Category: featured

The Illinois Data Bank, a public access repository for publishing research data from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. 

Managed by the Research Data Service at the University Library, the Illinois Data Bank leverages the Library’s digital preservation system and operates within a robust policy framework that articulates the University’s commitment to providing persistent and reliable access to research data.  

The Illinois Data Bank has collected more than 1,200 datasets since 2016. 

“For the past decade, we’ve continually looked at the landscape to track emerging trends and policies so that we can be good stewards of past research while preparing for the future. We’re very fortunate at Illinois to have developed a well-integrated system and provide high-quality services that meet researchers’ needs,” said Professor Heidi Imker, head of the Research Data Service. “We’re proud of our work, and we continue to find the data deposited with us endlessly fascinating.” 

Over the past decade, researchers at Illinois have relied on the Illinois Data Bank to share, preserve, and showcase the data that underpin their scholarship. By depositing datasets in the repository, researchers have met funder and publisher data-sharing requirements, increased the visibility of their work through dataset DOIs and search engine indexing, and demonstrated their commitment to research transparency and reproducibility. The repository has also helped scholars ensure the long-term usability of datasets through expert curation services, making research data more accessible and understandable for future generations of researchers. 

The University Library is pleased to announce that the Illinois Data Bank has been officially certified as a Core Trust Seal repository. This certification recognizes Illinois Data Bank’s ability to meet detailed criteria that demonstrate excellence in data stewardship, reinforcing its commitment to provide a secure and reliable platform for data sharing to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research community.

The Core Trust Seal is an international certification framework that evaluates repositories on key criteria including organizational infrastructure, digital object management, and the preservation of data. By achieving this certification, the Illinois Data Bank demonstrates its adherence to best practices in data management and ensures that researchers can trust the repository for long-term data preservation and access.

Illinois Data Bank’s mission is to centralize, preserve, and provide persistent and reliable access to the research data created by affiliates of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. With this certification, the Illinois Data Bank not only enhances the credibility of the data housed within its platform but also provides users with the assurance that their data is managed according to standards defined by an international community of experts.

This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of the Illinois Data Bank team and partners who have collaborated to enhance its services and infrastructure. The Illinois Data Bank, developed and maintained within the Library as part of the campus’s commitment to the Research Data Service, is committed to supporting Illinois researchers by providing a robust platform for data management and sharing, ensuring that valuable research outputs are preserved and accessible for future use.

For more information about the Illinois Data Bank and to explore its certified repository, please visit the Illinois Data Bank. To learn more about the Core Trust Seal certification and its significance, please visit Core Trust Seal.