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Zenodo is a FAIR open data repository, but it is much more than that.
Why Zenodo?
Zenodo is simple to use
Compared to most other FAIR repositories, Zenodo is generally considered simple to use: fill in some information, drop your files, and publish. Researchers appreciate its simplicity and open science should not be complicated.
Zenodo is multi-purpose
This repository allows for multiple forms of research outputs beyond datasets: posters, presentations, pictures, preprints and more are welcome on the platform, as long as it is relevant to research and open science in general.
Zenodo allows the creation of communities
The Geneva Graduate Institute, much like other Swiss universities, has not decided to create its own data repository at this time. Zenodo allows us and our research centres or projects to have our own communities to display the various outputs published by our researchers within the wider world or research institutions.
Zenodo is trustworthy
Managed by CERN and OpenAire, Zenodo is well-known within the scientific community, and connects with many other tools within the open science ecosystem such as ORCID and GitHub. It is also non-profit and fulfills the qualitative conditions set by various funders.
What can I publish on Zenodo?
Zenodo allows the publication of most research outputs. It is most widely known for hosting "datasets" (any type of research data). Other research outputs you could publish there include preprints, reports, software, posters, presentations, and more. It can even be synchronised with a GitHub repository to preserve specific versions of your work stored there.
Thanks to the EPFL Research Data Team for allowing us to adapt some of the contents of their Zenodo guide in the preparation for what follows.
Registering and logging in
Visit https://zenodo.org. If you do not have an account yet, you can register using your personal e-mail address, which may stay relevant even if you decide to leave your current institution.
Connecting your ORCID
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID – https://orcid.org) is a personal identifier that is embedded in many open science initiatives, including Zenodo. By registering there and connecting it to your account, you may use it to log in in the future. To link an ORCID to an existing account, first login as usual, then select “Linked accounts” from the dropdown menu beside your email address on the homepage.
Testing before you dive in
You can use the test platform https://sandbox.zenodo.org to familiarise yourself with the interface, to test functionalities, or to practice without permanently uploading files.
After clicking + in the top-right, select “New upload”. You can always save an incomplete Zenodo record without publishing: just click “Save draft” at the top of the record page. The record will not be visible until you click on the “Publish” button.
Adding files to your record
Upload files using drag & drop, or use the file browser dialog to pick them on your computer. You can also do this later, once the rest of your record is ready for publication, but you can not add files after the record is published.
Basic information
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): you can reserve a DOI here for your dataset/resource, or enter a DOI assigned by a third party. Once you have reserved it (even before actually publishing the resource), you can refer to your dataset within another publication such as an article, and journals will often request the DOI of your dataset. In general, Zenodo will assign a DOI automatically when the upload is completed if you did not.
| Do not use the DOI of an associated publication as the main identifier for your record – their DOI is exclusive to the journal or publisher. You can instead refer to that identifier later in your submission as a "related work". |
Resource type: Select the type of your upload. You have many options, including “Dataset” (the most generic for research data) or “Software” (for source code), but also poster, publication, and many more.
Date: Use the date of the first publication in case the upload is already published elsewhere. If not, enter the actual date of publication for your record.
Title: This may be, for example, "Replication data for [Title of an article you are publishing]". You can add alternative titles in other languages if your dataset or resource is multilingual.
Creators: These are the dataset or resource creators that should be included in the citation. Indicate their ORCID if possible. They can be later reordered. Support staff that does not get authorship should instead be entered as Contributors in a later field.
Description: Enter an abstract or short summary that will be displayed under the title of your record. Please note that mere references to external articles or other resources are not a sufficient description.
Licenses: Chose a license for your work. The default is “CC-BY 4.0”, requiring attribution, but many more are available from the menu, and you may even adopt a custom model. For reusability purposes, we recommend not adding too many restrictions in your chosen licence – some advocates of open data even recommend a more flexible license such as CC0. To learn more about licenses, check our dedicated guide on Creative Commons licenses and Copyright.
Recommended information
Contributors: The participants mentioned here do not get authorship credit but still deserve a form of acknowledgement for the constitution of the dataset. If the submission is related to a PhD thesis, the supervisor can be specified here.
Keywords and subjects: You can pick them from the EuroSciVoc thesaurus or simply add your own. They should be added as separated entities and not one long comma-separated line.
Languages: Self-explanatory.
Dates: In the case of a preprint or conference paper, you may want to record the dates of submission or acceptance here.
Publisher: This will appear in the citation for your record. You may want to select Zenodo or your Institution's name, for example.
Additional fields
Funding: This field will allow you to list awards from funders which allowed the collection of your dataset. The SNSF's programmes are represented along with most major funders'.
Alternate identifiers: You may use this if you want to use another identifier not provided by Zenodo.
Related works: If your dataset or resource is related to a publication or another resource, you can enter its DOI, URL or other relevant identifier. This enables cross-linking and increases the visibility of the listed resources. For example, derivative works can cite the original works of other authors.
Others: The fields for References, Software, Publishing information, Conference, and Domain specific fields are optional and depend on your resource type. Complete them if applicable and in as much detail as possible.
Visibility (IMPORTANT)
The recommended status for open data is of course "Public", but you may want to change it to "Restricted" if your dataset contains sensitive data, only allowing specific users to consult the data files. The record or description (metadata) will still be visible to the public. To learn more about personal and sensitive data management, please consult our guide on legal aspects of research publishing (in French).
If you need to delay the publication of your dataset, select “Apply an embargo” and set a target date. Funders usually expect data to be shared by the end of a project or at the time of publication.
“Save Draft" or "Publish"
You can save your record at any time and come back to edit it until you decide to publish it. After publishing, you may only edit the metadata but not add new files to the dataset.
Add to a community
To learn about communities and how to add your record to one or more of them, check the next page of this guide.
Metadata (i.e. your record and description) can be modified after publication, but files cannot. You may only create a new version of your dataset/upload, which will be associated with the original. They will have both a "common" DOI encompassing all versions, and an individual version DOI for each update.
