Guidelines for depositors

The guidelines presented on this page are intended to standardize the rules for depositing data in the repository and to streamline the entire process. Their implementation will facilitate the preparation and submission of data, as well as speed up its verification process.

The introduced standards ensure consistency of the collected resources and accelerate the process of their review and publication. However, taking into account the specific nature and wide diversity of data, in cases where the provisions of these guidelines cannot be applied to a particular dataset or raise doubts, please contact the reviewers directly in order to develop an appropriate solution on an individual basis.

Research data are the materials needed to produce and evaluate the results of scientific research, for example:

  • measurement results
  • observation notes and literature search results
  • annotations to analyzed texts, summaries, and excerpts
  • databases of literary motifs, charts, maps, and digital analyses
  • questionnaires and survey results
  • audio and video recordings, graphics
  • mathematical models
  • software
  • methodological descriptions…

Publications, such as research articles, should be deposited in other dedicated services, for example OPEN – the Repository of Open Scientific Publications.

Research data are made available in the repository together with metadata. These two elements constitute the main and essential components of a research dataset.

Metadata are structured information describing a dataset. They enable research data to be discovered and facilitate their reuse. 

Dataset title

  • The title should briefly and clearly identify the content of the dataset, explicitly indicate the subject matter of the deposited data, and not contain redundant information, such as author’s name or funding sources.
  • The use of phrases such as research data for… or dataset concerning… in the dataset title is not recommended.
  • The title of a published research article is not necessarily the best title for a dataset, as the data may be used to prepare further publications.
  • Only the first word of the title (and any proper names) should be capitalized.
  • The language of the title should be consistent with the language of the remaining metadata. If metadata are created in more than one language, this should be done consistently. 

Author

  • The metadata fields concerning the author are automatically completed using the information provided in the profile of the user.
  • If the author is an individual, the format of the information in the author surname and first name field should be as follows: surname [comma] first name.
  • The most commonly used identification system is ORCID. The correct ORCID identifier format is XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. 
  • Information in the affiliation field should be provided in the same language as the remaining metadata.
  • The ROR field of the affiliated institution is a suggestion field — after entering part of the institution name, the appropriate name should be selected from the list. If an affiliation is provided, the ROR identifier should also be provided if the institution has such an identifier.

Dataset description

  • This field should primarily include information about the deposited files or sets of data files: their content, type, structure, and method of internal organization (especially if ZIP archives are included). Information about the software used to generate the data should be provided, as well as the context of the project and any information that may be useful to potential users, e.g. explanations of abbreviations used.
  • It is good practice to create and attach a readme file containing a detailed description of the data. Its preparation may be facilitated by a readme file template. The file should be saved in the simplest possible format, e.g. TXT. The dataset description may indicate the presence of a readme file among the deposited materials, e.g. by adding: Additional explanations are provided in the readme.txt file / For detailed, please consult readme.txt file.
  • Information about related publications or grants may be included in the description field only as supplementary information. It should primarily be placed in the appropriate metadata fields (related publication, grant information).

Keywords

  • Describing datasets using keywords facilitates the discovery of research outputs.
  • Keywords should be linguistically consistent with the rest of the metadata.
  • Controlled vocabulary appropriate to the research field may be applied to individual keywords, e.g. medical terminology thesauri or NATO terminology. Dictionaries and databases can be searched, for example, here.
  • Each keyword should be entered in a separate field. Keywords entered into a single field should be separated (you may use separators that automatically divide elements separated by commas or semicolons).

Related publication / related dataset

  • Only publications / datasets that have already been released / published should be entered. All subfields should be completed.
  • The citation field should contain the following information:
    • for publications: author(s), year, title, publisher/journal, journal issue/volume, page numbers, DOI identifier (or another identifier), preferably in the form of a URL. The information should be provided according to the preferred citation standard;
    • for datasets: author(s), year of publication, title, identifier, repository name, version number.
  • The type of relation should be carefully selected and should accurately reflect the relationship between the dataset and the publication.
  • If DOI is indicated as the type of publication/dataset identifier, it should be provided in its standard form, not as a URL (e.g. 10.123456/XYZ123 instead of https://doi.org/10.123456/01XYZ123).
  • Whenever possible, the URL of the publication/dataset should be based on the persistent DOI identifier:
    • correct: https://doi.org/10.123456/01XYZ123, 
    • incorrect: https://strona.wydawcy.pl/tytul-artykulu. 

Grant information

  • The fields funding institution, institution abbreviation, funding institution ROR, and grant programme are suggestion fields. Suggested information should be used, and unnecessary elements should not be added, e.g. the grant call number:
    • correct: OPUS, 
    • incorrect: OPUS 16. 
  • The appropriate language of metadata in these fields should be ensured — it should be consistent with the remaining metadata.

Language errors

Attention should be paid to correct punctuation, and typos and minor language errors should be eliminated. Examples of frequently occurring errors include: a full stop at the end of the dataset title; missing full stop at the end of the description; inconsistent formatting of keywords; capitalization of words in the dataset title; typographical errors.

File names

They should consist only of the a–Z, 0–9 characters, _ and should not contain spaces, Polish characters, or other special characters. This also applies to files contained within ZIP archives. 

The readme file

A documentation element of the dataset; it should be placed at the top of the file list. In most cases, the correct file encoding is UTF-8, and the correct format is TXT. A template may be used and adapted to individual needs.

Versioning

If minor changes are introduced to the metadata of a published dataset, the reviewer will publish a so-called minor version — e.g. v. 1.1, 1.2. If major changes are introduced, especially changes to files, a major version will be published — v. 2, v. 3. Very significant changes to a dataset should be published as a new dataset rather than as a new version of an existing dataset.

Licences

Attention should be paid to the consistent application of licences, e.g. by comparing the information included in the readme file or dataset description with the information provided for individual files. The recommended licences for data files are CC0 or CC BY.

Recommended file formats and preparation of tabular data

Proper preparation of files is crucial to enable correct analysis of tabular data. Information on recommended formats and the proper preparation of tabular data can be found in the document Recommended file formats.

Last updated: June 2026