Dryad is a nonprofit data repository that curates datasets in order to ensure discoverability. As of February 2025, WSU holds institutional membership with Dryad and costs of uploading datasets will be waived.

Current students, staff, and faculty at Washington State University. For these individuals, all publication and overage fees will be waived for deposit of datasets.

Researchers who receive federal funding may be required—or encouraged—to use repositories specific to that unit. Consult funders for more information. If they are unable to find suitable repository options, WSU researchers may also deposit datasets in Research Exchange—a repository managed by WSU Libraries. For more information, see the following.

Researchers will need to have ORCID IDs in order to make a deposit. ORCID IDs help distinguish researchers with similar names—they can be gotten at no cost from ORCID.org. 

After supplying the ORCID ID, researchers should then log in using their WSU credentials. They will then be prompted to describe their datasets. See Dryad’s Submission Requirements and Submission Walkthrough for more information. Note that all data must be shared using a Creative Commons Zero license.

Dryad staff will review the deposit and provide a DOI upon completion.

See the following for more information about these steps or contact libraries.research@wsu.edu for assistance.

Using Dryad allows researchers to:

• Comply with funder requirements around data-sharing
• Partner with journal publishers, many of whom have integrations with Dryad for supplementary datasets
• Access metrics on how datasets are being accessed, viewed, shared, cited, and downloaded
• Take advantage of options for uploading code, scripts, and software, all of which are shared via Dryad’s partnership with Zenodo
• Share data enabling replication studies and wider engagement with research worldwide 
• Preserve data with a repository that has the Core Trust Seal and follows recommendations of the FORCE 11 and COPE Research Data Publishing Ethics WG.

This guide has discussed best practices for sharing datasets. The following video provides additional guidance to take into account when using Dryad.