Science Data Bank logoScience Data Bank (ScienceDB) is a public, general-purpose data repository aiming to provide data services (e.g. data acquisition, long-term preservation, publishing, sharing and access) for researchers, research projects/teams, journals, institutions, universities, etc. It supports a variety of data acquisition and data licenses. It is built and operated by Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Compare Science Data Bank to other options in the Harvard Biomedical Repository Matrix.

Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions about the content of this page. Last updated: 2023-11-13

Features & Specifications

  • Data Size and Format
    • Science DB is a generalist repository that accepts most data and research types. They prefer non-proprietary file formats, which can be found in their Preferred File Format table.
    • For discipline specific file types, they provide the following guidance to evaluate file types:
      1. whether the format is common in your discipline
      2. whether the format has open standards
      3. whether the format is independent of a peculiar software application, developer or supplier.
    • Specific metadata fields are required for dataset submission.

  • Data Licensing

    ScienceDB provides the following licensing options: CC0, CC-BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-NC 4.0, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, CC BY-ND 4.0, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, and 3 licenses for database: PDDL, ODC-By, ODbL, as well as 12 software license agreements: MIT, Apache-2.0, AGPL-3.0, LGPL-2.1, GPL-2.0, GPL-3.0, BSD-2-Clause, BSD-3-Clause, MPL-2.0, BSL-1.0, EPL-2.0 and The Unlicense. CC0 is the default license assigned to datasets.

  • Data Attribution and Citation Tools

    Once a submission is published, ScienceDB assigns a DOI to each dataset. A Commons Science and Technology Resource (CSTR) is also assigned to accepted datasets. Data depositors can select their preferred data citation format.

  • User Access Controls

    At the time of data submission, users may select to an open access or embargo option. Files can be restricted to require users to request access through a Data Access Application.

  • Data Access Tools

    OPEN-API allows users to access datasets programmatically. All metadata is harvested via OAI-PMH.

  • Cost

    Currently, submitting data to ScienceDB is free. However, they reserve the right to charge for submission, review, or storage in the future.

  • Other Features
    • <Data is reviewed by ScienceDB data curation team to ensure submitted datasets are complete, including with required metadata and referred file formats.
    • Impact statistics are available based on data views, file downloads, and citation downloads
    • Automated bilingual (English and Chinese) services