I’m really glad Krista asked this question, because it’s one we get asked at UC Berkeley all the time.  We’ve launched a project as part of our Research Data Management program to come up with recommendations and a roadmap.  We’re calling this “active research data storage” to distinguish it from preservation and sharing, but I’d love to hear how others describe this. 

It’s pretty clear that there isn’t one answer to the question. A range of services is needed in order to meet the very different kinds of research needs.  We’ve been developing a conceptual framework that looks at the intersection of a) the specific needs of the research project, b) the storage technologies and architectures available, and c) storage service characteristics such as cost and security.

Because this points to a potentially complicated 3-dimensional intersection, we are emphasizing the role of consulting.  Four of the first questions we ask are:
a) Tell me a little about the research you are conducting.
b) Are your data sensitive or subject to restrictions (e.g., human subjects research, or via a data use agreement with a data provider)?
c) What is the maximum file size that you need to store (this ends up being a constraint on many services)?
d) Do you need to share these files with other researchers? At your institution or beyond?
Needless to say, these then lead to any number of other questions.  

At Berkeley we’re still trying to come up with a good set of services that meet the different needs of scholars here.  We point people to our campus-approved Box and Drive services, and our central IT (of which I’m a part) does have professionally managed storage services available for recharge fees that many find too expensive.  We’re working with other campuses in our UC system that offer storage services as well, and we’ll continue to look at services like OSF and Figshare.

Regards,
Chris Hoffman

Chris Hoffman, Ph.D.
Manager of Informatics Services
Research Data Management <http://researchdata.berkeley.edu/>
IST-Research Information Technologies, UC Berkeley
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> On Apr 12, 2016, at 6:54 AM, Christine Mayo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Dryad and FigShare are both preservation repositories, not collaboration
> spaces like what the OP is looking for. I'm afraid I don't have any
> recommendations of a good collaborative working space, but Dryad in
> particular is only for data in a finished state which are associated with a
> specific peer-reviewed publication. Nature recommends those repositories
> for storing data associated with their articles, most journals don't have
> info or recommendations on how to manage data before you get to the
> archiving point of the lifecycle.
> 
> We're working on implementing DataVerse here at BC, but I get the
> impression that it's much the same, that a depositor can self-submit
> depending on the settings, but the only real option then is to publish it,
> I don't know that other members of the research team can easily get in and
> modify things. Which is too bad, as it does meet the need of being
> something that you can host locally if you choose.
> 
> I would absolutely +1 Open Science Framework, but that does have the issue
> of being cloud storage rather than a framework you can set up on a local
> server.
> 
> On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 9:42 AM, Tom Keays <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Nature magazine recommends figshare or the Dryad Digital Repository. They
>> also list others by subject.
>> 
>> http://www.figshare.com/
>> http://www.datadryad.org/
>> http://www.nature.com/sdata/data-policies/repositories
>> 
>> On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 8:25 AM, K. Godfrey <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all
>>> 
>>> We've been approached by a researcher who would like our assistance in
>>> storing data (various file types) on an on-going project (not at a data
>>> preservation stage yet). The researcher wants to be able to access, add
>> and
>>> change this data from their project site and allow her fellow research
>>> partners (not necessarily at our institution) access as well. Are any
>> other
>>> folks offering this kind of service? Have you partnered with campus IT to
>>> make this happen? Are you using particular software, such as DataVerse or
>>> Pydio to facilitate such a service? Thanks!
>>> 
>>> Krista
>>> 
>>> K r i s t a G o d f r e y
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Interim Head, Library Information Technology Services/
>>> Web Services Librarian
>>> Library IT Services
>>> Queen Elizabeth II Library
>>> Memorial University of Newfoundland
>>> St. John's, NL
>>> A1B 3Y1
>>> t:709-864-3753
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> "He's like Super Librarian, y'know?
>>> Everyone forgets, Willow, that knowledge is the ultimate weapon."
>>> -  Buffy the Vampire Slayer
>>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Christine Mayo
> Digital Production Librarian
> Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Library
> Boston College
> [log in to unmask]