Wayne State expands open research access through Dryad pilot program

Wayne State University is strengthening its commitment to open, accessible research through a new pilot program from University Libraries that helps faculty and graduate students share the data behind their discoveries with the world.

Launched last fall, the program provides researchers with free access to Dryad, a nonprofit, open-access repository that offers a stable, citable home for research datasets behind their published work. Wayne State's University Libraries underwrites Dryad deposits for researchers, and each submission receives a permanent digital object identifier (DOI), making data easier to find, use and build upon.

Having used Dryad since his postdoctoral studies, Associate Professor of Biology Justin Kenney knew where to go when he needed a place to store and share the large datasets generated by his zebrafish research - and became its first user at Wayne State.

Kenney studies individual differences in behavior, for example, why some animals are bold and others are shy, and what genes and brain activity patterns drive those differences. His lab uses adult zebrafish as a model organism, integrating behavioral analysis with whole-brain imaging to map the neuroscience of personality. That work generates large, complex datasets that traditional journal publishing models aren't always built to accommodate. Dryad fills that gap, ensuring datasets are findable, accessible and reusable by other researchers worldwide.

"More data ends up on Dryad than in a typical journal," Kenney said. His lab's website links directly to Dryad deposits, driving traffic and making their data more accessible to other researchers. "This pilot is a strong opportunity for open science at Wayne State."

Through the University Libraries' pilot, Wayne State faculty and researchers can now deposit datasets at no cost through Dec. 31, 2028. University Libraries cover fees for datasets up to 100 GB (free for datasets under 10 GB and $259 to $464 for larger files) with up to 20 supported deposits per calendar year. Kenney described the submission process as straightforward, with curation taking around a week.

Faculty and graduate students interested in depositing data can contact Research Data Librarian Marianne Stowell Bracke at [email protected]. Researchers are encouraged to reach out early in the publication process, as data must be in final form at the time of deposit. To learn more about the University Libraries' Dryad pilot, visit the FAQ at guides.lib.wayne.edu/data.