Open Source Data Catalogue

Field

Access

21 records

Zenodo
CERN / EU OpenAIRE
Visit
MultidisciplinaryFully Open
CSVJSONPDFimagescodeand more
Types of Data Available
Datasets, code, publications, figures, preprints — any field
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No (browse/download); free account to deposit. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
All student researchers; good for finding replication data
Key Caveats & Notes
Community-curated; quality varies — always check the linked publication. DOIs minted for citability.
figshare
Digital Science
Visit
MultidisciplinaryFully Open
CSVExcelimagesvideocodeand more
Types of Data Available
Datasets, code, figures, media, posters, preprints
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No (download); free account to upload/share. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
All student researchers; good for finding supplementary data from published papers
Key Caveats & Notes
Quality varies widely. Prefer datasets linked to a peer-reviewed article. Institutional figshare instances may differ.
OSF (Open Science Framework)
Center for Open Science
Visit
MultidisciplinaryFully Open
CSVExcelPDFcodeand more
Types of Data Available
Raw data, analysis code, preregistrations, preprints, study materials
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No (view/download public projects); free account to create projects. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Students in psychology, education, social sciences; great for preregistered studies
Key Caveats & Notes
Projects vary enormously in completeness and documentation. Prioritise projects with linked publications.
openICPSR
ICPSR / University of Michigan
Visit
Social & BehaviouralFully Open (openICPSR portion)
CSVSPSSStataSASR
Types of Data Available
Survey microdata, experimental data, longitudinal datasets
Account / Registry Rules
Account: Free account required to download. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Social science and education students; strong secondary survey data
Key Caveats & Notes
Classic ICPSR (most large curated datasets) requires institutional membership or ~$825/dataset fee for non-members. openICPSR datasets are free to all but self-deposited and uncurated.
Data.gov
U.S. Federal Government
Visit
MultidisciplinaryFully Open
CSVJSONXMLGIS shapefilesAPIs
Types of Data Available
Public health, agriculture, climate, education, economics, geospatial
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
All student researchers needing U.S. government data
Key Caveats & Notes
Data quality, documentation, and update frequency vary by agency. Some datasets are large; check file size before downloading.
Harvard Dataverse
Harvard University
Visit
MultidisciplinaryFully Open (most datasets)
CSVStataSPSSRExcelPDF
Types of Data Available
Survey data, experimental data, geospatial, qualitative data
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No (download); free account to deposit. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Social science, humanities, and interdisciplinary researchers
Key Caveats & Notes
Some restricted datasets require application. Quality is generally higher than general repositories because Harvard curates deposits.
World Bank Open Data
The World Bank
Visit
Economics & SocialFully Open (most)
CSVExcelJSONXMLAPI
Types of Data Available
Country-level indicators, survey microdata, economic statistics (1960–present)
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No for indicators; free account for microdata portal. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Students studying global development, economics, public health, or policy
Key Caveats & Notes
Microdata portal (household surveys) requires a free account and data use agreement. Country-level indicators are fully open.
WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO)
World Health Organization
Visit
Public HealthFully Open
CSVExcelAPI
Types of Data Available
Mortality, disease burden, health systems, NCDs, SDG health indicators (190+ countries)
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Public health, epidemiology, and global health students
Key Caveats & Notes
Data represent WHO estimates, which may differ from country-reported figures. Coverage and recency vary by indicator.
NCBI GenBank
NIH / National Center for Biotechnology Information
Visit
Life SciencesFully Open
GenBank flat fileFASTAXML
Types of Data Available
DNA and RNA nucleotide sequences (all organisms); annotated records
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics students
Key Caveats & Notes
Submitter caveats may apply to some sequences. No restrictions on use or redistribution from NCBI itself.
NCBI GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus)
NIH / NCBI
Visit
Life SciencesFully Open
SOFTMINiMLGEO data matrixraw FASTQ (via SRA)
Types of Data Available
Gene expression microarray and RNA-seq datasets, ChIP-seq, methylation data
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Bioinformatics, genomics, and molecular biology students
Key Caveats & Notes
Raw sequencing data (FASTQ) is in the linked SRA database and may be very large. Processed matrix files are more accessible for beginners.
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)
GBIF Secretariat (international)
Visit
Ecology & EarthFully Open
CSVDarwin Core ArchiveJSON API
Types of Data Available
Species occurrence records (2 billion+ records across all taxonomic groups)
Account / Registry Rules
Account: Free account required to download datasets and get DOI citations. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Ecology, conservation biology, and environmental science students
