Data underpinning theses

The University and all major research funders have requirements on the deposit and sharing of research data or research digital outputs that are created or collected as part of any research project, including data or digital objects underpinning your thesis.

You should therefore check if specific funder requirements apply to your work and what you can do to meet these.

The following data categories might help define the scope of the data deposit and sharing requirements:

• Primary underpinning data or digital outputs
  Data or digital outputs that are the foundation of your thesis but are not essential to the reader of your theses to understand it. These types of data or digital outputs should be submitted to Pure by following our guidance document on thesis data submission.
  
  
• Primary supplementary or complementary data or digital outputs
  Data or digital outputs that are an integral part of your thesis that are essential to the reader to understand your thesis. These types of data or digital outputs should be submitted to Registry alongside your thesis.
  
  
• Secondary data or digital outputs
  Data or digital outputs that were collected or generated by someone other than you. Examples are census data, government data, electoral statistics and NHS data. These sources should be cited in the main text of your thesis according to your field's best practice.
  
  
• Personal, sensitive and confidential data or digital outputs
  If your data can be described by this category, contact research-data@st-andrews.ac.uk for advice on the available embargo options.

If you are unsure whether your data fall under one of the above categories, see what are data or contact research-data@st-andrews.ac.uk for help.

Once you establish whether your data or digital outputs are within the scope of the requirements, you can deposit and share them by using the institutional repository, Pure. For details about the process and instructions on how to deposit see the theses data deposit guide.

If your data need to be considered for examination along with your thesis, they need to also be submitted to the Registry Postgraduate Research team.