How to Submit a Dataset

Registering certain datasets with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is required by law.  When you submit your data, this increases public access to the results of federally funded scientific research, as outlined in the DOE Public Access Plan. Making the results of federally funded research publicly available is important for the advancement of science. It increases the visibility of NREL and our research, and as a result, increases opportunities for new collaborations and partnerships.

The principal investigator (PI) of a funded project is responsible for data submission, although they may delegate this responsibility to another researcher or analyst. You should submit your data as soon as the PI considers that the data for your funded project is final. This can be in advance of a publication (so that you can include a link to your dataset in the publication) or concurrently with an associated publication.

You should submit data that is created at, or for, NREL using federal funds. This could be data that is associated with a publication or independent of any other published work.

Do not submit any data that includes any personally identifiable information (PII), business proprietary information, or copyrighted material. In the case of PII and business proprietary information, it is important for it to not be included in submissions because the NREL Data Catalog is freely open to the public. For copyrighted information, if it is hosted publicly elsewhere and you would like to include a link to it in your record, it can be added with your files by using the "Add Link" button.

To add a dataset, first log in to the Data Catalog using the log in link at the top right of the page. After you are logged in, click on "My Datasets" in the top menu. To start your record, click on the "Add Dataset" button. Fill out the form with as much detail as possible. Make sure to spell out any acronyms or names that would not be familiar to a user from the general public. You can save your record and come back to finish it another time or submit it for curation when you have completed it.

Choose a descriptive name that will be easily understandable to users of the Data Catalog. A detailed title will improve search optimization for your record. Spell out all acronyms and initialisms and capitalize all words.

The "Organization" field is for the lead-funded organization for the project. The Funding Organization field has drop-down choices; if research is DOE-funded, further information is required. This information can be found in your award or contract.

Describe your data in ways that will allow your colleagues, clients, sponsors, and others to easily find your data when searching the catalog. Consider these questions when describing your data:

• Who created the data resource?
• What is in the data file(s)?
• When, where, why, and how was the data captured/collected?
• What would someone need to know to use the data properly?

You may submit as many files as you'd like with a single record, up to 5 gigabytes (GB) each. We accept all file types, except for executable files. We encourage you to organize file submissions in the way that would be most useful for using the data, including using separate files or zipped files as appropriate.

If your file is larger than 5 GB, you could host your data elsewhere and link to it through the Data Catalog and still register it with Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) if it is federally funded. You can also break your file into smaller files that are under 5 GB each and upload them each separately in the same dataset record. If you would like to host a file larger than 5 GB on the Data Catalog, please contact us to discuss this process.

To link to your data instead of uploading the file here, click the "Add Link" button. The link you submit must be a permanent URL (i.e., a URL that leads directly to a resource and does not pass through a search page or require more than one click to navigate to the data).

Your submission will be released on the Data Catalog as soon as it is curated, unless you choose a different date. During submission, you can choose to click the box in the "Hold for Release" section and provide a date when the record should be released. When a record is held for release, this applies to the entire submission. All accompanying files will be held until the date indicated. To share select files at different times, they must be in separate submissions.

Data curation is the process of checking submissions for prohibited information (such as PII), ensuring that files are not corrupt, and verifying that metadata meet basic standards. In the data curation process, we may make minor edits to keywords for standardization or update titles or descriptions to spell out acronyms or initialisms. We do not make major changes to your submission without contacting you.

Your dataset will be curated in 1‒2 business days after submission. If your dataset is DOE-funded and submitted to OSTI, the OSTI ID and digital object identifier (DOI) will be returned in 1-2 additional business days. If the Data Catalog team have any questions, they will reach out to the contact for the record directly before completing curation.

While data is in the "awaiting curation" phase, you can make changes or add more information, but you cannot add more files.

Once a dataset has been curated, the creator is no longer able to update it in the Data Catalog system. If you need to make any changes to your dataset after it has been curated, whether it is an update to the metadata or to the files, email the Data Catalog team.

If your dataset file needs to be replaced by a newer file, the Data Catalog team can make this update for you by uploading the new file and deprecating the old one. This would keep your record up to date with the newest data. We only do this when the new file is inclusive of the old data, such as a dataset that is updated quarterly or annually by adding new data. This allows the old files to still be found, but the newest and most up-to-date file is the most readily available. This also provides a consistent DOI for the project while documenting the updates in the file history on the record. Please email the Data Catalog team if you anticipate this being the case for one or your datasets.

A DOI is a persistent identifier for a publication. If your dataset is DOE-funded, it will be submitted to OSTI and a DOI will be created automatically. It will be listed on the record and creates a permanent link to your dataset.

ORCID is a free, unique, persistent identifier for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. ORCID IDs are required for each author of a dataset in the Data Catalog. If you need to register for an ORCID ID, you can do that on the ORCID website. To have your ORCID ID associated with your Workday account, please email Scientific Publishing.