SWISSUbase is a unique research data repository in Switzerland. It supports multidisciplinary data archiving with rich discipline-specific and multilingual metadata. The platform offers several discipline-specific metadata schemas, currently available for linguistics and social sciences, with humanities to be added in 2025.

Data on SWISSUbase is curated by professional data curators at partner institutions, ensuring high-quality, well-documented datasets that can be easily shared, reused, and preserved long-term.

Read more about the benefits of SWISSUbase.

There are two main user groups on SWISSUbase:

1. Accessing data from the public catalogue

Researchers from higher education institutions, both from Switzerland and abroad can freely access open license data on SWISSUbase without logging in. Restricted data is available for researchers with a verified Switch edu-ID or CLARIN account.

2. Depositing and Sharing data

Researchers from SWISSUbase partner institutions can deposit data for free. Partner organisations pay an annual fee, allowing their researchers to store and share data on the platform.

Visit the Data Service Unit page to see if your organisation is a member of one of the SWISSUbase partner communities.

SWISSUbase supports a variety of data types, including but not limited to raw data, processed data, and metadata from multiple research disciplines. The platform handles datasets from various disciplines and research fields.

Each Data Service Unit provides guidance on the discipline-specific data formats and file types, according to the standards in the respective research community and/or institution.

For more information on file formats, consult your local Data Service Unit.

Accessing and downloading data on SWISSUbase is free for all researchers, both in Switzerland and abroad.

Data deposit is free for researchers from the SWISSUbase Consortium partner institutions, including FORS (all social sciences researchers in Switzerland), LaRS (all linguistics researchers in Switzerland), and the universities of Lausanne (all faculties) and Neuchâtel (all faculties). In 2025, this service will extend to humanities researchers through a partnership with DaSCH.

SWISSUbase partner institutions pay an annual fee so that researchers can share and preserve their data on the platform.

Contact us to learn more about becoming a SWISSUbase partner.

Yes, SWISSUbase adheres to the FAIR principles to ensure research data and metadata are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. These principles make data easier to discover, access, and reuse for both automated systems and individual users.

Read more about how the FAIR principles are implemented on SWISSUbase.

On a national level, SWISSUbase is proud to be a repository recommended by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). This endorsement underscores our commitment to quality and reliability in data management.

On an international level, FORS, operating on SWISSUbase’s infrastructure, achieved CoreTrustSeal certification, establishing SWISSUbase as a key platform supporting Trustworthy Data Repository services for the Social Sciences in Switzerland.
This certification validates SWISSUbase’s adherence to best practices in data preservation and research data management.

Read more about our Principles.