An Overview of the Research Data Portal: The University of Tasmania’s first institution-wide digital data repository

Late in 2019 the University of Tasmania launched its first institution-wide repository (the Research Data Portal, RDP) for archiving and publishing research datasets. This release was a significant advance in both the University’s research data security, and for the improvement of access to UTAS research data in line with FAIR principles: the RDP allows UTAS researchers to securely store datasets and it makes data discoverable through Research Data Australia’s (RDA) Search Portal. Researchers can control the level of access (‘open,’ ‘mediated,’ or ‘closed’), select a preferred Creative Commons licence to ensure that intellectual rights are appropriately protected, and every published record is permanently identified with a DOI. In late 2020, we added an online Data Management Plans module to the portal to cover user requirements from the beginning through to the end of a research project.

This presentation will provide a background to the creation of the RDP, describe some of its technical and user features, and some of the pitfalls on the path to rolling it out.