re3data — Registry of Research Data Repositories
Overview
re3data is a global registry of research data repositories covering all academic disciplines, launched in 2012 with funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and now managed jointly by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Purdue University Libraries. It describes over 3,000 repositories as of 2024, with curation carried out by an international editorial board and community submissions open to all. All registry metadata is published under CC0 and accessible via a public REST API, enabling integration with data management planning tools, publisher submission workflows, and open science services. re3data is recommended by funders and publishers worldwide as the standard reference for identifying appropriate repositories when no disciplinary repository is mandated.
Metadata Schema
Repository descriptions in re3data are based on the re3data Metadata Schema, currently at version 4.0 (released 2023). The schema covers the general scope of a repository, its content types, data access conditions, persistent identifier systems, supported licences, and compliance with technical and metadata standards. The schema describes repositories as containers, which distinguishes it from DCAT (the W3C Data Catalog Vocabulary), which describes datasets. The two are complementary: the W3C DCAT specification references re3data content types as a compatible typing vocabulary.
Connections
- relatedTo: FAIRsharing (re3data and FAIRsharing complement each other; FAIRsharing links standards and policies to repositories registered in re3data)
- relatedTo: Recherche Data Gouv (Recherche Data Gouv is listed in re3data as a certified French multidisciplinary research data repository)
- isPartOf: EOSC
- isPartOf: OpenAIRE
- implements: DataCite
- implements: ORCID
- relatedTo: RDA (re3data collaborates with RDA working groups on repository certification and metadata standards)
Resources
- https://www.re3data.org
- https://www.re3data.org/about
- https://www.re3data.org/api/doc (REST API documentation)
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02462-y (ten-year experience, Scientific Data 2023)