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I have conducted experiment that had unexpected result which goes against consensus in my community and I worry whether it will be accepted by other researchers. For that reason I would like to make all my work public - the resources, the programs, the results.. Is there online service where I can publish the data for free and obtain DOI number that I can reference in my paper?

It makes over 2GB when packed.

I have heard that such services exist for people in biology and medical research but I work on transportation systems which is rather different (we do not produce so much data usually). I plan to submit the paper to journal published by IEEE.

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    Have you asked IT in your department or institution? Surely this won't be the viral download of the year...it's a large payload but given the small number of people who will want to d/l it, it may not be unreasonable to host it on an FTP server at your institution.
    – J...
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 22:41
  • PLOS One provides a long list of data sharing options which makes me think this is a big list type shopping question.
    – StrongBad
    Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 1:53
  • "I have conducted experiment that had unexpected result which goes against consensus in my community". Uploading the data or not, you should make a valid case in your paper, why your results make sense when they contradict the related community. No reviewer will have the chance to test the source and datasets while reviewing. So, you should probably worry more why the results were unexpected (bug?, weird test case?) and how to explain the results theoretically before anyone has the chance to check your source code...
    – Alexandros
    Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 4:13
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    @Alexandros As I read the question, it's his experimental data that goes against the consensus, in which case releasing it would make sense. In any case, my personal preference (and yours may be different) is to flip the burden of proof and ask why not to release the data relevant to your paper - it makes your work reproducible by others and is as such good scientific practice.
    – malexmave
    Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 7:26
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    @Alexandros I am not an autority in my field and I didn't imply my results are necesarilly correct. I tried to kill it, but failed to find the problem. So, I want to publish my work and my data for others to dissect it and/or reproduce it. Isn't this how science should be done?
    – student
    Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 8:31

2 Answers 2

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You could also use Zenodo, which I personally prefer over Figshare since it is an open platform run by a scientific institution (the CERN) instead of a for-profit (compare the privacy policies of zenodo and figshare to get an idea on why this matters). They also guarantee that, should they ever shut down, they will migrate your data to another platform (and until then, your data is on the same infrastructure as the data created by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)).

Their size limit is 2 GB per file, and you can add multiple files to a single dataset upload (which means you may not even need to pack your data, if it can be sensibly split into multiple files of <2 GB - and if you need more space, you can contact them). Finally, you also get a DOI for your data (which will be updated to point to the new home of your data if they ever shut down). Right now, it can be used free of charge while they develop a sustainability plan (later, they may charge you for uploading larger datasets, but there will always be a free tier with reasonable sizes).

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    Nice. I didn't know that Zenodo is run by CERN.
    – ff524
    Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 7:25
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Figshare:

  • Files up to 5GB
  • 20 GB private space, unlimited space for public data
  • Get a DOI
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  • Thank you. However, it doesn't come with guarantee that the data will not be deleted once published. From their terms and conditions: "Company will not be liable for any errors or omissions in any content, and may delete, modify, or reformat any materials, content or information Submitted by you."
    – student
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 21:48
  • @student That's a standard TOS clause; I highly doubt you'll find any web publishing service that doesn't reserve the right to delete content they are hosting.
    – ff524
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 21:51
  • You do make a good point but notice that it defeats the purpose of such service in a first place: I want to publish it there so the data are permanently accessible in the same way the paper is..
    – student
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 21:59
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    @student It is permanently accessible exactly in the same way your paper is. IEEE also reserves the right to delete any content on its site in its TOS.
    – ff524
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 22:00
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    @student You can't guarantee that anything is permanent. The best that you can do is to have redundant distributed copies of the data. I also encourage having a "home" for the project that you control, such as a domain with a simple web page, then you can update the link to the data if it ever changes in the future.
    – Austin Henley
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 22:07

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