How to Share Your Research Data: A Step-by-Step Guide

Sharing data well is a repeatable process, not an afterthought. A practical, step-by-step guide to preparing, documenting, licensing, and depositing your research data so others can find and reuse it.

Data sharing is a process

Sharing research data is not a single click at the end of a project — it is a short, repeatable process. Done deliberately once, it becomes a habit that makes every future project easier to publish and cite.

Step 1 — Clean and organise

Remove errors, use consistent file names, and structure folders logically. The goal is a layout a stranger could navigate without asking you.

Step 2 — Document it

Write a README and metadata: what the data is, how it was collected, what each field means, and its units. Undocumented data is effectively unusable.

Step 3 — Handle sensitive information

Anonymise or remove personal and identifying data. If access must be limited, plan controlled access rather than skipping sharing altogether.

Step 4 — Choose a licence

Attach an explicit licence — CC0 or CC BY 4.0 for most open data — so reusers know exactly what they may do.

Step 5 — Deposit and get a DOI

Upload to a repository that assigns a persistent identifier (DOI), indexes your metadata, and preserves the files. Now your data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Step 6 — Link and cite

Reference the dataset by its DOI from your paper and add it to your researcher profile so it counts toward your record.