University of Helsinki Data catalogue

Want to know what research data are produced at the University of Helsinki? Visit Data catalogue! It helps us to improve the discoverability of research data and increase their further use in new research. Data catalogue brings to light especially those data that cannot be opened in repositories, instead of letting them sit in drawers.
Discover and reuse research data

Data catalogue brings together information on research data produced by researchers and students at the University of Helsinki. It does not contain the research data itself, but their metadata, i.e., information on where the data can be found and how to use it. If the data are not openly available, they can be requested through Data catalogue.

In a nutshell, Data catalogue 

  • Gathers information on research data produced at the University of Helsinki
  • Improves the visibility and makes research data citable
  • Helps researchers to comply with the requirements of research funders
  • Promotes open science and FAIR principles at the University of Helsinki
  • Increases the societal impact of research
The many forms of research data

A data catalog can include metadata for various types of research-related data. The only requirement is that the data must be connected to research in some way. The research data described in a catalog can take different forms depending on its source, processing stage, and use. We have described research data in more detail on Data catalogue FAQ page.
The origin of metadata

The metadata are gathered in Data catalogue through automatic data transfer (harvesting), and user submissions. For harvestable repositories, the researcher must have the "University of Helsinki" in their affiliation for the metadata to appear in the Data catalogue. We currently harvest data from these repositories:

  • Data archive
  • Language Bank
  • Finnish Social Science Data Archive
  • Zenodo

You can also suggest a repository for harvesting with our feedback form!

We are often asked for recommendations for data preservation services provided by the University of Helsinki, so in Data catalogue we have two categories for data repositories — University of Helsinki, and external — depending on who provides the service. Of course, we're happy to bring interesting repositories to your attention! 

 

University of Helsinki data repositories

Data archive: is a curated long-term preservation service for digital research data. Curation ensures that the data stored there will remain understandable and usable for tens or even hundreds of years. Openly available data can be downloaded directly from Data archive. Restricted access data requires contacting the contact person listed in metadata.

Databank: provides retention for digital research data produced within the university for 5-15 years. Databank is a curated retention service which is also suitable for large data sets. The service is not designed for the most sensitive data. If you would like to use a dataset that is in Databank, you can request it by clicking the “request data" button.

Language Bank: is a service for researchers using language resources across digital humanities and social sciences. The Language Bank has a wide variety of text and speech corpora and tools for studying them. The corpora can be analyzed and processed with the Language Bank’s tools or downloaded. Many corpora are publicly accessible, some require logging in. The rights to use restricted resources can be applied for electronically. Using the Language Bank is free for researchers and students.

Other data storage systems: In this category you can find descriptions about research data that are located on data storage services provided by University of Helsinki, such as, a network drive, OneDrive or Umpio. These research data have not been published in repositories and only few people are aware of their existence. If you have data that you want others to know about, describe it in Data catalogue — this is how you make your research FAIR and comply with funder requirements.

 

External repositories

Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD):  is specialized in preserving of survey and interview data. The research data stored in FSD's Aila service are available free of charge under the terms of use of each dataset. Aila contains a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative research data.

Zenodo: is a general purpose, open repository hosted by CERN. We recommend it in the absence of a discipline-specific repository, when the data does not contain confidential or secret information, and when the size of the dataset to be published is less than 50 GB.

Other repositories: This is a group of repositories that are not (yet) covered by automatic metadata transfer. If you have published or plan to publish research data in such repositories, you are welcome to describe it in Data catalogue as well.
Feeling a little lost?

No need to worry. Navigate your way to frequently asked questions about Data catalogue, metadata and the preservation of research data. If you can't find the answer to your question, please send it to us by email: .