Acceptable Digital Repositories for USGS Scientific Data

In accordance with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fundamental Science Practices (FSP) requirements, scientific data approved for release must be placed in an acceptable digital repository to allow free public access and long-term preservation. This page contains a chart of acceptable repositories for USGS data information products. Questions related to this acceptable digital repositories guidance should be directed to the USGS FSP Advisory Council (FSPAC) at gs_fspac@usgs.gov. 

Key considerations in using acceptable USGS repositories are as follows:

• Repository:
  • Bureau scientific data products are placed in a USGS-owned repository whenever possible.
    • Converse to an acceptable digital repository, which is a system the Bureau has approved as a location and release point for USGS science data, some USGS repositories have been identified as Trusted Digital Repositories (TDRs). A USGS TDR is a repository that “provides reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its customers, now and in the future.”
  • In certain circumstances, non-USGS repositories can be selected from the chart as data release locations to satisfy requirements, such as scientific community preferred data locations for particular data types or journal designated locations.
    • USGS employees should refer to Criteria for Selecting Non-USGS Repositories for Release of USGS Scientific Data for information on determining the acceptability repositories.
      • USGS employees who would like to submit a request for a repository to be added to the chart below, must provide an email to FSPAC with documentation of how the requested repository meets the USGS criteria.
  • Listing of and links to non-USGS repository sites on this web page do not constitute endorsement or warranty by the USGS (refer to USGS Liability for additional information).
• Metadata: In all cases, a complete metadata record for these data products is required (refer to Survey Manual (SM) policy chapter SM 502.7).
  • A copy of the metadata record must be placed in the USGS Science Data Catalog. When possible, the complete metadata record must also accompany the data.
    • USGS repositories have established relationships with the Science Data Catalog and publish metadata directly to the Catalog upon their publication of a data release.
    • Authors publishing data releases to any non-USGS repository are directly responsible for submitting the XML metadata file(s) describing the data to the Science Data Catalog. This submission is completed by sending the XML metadata record to ask-sdm@usgs.gov.
• Identifiers: A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) must be part of the metadata record for each product (refer to SM 502.7).
  • DOIs for data released in USGS owned data repositories are obtained from USGS Digital Object Identifier Tool for Data Release and registered with DataCite.
  • DOIs for data released in non-USGS data repositories are created by those repositories.
• Use of Databases: In addition to the repositories listed below, data may be placed in and served from existing public facing USGS owned and approved databases that meet USGS Public Access Plan requirements. Such databases are those that reside on USGS servers and meet the quality requirements stated in SM 502.8.

Similar to the USGS, repositories of other Federal agencies must meet Federal Government wide public access requirements and therefore are considered acceptable repositories. Repositories owned and funded by non-USGS entities are subject to the quality and access requirements established by those entities. The USGS is not responsible for the curation of the data served from non-USGS repositories.

Acceptable Digital Repositories for USGS Scientific Data

*Note: Some organizations identified as the repository owner or funding source are referred to in the chart by acronyms (shown in parenthesis) as follows: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service/U.S. Department of Agriculture (FS/USDA), California Geological Survey (CGS), University of California (UC) Berkeley, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) UC Santa Barbara, State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), State of California Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP), San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) UC San Diego, Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), European Commission/Research and Innovation (EUC/RI), Federal Ministry of Education and Research Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP).