Any publication or promotion deadlines related to the plan for the release of the data and materials
- Intended access type; public or restricted access
- If restricted access is needed, plan to discuss dissemination with the archive and collaborate on terms of use agreement
- Have you already distributed data with us? If so, is this deposit an update to the data you supplied in the past? Please provide ICPSR study number and dataset relation.
Complete Documentation:
- Original questionnaire
- Codebook; unweighted frequencies are best for data comparison
- Identify and describe computed and derived variables
- Interviewer instructions
- User Guide
- Final Report
- Citations of related publications the data were used in
- Question text, DDI, or another text-source for the question
- Variable groupings (Especially for large datasets, it is useful to categorize variables into conceptual groupings)
- IRB application and approval (for archiving and to ensure proper data sharing protocols are followed)
- Blank participant consent template
Complete Study-Level Metadata:
- Clear and consistent title across files and metadata.
- NOTE: to conform to metadata standards, the title will appear on the ICPSR site as Title, Location, Years, such as “County-Level Marriage and Divorce Data, United States, 2011-2019”.
- Description of the project; goals, main topics, etc.
- Principal Investigator (PI) full names and organizational affiliations
- Data collection dates
- Intended unit of analysis (a description of who or what is being studied)
- Sample description
- Universe description
- Does the project/study have a website? If so, please provide it.
- Funding source and grant number
Complete Dataset(s):
- Ensure variable names DO NOT contain characters that are not acceptable across stats packages, such as periods
- Ensure that names, addresses, phone numbers, and any other direct identifiers are removed
- Include complete, descriptive, and unique variable labels
- Include complete value labels (for SAS, a formats catalog is required).
- Curation staff cannot interpret unlabeled values.
- If value labels are missing, we’ll contact the investigator for clarification, which may delay curation.
- Missing values designated or at least labeled clearly; if assigned in SAS or Stata, provide numeric codes that match the letter missing values for ease of conversion across stats packages
- Weighting information; weight variable names and syntax, if needed for replication
- Longitudinal weights; weight variable names and syntax, if needed for replication
- Identify merging variable(s)
- Provide necessary syntax for merging (based on origin stats package)
Ensure Files are Accessible
- Review the Depositor Guidelines for Sharing Accessible Study Materials using ICPSR and provided checklists to ensure data and documentation files are accessible to people with disabilities.
Please refer to the DSDR Deposit Data page for additional information and resources for depositing data.