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🗃 Zenodo

Overview

This is the Zenodo documentation, part of Other Tools in the A-LIFE RDM collection.

This page introduces Zenodo and guides you through the full publication workflow — from signing up to publishing your dataset.

Authors: Irene Martorelli, Brett Olivier — Last modification: 2026-08-02 — Version: 0.7.1

What is Zenodo?

Zenodo is a free and open digital archive built by CERN2 and OpenAIRE, enabling researchers to share and preserve research outputs of any size, format, and from all fields of research.1 Launched in May 2013, it was originally developed to support the European Commission's Open Data policy as a catch-all repository for EC-funded research.

Zenodo accepts a wide range of research outputs:

  • 💾 Datasets — tabular data, observational data, experimental results
  • 💻 Software — code, scripts, analysis pipelines, specific repository versions
  • 📄 Publications — preprints, reports, theses
  • 📊 Presentations and posters — conference materials
  • 🎞 Other — images, videos, interactive notebooks, and more

Zenodo imposes no requirements on format, size, access restrictions, or licence — removing barriers to sharing for researchers in any discipline. Every record receives a DOI, and metadata is automatically registered with DataCite and integrated into OpenAIRE reporting lines to funding agencies.

According to the VU Research Data and Software Management Policy, all research data and software that lead to published results must be archived and published in a trusted repository. Beyond policy compliance, publishing research data increases transparency, reproducibility, and the visibility and impact of your work.

Did you know?

💡 Zenodo is derived from Zenodotus, the first librarian of the Library of Alexandria and father of the first recorded use of metadata 💚

✨ Why use Zenodo?

  • Free — no cost for uploading datasets up to 50 GB; multiple datasets can be uploaded with no size limit on communities.
  • Easy to use — intuitive interface with drag-and-drop file upload.
  • Accepts many formats — datasets, software, publications, posters, presentations, images, videos, and interactive materials.
  • DOI — every published record receives a DOI, making your data citable and findable.
  • Long-term preservation — data is stored in the trusted CERN data centre.
  • Increases visibility — widely known in the research community; data is searchable worldwide.
  • Complies with funder requirements — trusted by many funders and publishers as a reliable repository.
  • Supports open science — promotes transparency and reusability; supported by OpenAIRE.
  • Versioning — datasets can be updated as new versions.
  • GitHub integration — synchronise with a GitHub repository to preserve specific versions of your work.

Coming soon

We are adding a dedicated section for publishing software in Zenodo.

🏁 Zenodo Workflow

Follow these steps to publish your dataset in Zenodo.

Step What it covers Documentation
🚀 1. Getting Started Create your Zenodo account, link your ORCID and GitHub, and get familiar with the platform Getting Started with Zenodo
📁 2. Organise your Data Prepare and organise your data files, README, and folder structure before uploading Organise your Data
📤 3. Transferring Data Upload your data files to Zenodo Transferring Data
📝 4. Metadata and Documentation Prepare your metadata and README before publishing your dataset Metadata and Documentation
📄 5. Publishing Run pre-publishing checks, set your visibility, and publish your dataset to receive a DOI Publishing in Zenodo

Further reading

👉 Zenodo Help Documentation
👉 Wageningen University & Research — Why publish research data?

  1. Wageningen University and Research — Publishing your research: https://www.wur.nl/en/library/publishing-your-research ↩

  2. CERN / OpenAIRE — About Zenodo: https://about.zenodo.org/ ↩