Prepare Your Data for Deposit with ICPSR
Preparing your data for deposit can be smooth and straightforward if you follow a few best practices. Think of it like packing a suitcase for a trip — being organized and including all the essentials will make the journey easier for everyone who uses your data. This page walks you through preparing your data for archiving with ICPSR. For additional information on data management, reference ICPSR’s Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving.
Deposits should include all data and documentation necessary for others to independently read and interpret the data. At minimum, ICPSR requires that you submit data files, documentation files (such as codebooks, user guides, or questionnaires), and descriptive information about your study and methodology. Some important considerations and guidelines are below. For a quick checklist of everything you’ll need to start your deposit, see the Depositor Checklist. As you begin preparing your deposit, double-check your informed consent or Institutional Review Board (IRB) documentation (or the Terms of Use if you gathered your data from existing sources) to ensure your data can be shared.
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If you need to … | Go to … |
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Understand the overall preparation process | |
Find out what files and documentation are required | |
Make data and study materials accessible | |
Review your materials before submitting |
Overview of the Data Submission Process
To prepare your deposit:
- Review submission requirements to understand what data, documentation, and study information may be needed.
- Organize and check your data files for completeness, accuracy, consistent structure, and clear file names.
- Prepare documentation that explains the data, methodology, variables, measures, instruments, and related study materials.
- Review confidentiality and sharing permissions, including consent forms, IRB documentation, or terms of use for existing data.
- Make study materials accessible so they can be used by as many researchers as possible.
- Complete a final checklist before beginning or submitting your deposit.
Deposits should include all data and documentation necessary for others to independently read, interpret, and reuse the data. At minimum, ICPSR generally requires:
- Data files, such as quantitative data files, qualitative text files, or other research data files.
- Documentation files, such as codebooks, user guides, questionnaires, data collection instruments, README files, methodology descriptions, or summary statistics.
- Descriptive study information, such as title, principal investigators, funding, project description, methodology, sample, universe, dates of data collection, and unit of analysis. Check the ICPSR Metadata Documentation Portal for guidance on what to include.
For detailed requirements, see Data Submission Requirements.
Before depositing, review your data for direct identifiers, indirect identifiers, sensitive questions, and contextual details that could increase disclosure risk. Also confirm that data sharing is consistent with participant consent, IRB documentation, or applicable terms of use.
ICPSR reviews deposited data for disclosure risk and may work with depositors to create public-use and/or restricted-use versions when appropriate. More details are available at Restricted-Use Data Management at ICPSR. For additional information about how we handle sensitive data, check out Preserving Respondent Confidentiality.
Study materials should be prepared with accessibility in mind, especially documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, data visualizations, audio, and video. Accessible materials improve usability, support preservation, and help ensure deposited content can be used by people with disabilities.
For detailed guidance, see Accessibility Guidelines for Deposited Study Materials.
Before submitting, use the depositor checklist to confirm that your files are complete, clearly named, documented, deidentified as appropriate, accessible, and accompanied by the necessary study-level metadata.
For a quick pre-submission review, see Depositor Checklist.
Additional Information
Looking for more information about data sharing? Check out the resources below.
- FAIR Principles – internationally accepted guidelines for managing and sharing scientific data.
- Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) – an international standard for describing data produced by surveys and other observational methods in the social, behavioral, economic, and health sciences. DDI can document and manage different stages in the research data lifecycle, such as conceptualization, collection, processing, distribution, discovery, and archiving.
Contact us if you have questions about preparing your deposit.