UNBC is a member of Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository, allowing all UNBC researchers to deposit data for discovery and sharing. This platform can accept all file formats and allows researchers to maintain control of their data, setting permissions for access along a spectrum from publicly available to available only by requesting the data from the researcher.
This platform will allow you to easily comply with any data sharing requirements of grants or journals in which you are publishing your results, creates a DOI for your dataset automatically, and allows you to view metrics to measure the impact of your data, including views and downloads.
See the UNBC Research Data Repository Guide for more information.
The Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR) collects research datasets originating from researchers affiliated with Canadian institutions and makes them freely available.
Only Principal Investigators or their appointed designate may deposit data in FRDR. Principal Investigators must be faculty at a Canadian institution who can sponsor designates to submit content on their behalf. Designates may include external collaborators, graduate students, non-research staff, postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, researchers, undergraduate students, visiting faculty, etc.
FRDR can also provide specialized service to research groups producing large amounts of data.
![]() |
![]() |
|
UNBC data repository | Yes, UNBC dataverse | No |
Maximum File Size | 2.5 GB or smaller | Any size |
Location of Data Servers | Canada, local | Canada |
Creates DOIs | Yes | Yes |
File types accepted | All | All |
Ability to update files and keep older versions | Yes, updating datasets is easy and users can track and download older versions of your data. | Updating difficult and only the most recent version kept |
Control access* | Permissions may be set at the collection-level, dataset-level, or file-level | Temporary embargo available but all files must eventually be made openly available. |
Ability to collaborate with research team | Yes; "Dataverse has a number of features that will support collaborative research. You can track file versions, describe datasets and provide version notes, control access to files within a team easily, assign different access roles such as ‘admin’ ‘contributor’ or ‘curator’ at the Dataverse (collection) or dataset level." | No; "FRDR is a repository for the publication of research data. It does not support active research data management functionality." |
Specialized or discipline specific metadata | General and specialized citation and description fields for Social Sciences, Geosciences, Health and Life Sciences, and Astronomy | Default, general standards for data description with the ability to request custom metadata fields and discipline specific web forms. |
Discoverability | UNBC Library General Search, DataCite, FRDR, Google, ORCID | UNBC Library General Search, DataCite, Google, OpenAIRE |
*Neither repository option is suitable for sensitive research data at this time.
Source: Portage Network, & Canadian Association of Research Libraries. (June 2019). Repository Options in Canada: A Portage Guide. Portage Network. https://zenodo.org/records/3966349
There are hundreds of research data repositories across Canada and thousands around the world. If the above options do not meet your needs, talk to your colleagues about discipline/subject specific data repositories and browse the Registry of Research Repositories at re3data.org.