Professional Curation vs Self-Publishing
What is the difference between ICPSR’s professional curation versus ICPSR’s self-publishing option for depositing data?
Choosing Professional Curation
When you choose professional curation, ICPSR does the work to review your data for privacy risks and create a metadata record to make your data easily findable on our site and the web. We’ll also convert your data into downloadable SAS, SPSS, Stata, R, and delimited files, compile all documentation, and create a standardized codebook and suggested data citation. Plus, we add your variables to our Social Science Variables Database and often equip your data for online analysis. Your data will be given a persistent identifier (DOI) and you will be able to see how often your data have been downloaded. As with self-publishing, we encourage you to include all necessary data and documentation to ensure others can understand and use your collection.
Choosing to Self-Publish
When you choose self-publishing, you skip ICPSR’s curation process and can make your data available immediately. You receive a persistent identifier called a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), users can download the files you supply, and you can see how many times your project has been viewed and downloaded. This option is great for sharing replication data linked to a publication or if you’re confident in managing privacy risks. Some funders support self-publishing to increase data availability while reserving curation for selected projects.
ICPSR doesn’t review self-published data, so you’re responsible for cleaning and formatting your data, creating metadata, reviewing for disclosure risks, and providing documentation. Your data will be available only in the format(s) you provide. We recommend including all necessary documentation to ensure others can independently interpret and use your collection.
Interested in learning about the steps ICPSR’s team takes to publish the data?
Check out the Data Publishing Timeline.
What is included: | Professional Curation | Self-Published |
|---|---|---|
Persistent identifier (DOI) | ✅ | ✅ |
Utilization reporting available | ✅ | ✅ |
Reviewed & remediated for privacy risks | ✅ | No |
Data converted to SAS, SPSS and other formats | ✅ | No |
Compilation of documentation | ✅ | No |
Metadata record creation | ✅ | No |
Standardized codebook created | ✅ | No |
Suggested data citation | ✅ | No |
Variables added to SSVD | ✅ | No |
Equipped for online analysis | ✅ | No |
Added to ICPSR’s Bibliography | ✅ | No |
User support | ✅ | No |
Beginning the Process
Whether you choose to self-publish or to have ICPSR curate your data, we are here to help make the process as simple and straightforward as possible. Use the Depositor Checklist to guide you through the process. Some prefer to complete the deposit all at once, while others take it step by step over time. The goal is to make the deposit process as smooth as possible without overwhelming you. To begin select the “Start Your Deposit” button. This will take you to a deposit survey that helps you decide between self-publishing or curation. The survey asks about your project’s funding and purpose and explains the differences between the two options.
If you choose to have ICPSR curate your data, we will review your data for technical issues, document it, and make it available in multiple formats like R, SAS, SPSS, Stata, and delimited files.
If you want your data to be available immediately, without ICPSR’s review and curation, choose “self-publish.” The data will be distributed as-is, exactly as provided.
Some of our topical archives have “Deposit Data” or “Deposit Your Data” links on their pages that bypass the deposit survey and take you directly to the deposit form for curated data so the data are directed to the staff of that archive.