UC3 develops open, sustainable infrastructure to support research throughout its lifecycle. Our work centers on four key areas: data management planning, digital preservation, persistent identifiers, and data publishing. We take a highly collaborative approach, working closely with universities, professional associations, and infrastructure providers to strengthen open scholarship. In addition to operating services, UC3 has a long history of leading and contributing to community-driven initiatives that advance innovation, improve research data management practices, and promote the adoption of open infrastructure. Through this combination of development and advocacy, we advance open scholarship by ensuring that research outputs remain discoverable, accessible, connected, and reusable.
Projects and Services
Data Management & Planning
Data Publishing
Persistent Identifiers (PIDs)
- EZID
- Collaborative Metadata (COMET)
- Make Data Count
- Archival Resource Keys (ARKs)
- Research Organization Registry (ROR)
Digital Preservation
Completed Projects
Dat in the Lab
Dat in the Lab was launched in 2017 to explore how Dat, a peer-to-peer data sharing protocol, could support research data preservation and reuse. Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the project was a collaboration with Code for Science & Society and UC3. Its goal was to test lightweight, low-cost approaches for improving research data management by embedding preservation and sharing functions directly into existing lab workflows.
Data Mirror
Data Mirror was launched in 2017 by UC3 in partnership with Code for Science & Society (CSS) as an independent backup of Data.gov. The service mirrored the federal data catalog and underlying datasets, ensuring continued access for researchers and the public.
DAX (Data Application Appendices)
The DAX project explored how to capture details of research data analysis often missing from published articles. These Data Application appendices (DAXs) hold methodological information needed for reuse and verification. The project studied existing practices, developed recommendations for standardized publication, and proposed linking DAXs with datasets and articles. This work helped lay the foundation for “data papers,” positioning research data as a first class research output.
Web Archiving Service (WAS)
WAS was an application for selecting, curating, and archiving web content. In 2014, CDL partnered with the Internet Archive to transition WAS collections and users to the Archive-It platform. The WAS public interface was officially retired in December 2015.