Key Caveats & Notes
Data quality varies — includes museum specimens, citizen science, and research observations. Use the quality filter tools when downloading.
Dryad
Dryad (non-profit)
Visit
Life SciencesFully Open
CSVExcelimagescodeand more
Types of Data Available
Research datasets linked to published journal articles (peer-reviewed)
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No (download); account required to submit. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Biology, ecology, and life science students; excellent for peer-reviewed secondary data
Key Caveats & Notes
All datasets are linked to a published paper and must pass data review — quality is comparatively high. Preferred for scientific rigour.
UniProt
UniProt Consortium (EMBL-EBI, SIB, PIR)
Visit
Life SciencesFully Open
FASTAXMLTSVAPI
Types of Data Available
Protein sequences, functional annotations, interaction data, structures
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Biochemistry, cell biology, and bioinformatics students
Key Caveats & Notes
Two main sections: Swiss-Prot (manually reviewed, high quality) and TrEMBL (computationally annotated, larger but less curated). Always prefer Swiss-Prot entries where available.
CDC WONDER
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Visit
Public HealthFully Open
Text (tab-delimited)via web interface
Types of Data Available
U.S. mortality, natality, cancer, infectious disease, environmental health statistics
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Public health, epidemiology, and pre-med students studying U.S. health trends
Key Caveats & Notes
Data are suppressed for small cell counts to protect privacy. Not all datasets are available at fine geographic levels.
NIH Data Repositories
NIH
Visit
Public HealthMixed — varies by repository
CSVDICOMFASTQand more
Types of Data Available
Clinical trial data, genomics, imaging, survey data (multiple repositories)
Account / Registry Rules
Account: Varies: some fully open; others require registration or data use agreement. Affiliation required: Some require institutional affiliation.
Suitable For
Pre-med, clinical research, and biomedical science students
Key Caveats & Notes
NIH hosts many linked repositories (dbGaP, ClinicalTrials.gov, etc.). dbGaP requires formal data access application for controlled-access data.
NASA Earthdata
NASA
Visit
Ecology & EarthFully Open
NetCDFHDFGeoTIFFCSVAPI
Types of Data Available
Satellite imagery, atmospheric data, ocean data, cryosphere, land cover, climate models
Account / Registry Rules
Account: Free Earthdata account required to download. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Environmental science, climate science, geography, and interdisciplinary students
Key Caveats & Notes
Many datasets are very large. NASA provides tools (Earthdata Search, Giovanni) to subset and visualise before downloading. Registration is straightforward and free.
NOAA NCEI
NOAA / U.S. Government
Visit
Ecology & EarthFully Open
CSVNetCDFXMLJSONAPI
Types of Data Available
Historical climate records, ocean observations, atmospheric data, storm data
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No (most datasets). Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Climate science, environmental science, and geography students
Key Caveats & Notes
One of the world's largest archives of atmospheric, coastal, geophysical, and oceanic data. Bulk downloads may require FTP access.
USGS Science Catalog
U.S. Geological Survey
Visit
Ecology & EarthFully Open
CSVshapefileGeoTIFFXMLNetCDF
Types of Data Available
Earthquake data, water resources, geological maps, biological surveys, land use
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Earth science, geology, environmental science, and ecology students
Key Caveats & Notes
Extremely broad scope. Data quality and documentation are generally high given USGS curation standards.
IPUMS
University of Minnesota
Visit
Social & BehaviouralFree with Registration
Fixed-widthCSVStataSPSSRSAS
Types of Data Available
U.S. Census microdata, American Community Survey, international census data, health surveys
Account / Registry Rules
Account: Free account and data use agreement required. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Social science, public health, economics, and demography students; excellent for U.S. population data
Key Caveats & Notes
IPUMS harmonises variables across census years, making it particularly powerful for longitudinal comparisons. Requires agreement to use data only for research/educational purposes.
Our World in Data
Global Change Data Lab / Oxford
Visit
Economics & SocialFully Open
CSVvia chart download buttons
Types of Data Available
Long-run global indicators on health, poverty, education, climate, inequality
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Students wanting clean, well-documented, visualisation-ready global data; excellent starting point
Key Caveats & Notes
Data are curated and documented but primarily derived from other sources (World Bank, UN, etc.). Always trace and cite the original source, not just OWID.
OECD Data
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Visit
Economics & SocialFully Open
CSVExcelJSONAPI
Types of Data Available
Country-level statistics on GDP, education outcomes, health systems, labour, environment
Account / Registry Rules
Account: No. Affiliation required: No.
Suitable For
Economics, policy, and education students studying high-income countries
Key Caveats & Notes
Primarily covers OECD member states. Limited coverage of low- and middle-income countries — use World Bank data for broader coverage.