Not all projects and data are appropriate for DataShare.

Before you begin please email datashare@iastate.edu or speak to your librarian to determine if DataShare is the right place for your data. Please be prepared to provide the following when contacting the library:

1. Short description of the data's content/subject matter.
2. Approximate number of files.
3. Approximate total volume (MBs, GBs, or TBs)
4. File formats and file types.

Before data can be submitted to DataShare ISU researchers, staff, and students must complete a Data Set Disclosure Form (DSDF) and receive approval to share their data in DataShare. 

The DSDF is reviewed by various offices on campus including:

• Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer
• Office for Responsible Research
• Office of Sponsored Programs Administration

Once your DSDF has been approved you will be contacted by Library staff about the next step. Please be aware that this step may take multiple days to complete.

Visit https://iastate.figshare.com/ and login with your Net-ID and password to activate your account.

Wait for an an admin to invite you to a Project. You will receive an email and notification in DataShare (see image below) after the invitation has been sent out. If the research theme of the project you were invited to join does not match your research please email datashare@iastate.edu to request access to a different project.

Upload Data

After receiving a Project invitation look for a notification icon next to your name in the top right (small circle with a number in it). Click the icon to be taken to your Activity Dashboard.

1. Hover over or click the notification inviting you to collaborate on a project and click "Join Project." 
2. Switch to the Projects tab.
3. Click on the Project that you wish to upload your data into.
4. Click Add new content then Create a new item.
5. Click and drag your files into the top of the pop-up Submission Form or click “browse” to upload using the file explorer.

Describe Data

1. Complete the Submission Form. The Submission Form help page provides more details on how to fill out each part of the form.
2. After completing the submission form check the Publish box next to the Save changes button at the bottom of the form. The Save changes button will turn green and change to a Publish item button as long as all required fields have been filled out correctly.
3. Read and agree to the terms by clicking Yes, publish.
4. Your data has been sent into Curation Review and you should see the message "Your item is under review." You can make changes to the Submission Form and files at this stage however you will need to resubmit the data after your changes are made.

Curation Review is when ISU librarians review the submission form and submitted files. All materials approved for publication on DataShare must undergo a Curation Review.

Unlike peer review the Curation Review does not examine scientific merit, research techniques, rigor, or other methods related to how the research was carried out. Instead the Curation Review focuses on how documented, organized, and preservable the submitted data is. The following pages offer guidance on how to prepare data for publication:

• File Formats
• File Names

Watch your email at this stage. You will receive notification if your submission is accepted (published) or declined (returned).

If your submission is declined it indicates that revisions needs to be made before it is published.  A librarian will work with you through the revision process and explain why the requested changes are important. The most commonly asked for revisions include: problems with file organization and file names, lack of documentation,and use of proprietary file formats when there are similar nonproprietary formats.

After your data and submission form have successfully undergone curation review the Library will approve your data and it will be published.

If an embargo was chosen then the dataset's publication will not be immediate and will trigger on the specified date. All other datasets will be available immediately and their DOIs will activated.