DRUM Submission Guidelines

DRUM, available at drum.lib.umd.edu, accepts a wide variety of research materials from all disciplines. There are a small number of conditions:

  • You must be a University of Maryland faculty member to submit material. If you're a graduate student, your thesis or dissertation will be automatically submitted to DRUM by the Graduate School. Contact drum-help@umd.edu if you need authorization to deposit in DRUM.
  • Submissions should be substantial works of research or scholarship.
  • You should be the author or coauthor of the materials. You may submit only materials for which you hold the copyright. Contact drum-help@umd.edu for assistance with copyright matters and see our guide to author rights for more information.
    • If you transferred rights to a publisher or another entity, you may need their permission to submit material. Contact drum-help@umd.edu for assistance.
  • Depending on the nature or volume of your materials, the University Libraries may decline your submission. In this situation, we will make every effort to help you find a more appropriate repository.
  • To submit an item to DRUM, login using your UMD credentials. Then select the "Submit Item to DRUM" link in the navigation bar.

File size

You can upload multiple files with each submission, but for technical reasons the submission form will not accept individual files over 2GB. You can submit zipped, tarred, or other archive files.
If you have individual files larger than 2GB, contact drum-help@umd.edu for assistance.

Preparing data for submission

To prepare a data submission to DRUM, please view our more detailed guidelines and instructions for Using DRUM to Share and Preserve Data.

Get your permanent DOI

After we review your submission, you will receive an email that contains a link to your materials and your DOI. You can use the DOI in publications and wherever you refer to the materials.

Recommendations for specific materials

1. Papers, articles, pre-prints, reports, posters, slides

Submit PDF rather than Word or PowerPoint documents. Other suitable formats include LaTex, OpenDocument formats (odt, odp), plain text (txt), rich text (rtf), and HTML.

If you plan to submit a paper that has been published or presented elsewhere, please have the citation information ready.

2. Data

Submit comma-separated, tab-separated, or other delimited or fixed-width files for tabular or 'ascii' data (e.g. txt, csv, tab, tsv). Excel and Access files are acceptable, but avoid submitting data in specialized instrument formats. See our file format recommendations for additional suggestions.

Data should be accompanied by a 'readme' file, data dictionary, codebook, or similar document that contains, where applicable:

  • a file manifest describing file names and contents
  • state of the data (raw, cleaned, processed, subset, summary)
  • instruments and software used to create the data
  • processing steps
  • explanation of variables, column headers, value codes, flags, etc.
  • software required to view or use the data
  • licensing and any terms or conditions of use
  • funding source and grant number
  • contact information

3. Code

Submit code files with the appropriate language extension (e.g. mat, py, r, pl, f). Software should be accompanied by a 'readme' file that contains, where applicable:

  • required libraries or packages
  • version information and changelog
  • installation and configuration instructions
  • known bugs and troubleshooting steps
  • credits and acknowledgements
  • licensing and any terms or conditions of use
  • funding source and grant number
  • contact information

4. Images, audio, and video

For image files, submit JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PDF, or SVG. For audio or video file, submit MPEG (mp3, mp4), WAV, AVI, or Quicktime (mov). Other formats are acceptable, but they may be less useful to other researchers.

Images, audio, and video should be accompanied by a 'readme' file or similar document that contains any of the items listed for data (above) that apply to your material.

5. Everything else

DRUM can accept 3D models, biological and chemical sequences, geospatial data, text corpora, and many other research outputs.

Consider including a 'readme' file or similar document that contains any of the items listed for data (above) that apply to your material.

Contact us with questions or comments

General inquiries: drum-help@umd.edu, (301) 314-1328
Scholarly Communications Librarian: Terry Owen, towen@umd.edu

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