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PSDI Community Data Collections

PSDI’s Community Data Collections is a collaborative, community-focused research data repository that enables open sharing, discovery, and reuse of valuable datasets. It currently supports the BioSimDB and Data to Knowledge communities, implementing the FAIR principles through a rich metadata framework, including custom domain-specific metadata schemes for each community. A REST API provides programmatic access for integration and automation.

Users can freely access both metadata and datasets, supporting transparent and reusable research. To access the repository directly, click PSDI Community Data Collections.

Data can only be deposited in the PSDI Community Data Collections repository by authorised members of our supported communities. Read Joining a community to find out more.

If you or your community have data that could be useful to share with the PSDI community, contact us to discuss if it could be suitable as a Community Data Collection.

Supported communities​

You can read more about the communities we support by following links to their What We Provide pages:

Viewing a community​

To view pages for a specific community within PSDI Community Data Collections:

  1. Go to the PSDI Community Data Collections homepage.
  2. Click the Communities link near the top of the page. The communities page is displayed.
  3. Select the desired community from the options available. The homepage for the selected community is displayed.

Alternatively, you can use the direct links for each community provided in the What to do next section below.

The homepage for each community displays the following:

  • Records for deposited data on the Records page
  • Names of members of the community on the Members page
  • In-depth information about data deposition policies for the collection on the Curation policy page
  • Details about the community and the data collection on the About page

Joining a community​

To deposit data in the PSDI Community Data Collections, you must be a member of the community. To request to join a community:

  1. You must have an account and be logged into the Community Data Collections platform. If you do not already have an account or are not logged in, click the Log in button at the top right of the screen and follow the authentication process. You can use the UK Institution Sign In. You may need to click the Log-in button more than once during the process to complete registration and ensure that you are logged into the repository.
  2. View the list of communities using the Communities link near the top of the screen.
  3. Click on your community and navigate to the About page.
  4. Click the Request To Join link on the About page. The Request Membership form for that community will be displayed.
  5. Enter your contact details and your reasons for wanting to join the community.
  6. Click Submit Request to send the form and one of our team members will contact you.

You can also follow these direct links to the forms for each community:

Finding community data​

There are a variety of ways to locate data in the PSDI Community Data Collections:

  • From the homepage for the repository you can Browse Recent uploads or perform a search using keywords in the Search box near the top of the screen.
  • For each community, on the Records page, you can browse records or perform a search using keywords in the Search records.. box near the top of the page.

When you perform a search you can select to search records In this community or search across All PSDI Community Data Collections.

On the Records pages, you can use the filter options on the left of the page to narrow down your search results. For example, you can View all versions, filter by Access status and by Resource type.

Beyond simple keyword searches, you can also enhance your search results by writing an advanced query using specialised search syntax. For example, you can search for specific phrases, search within specific metadata fields in the data, and search for data ranges. For more information about how to perform an advanced search, see the PSDI Community Data Collection Search Guide.

Viewing and downloading data​

More information can be viewed about a data record by clicking on the record title in the results. The This information includes metadata about the record including:

  • Title
  • A short description
  • Author and institution
  • Version information
  • Keywords and subjects
  • Publisher information
  • Rights, license, and citation information
  • File information
  • Associated publications and identifiers
  • Domain specific metadata

Files can be downloaded individually or bundled together as a .ZIP file from the Files section of the page:

  • Click Download next to a specific file to download the file to your Downloads directory.
  • Click Download all to download all the files as a .ZIP file to your Downloads directory.

You can also export the metadata associated with the record in a variety of formats:

  1. In the Export section, in the lower right of the page, select an export format from the drop-down list.
  2. Click the Export button to download the metadata in the selected file format to your Downloads directory.

To return to your search results, use the browser's Back button.

What to do next​

Related links:

About this page

If you would like to contribute content to the PSDI Knowledge Base or have feedback you would like to give on this guidance, please contact us.