Content Policy

This page gives the background of the Content Policy for the Dryad repository. This policy has been incorporated into the Dryad Terms of Service.

Prior versions of the Content Policy
2012 Policy:

Dryad is an international repository of data underlying peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature, particularly data for which no specialized repository exists.

All material in Dryad is associated with a scholarly publication. Most data in the repository are associated with peer-reviewed articles, although data associated with non-peer reviewed publications from reputable academic sources, such as dissertations, are also accepted.

For data that are within the scope of another repository, Dryad may make the data available to the secondary repository while retaining a copy, or Dryad may simply provide a mechanism for researchers to place data in the secondary repository.

Materials other than data may also be deposited in Dryad, depending on publisher policy, and provided the material can be released to the public domain. This includes software code in cases where a public software repository with version control is not deemed to be suitable by the author(s).

Ordinarily, no more than 10GB of material are submitted for a single publication, but special accommodations can be made for larger submissions.

All content is made available in the public domain under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) waiver, which reduces legal and technical impediments to reuse by waiving copyright and related rights to the extent permitted by law.

All Dryad submissions must be in English; Dryad curators cannot effectively review or curate submissions in other languages at this time.

2009-2011 Collection Policy:

Dryad is a repository of scientific data. Dryad strives to collect all data associated with articles appearing in its partner journals, as well as related publications that appear in other venues. For data that is inside the scope of another repository, Dryad may make the data available to the secondary repository while retaining a copy, or Dryad may simply provide a mechanism for researchers to find data in the secondary repository.

Although Dryad focuses on serving its partner journals, Dryad will make an effort to accommodate data accompanying scientific articles in other fields when there is no repository that would be more appropriate for such data. Data unrelated to the coverage of the partner journals is subject to approval by the Dryad Management board. Data files are limited to a maximum size of 1GB, and no more than 10GB of material may be submitted for a single article. In cases where data is deemed to lack sufficient scientific merit, it may be removed from the repository.

Data must be associated with a peer-reviewed publication to be accepted by Dryad.