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Dryad is a digital repository for data underlying published works developed by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the University of North Carolina Metadata Research Center, in coordination with a large group of Journals and Societies.
Dryad maintains a list of journals and societies supporting Dryad. Additional societies and journals are invited to join the consortium at any time. The following charter organizations are cosignatories on the original Joint Data Archiving proposal and/or provided letters in support of Dryad to the National Science Foundation:
The strategic priorities for Dryad emerged from a May 2007 workshop on "Data Preservation, Sharing, and Discovery: Challenges for Small Science in the Digital Era", at which a variety of stakeholder journals and societies were represented. The workshop report is available.
Currently, while the system is being developed, submission is voluntary. However, long-term success of the repository depends on data submission being required for publication by journals. The decision as to when the system is sufficiently mature to impose that requirement rests with the partner journals and societies, through their representatives to the Dryad Management Board.
Dryad accepts data in any format as long as it is associated with a primary publication. Preferred formats will be specified where appropriate. Dryad curators will do some quality control to ensure the electronic files are valid and contain what they advertise, but the final responsibility for data quality is in the hands of the submitter.
Datasets of particular historical, educational and scientific significance are being solicited for inclusion in a special section of the repository. Unpublished data is not being accepted unless it is within one of these special collections.
Dryad submitters are required to place all data under the Creative Commons Zero license. This license authorizes others to share, copy, or reuse the data. Since many types of data are not eligible for copyright protection, the license ensures that the data can be reused legally in all situations. According to scientific norms, others who use the data are still obligated to cite the original creator of the data (see the usage page for suggested citation formats).
Authors depositing data may choose to embargo the data for a year after publication. The Management Board, composed of representatives from Dryad's partner journals and societies, will determine data sharing and re-use policies.
Dryad is currently accepting voluntary submissions of data. A major challenge for Dryad is to design a deposition interface that can capture high-quality metadata from authors with as little burden as possible. Dryad will continue to work with journals to improve the submission process.
If the article describes the data sufficiently, no other documentation is required. If additional information would be required for another researcher to make use of the data (e.g., description of the column headings in a spreadsheet, or detailed documentation of a piece of software), this will need to be made available in a README file.
Not entirely. Much of the underlying technology is based on an open-source digital library software project called DSpace that is widely used for institutional repositories. Modifications implemented for Dryad are available as open-source code, and many of these will be merged back into the core DSpace project to assure long-term maintenance.
The Management Board will be responsible for setting policy and long-term strategic goals. One representative appointed by each of the consortium journals, or its governing society will be included and NESCent will appoint additional ex officio members.
The initial costs were borne by NESCent. Current development is funded by a 4-year grant from the National Science Foundation and a 3-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. In the long term, the Management Board will have responsibility for ensuring sustainability through some combination of page charge receipts, society and institutional subscriptions, grants and other sources.
