Deposit Data
You may wish to share your research data with other researchers, or your funders may require you to share your data. Sharing your data will ensure your research is cited more widely. DataFirst is the only internationally certified data repository in Africa. We will manage and publish your research data according to global best practice.
Our mission is to promote open African research data as a public good. We therefore do not accept data we cannot share in some way. You have the option to share your data for research-use only. If your data are sensitive or contain personal information, we can anonymise the data for you, or share it in our safe room at the University.
1. How do I deposit my data with DataFirst?
Contact us at support[at]data1st.org and we will assist you to deposit your data with us for publishing on our data site. Read our depositor MOU, which indicates our responsibilities.
2. Does DataFirst charge me to deposit my data with their Data Service?
We do not charge for deposits of research-ready data, but we charge for a one-off fee for:
(i) Data cleaning
(ii) Creation/preparation of user documents and metadata
(iii) Long-term publication of your data on a branded page
(iv) Data-usage reports
3. What type of data can I deposit with DataFirst?
DataFirst accepts administrative records, survey research data, and any other data that could be useful for research. While no data is error-free, DataFirst reserves the right to choose not to disseminate datasets that do not meet certain quality and usability standards.
4. What formats should the data be in?
DataFirst accepts data files in all formats, but preferred formats for data files are Stata and SPSS. Data deposited in other formats will be converted to our standard formats.
5. What should be included with the data files?
Background documentation helps other researchers to understand your data and helps us to create informative metadata on your data. Documents that should be deposited with the data files, such as administrative forms, questionnaires, code lists, manuals, manuals, analytic notes and reports.
6. How will DataFirst make the data available?
All data deposited with us will be available to the research community with a data access model chosen by you as the data owner.
Access to data can be:
Public Use
Public access data is identified on our site with a green arrow icon. Registered researchers submit a brief online form and can immediately download the data. This data is shared under a Creative Commons CC-BY attribution-only license.
Non-Commercial Use ("Licensed")
This type of data is identified with an orange person icon. Researchers register, submit an online data access form and receive an email with a link to download the data files within 24 hours. This data is shared under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license.
Secure Data Centre ("Data Enclave") Use
These are shown with a dark blue padlock icon and are restricted-access datasets that have detailed geographic or genealogical data and are therefore shared with accredited researchers through our Secure Data Centre at UCT.
