Dryad is a nonprofit, open-data publishing platform - not a journal publisher. Researchers use it to publish the datasets that underlie their articles, so the data get a DOI, professional curation, and a permanent open home that reviewers, editors, and future researchers can reach. Conceived in 2007 at meetings hosted by NCEAS and NESCent, Dryad went live in January 2008 with NSF funding and incorporated as a member-governed 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2012. As of 2026 it hosts more than 65,000 curated data publications from roughly 300,000 researchers, connected to over 2,000 academic journals, and it is a signatory to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure.

If a journal's data-availability policy points you to Dryad - as many titles from Wiley, PLOS, eLife, Oxford University Press, The Royal Society, and other partners do - this guide covers what to expect: how submission works, what curation checks, what it costs, and how your dataset gets cited.

Dryad accepts research data from any discipline, with an emphasis on data associated with a published or in-review article:

• Tabular data, images, code outputs, and multimedia in preferably open, reusable file formats.
• Any field - Dryad began in evolutionary biology and ecology but is now fully multidisciplinary.
• Open data only - Dryad publishes exclusively under CC0 and does not host restricted-access or identifiable sensitive data. Human-subjects data must be properly anonymized before submission.

Dryad does not publish articles, preprints, or standalone software projects (it partners with Zenodo so software files deposited alongside a Dryad submission are archived there under an appropriate software license).

1. Log in at datadryad.org with your ORCID.
2. Describe the dataset. Enter title, authors, abstract, funding, keywords, and the related article; rich metadata is what makes the data findable.
3. Upload files with a README that explains variables, units, and structure.
4. Choose timing. Publish immediately, hold until your article is accepted, or pay a $50 Private for Peer Review fee for anonymous reviewer access (credited toward the final charge).
5. Curation. A Dryad curator reviews the submission before anything goes live.
6. Publication. The dataset receives a DataCite DOI (10.5061/dryad.*) and a recommended citation.

Every submission is reviewed by a professional curator before publication. Curators confirm the data are appropriate for open sharing, check alignment with FAIR principles and ethical standards, and assess whether files are accessible, organized, intelligible, and complete enough to re-use. They will email you with questions or requested fixes. Importantly, curators do not evaluate scientific rigor or veracity - that remains the job of journal peer review. Curation typically completes within days to a few weeks, depending on queue and dataset complexity.

Authors affiliated with a Dryad partner institution, journal, or funder pay nothing for datasets up to 10 GB - the partner sponsors the Data Publishing Charge (DPC). Unsponsored authors pay a size-tiered DPC at submission (fee schedule effective May 6, 2025):

Invoicing (instead of credit card) adds a $199 administration fee. Any author may apply for a fee waiver, though waivers are limited to datasets under 10 GB. Fees change periodically - check the current schedule at datadryad.org before submitting.

All Dryad datasets are published under the CC0 1.0 public-domain dedication - no exceptions. CC0 removes legal barriers to reuse; scholarly norms still expect you to cite the data you use. Cite a Dryad dataset like any publication:

Author(s). Year. Dataset title [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.XXXXX

Every dataset page displays its recommended citation, and best practice is to cite both the dataset DOI and the associated article.

Dryad complements, not replaces, journal submission. Many journals integrate directly: when you submit a manuscript, the journal can prompt a linked Dryad deposit, pass metadata across, and give reviewers private access. On acceptance, the dataset is published and the article's data-availability statement points to the Dryad DOI. If your journal has no integration, you can still deposit independently and add the DOI to your manuscript.

Dryad commits to indefinite retention, with files replicated across geographic locations, SHA-256 checksum verification, and a formal succession plan. Governance is by the membership: institutional and publisher members elect the board, and annual reports and board minutes are public. Curation standards follow community ethical norms; datasets are corrected or, in rare cases, withdrawn in coordination with the associated journal when problems emerge.