Creating and depositing data

Data created or generated during research are valuable resources that can be used and re-used for future scientific and educational purposes. Sharing data often facilitates research beyond the scope of the original research, encourages scientific enquiry, avoids duplicate data collection and provides resources for education and training.

The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) provides advice and guidance to researchers and data managers to ensure that best practices in creating and managing data are followed, so that as much data as possible can be ethically and legally shared with other researchers.

Data are understood to be any research materials from primary data collection or generation, or derived from existing sources, be they quantitative or qualitative.

• ESRC researchers
• Other researchers
• Regular depositors

Detailed information about the process of depositing data can be found on the Depositing data page.

Contact the Research Data Management Support Services team at acquisitions@esds.ac.uk to discuss any issues surrounding creating, managing and sharing data.