How to Use ICPSR's Online Deposit System

If you’ve never deposited data or other research materials with ICPSR before, please review which details about your deposit you will need readily available and other information about preparing for deposit; or, learn more about additional steps for sharing NIH data with ICPSR. If you need help while filling out the online deposit form, you can email ICPSR-help@umich.edu.

Follow these steps once you’re ready to deposit:

Step 1: Click on ‘Start Deposit’

Access the start deposit button from the deposit page.

Step 2: Fill out questionnaire

Question 1: Was your data collection funded by one of the following agencies?

  • If “Yes” – select the correct funding agency. Click on “Deposit to ICPSR,” and skip to Step 3.
  • If “No” – you can still deposit data with ICPSR! Continue to Question 2.

Question 2 (if you answered “No” to Question #1): Are you archiving your data because a journal or a publisher requires the data be available for replication?

  • If “Yes” – ICPSR highly encourages depositors to use openICPSR for data related to journals or for replication purposes. Click on “Deposit Data to openICPSR” and follow the instructions there.
  • If “No” – Click on “Deposit to ICPSR” and continue with Step 3.

Step 3: Sign in to Researcher Passport

Find out more about How to Log In or Create a New ICPSR Account.

Step 4: In the “Create Project” window…

provide three pieces of information:

  1. Archive – automatically populates the correct archive based on the funding agency selected in Question 1.
  2. Project title – select a name for your project. According to the Metadata Initial Steps that ICPSR staff follow, a good project title has three parts: the main title, the geography, and the dates. For example, a good project title would be: “National Wellbeing Survey, United States, 2022.”
  3. “Is this deposit related to an existing ICPSR data…” – if you don’t know the answer, click no (most of the time, the answer is no).

Step 5: Click “Save & Apply”

Step 6: In the “Project Workspace”…

  1. Upload data and documentation files.
  2. Fill out the metadata. Learn more about ICPSR’s metadata practices and standards.
  3. When done, click submit to ICPSR.

If you need help while in the Project Workspace, you can view tips along the way (indicated by the little icon question marks), click on ‘report a problem,’ or email ICPSR-help@umich.edu.

Step 7: You are done!

You will get a notification of your submission, as will an ICPSR Staff member.

 

Updated 6/13/2024

Share NIH Data: Steps for Deposit

ICPSR supports data archiving for NIH-funded data collections. Whether you are an individual researcher or manage a program, ICPSR is ready to accept data, provide cost estimates, assist with the planning of your NIH grant, and offer letters of support to bolster your grant applications.

Step 1: Identify data fit

ICPSR accepts a wide range of social science data. This includes data from surveys, experiments, observational studies, administrative records, and other forms of quantitative and qualitative data. Additionally, ICPSR may accept data from diverse disciplines within the social sciences, including but not limited to sociology, political science, economics, psychology, and public health. For more information, see the ICPSR Collection Development Policy. Read below for specific NIH-funded archives that might align with your funding and data topic.

Step 2: Register your proposed study with ICPSR

Fill out the registration form to alert ICPSR about your proposed study / data collection. Once you have done this, you may wish to use the pre-filled Template NIH DMS Plan from ICPSR (docx) to designate ICPSR as the repository for your data.

Optionally, you can request an ICPSR professional curation cost estimate in the registration process.

Step 3: Prepare for deposit

Deposits should include all data and documentation necessary to independently read and interpret the data collection. ICPSR encourages depositors to submit data files for archiving as SPSS, SAS, or Stata files if they are quantitative data or in plain text (*.txt), rich text (*.rtf), scanned image of text with OCR (*.pdf), or Microsoft Word (*.doc, *.docx) for qualitative data. ASCII files are also acceptable if setup files accompany them. Datasets in other formats are accepted as well. Use the Depositor Checklist or read more on the Start Deposit page.

Step 4: Upload data & other research materials

Once you’ve collected everything needed to deposit your data, it’s time to submit it! Review which details about your deposit you will need readily available and other information about preparing for deposit. Then click on the ‘Start Deposit’ button on the deposit page and continue following the steps above.

 

Updated 4/20/2024

Need more help?

Don’t Jeopardize Funding!

As of January 25, 2023, National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires all investigators to submit a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan) as part of any proposal collecting scientific data. Researchers must comply with the plans; noncompliance may jeopardize future funding decisions! U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) requires a Data Management Plan (DMP) for all proposed research, even if no data are collected!

What is a DMS Plan?

A Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan) is a written plan that describes how scientific data will be managed, shared, and made findable and accessible to future researchers. NIH recommends the DMS Plan be no longer than 2 pages in length.