Dryad
Dryad is a nonprofit, community-governed repository that curates, publishes, and preserves research datasets underlying scientific publications across all disciplines, serving academic researchers, universities, publishers, and academic societies worldwide.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersDavis, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Dryad does
Dryad is a nonprofit, community-governed digital repository founded in 2008 and headquartered in Davis, California. It operates a curated, general-purpose platform for publishing and preserving the research data underlying scientific and medical publications across all disciplines, issuing citable DataCite DOIs and applying expert human curation to every submission under CC0 licensing.
The platform is built on open-source infrastructure with persistent-identifier integration (DataCite, ORCID, ROR, Crossref), API-level integrations with major manuscript management systems (Editorial Manager, eJournalPress) and preprint servers (bioRxiv, medRxiv), and features such as Private for Peer Review and an Automated Publication Updater. Storage is geographically replicated with SHA-256 checksums for long-term preservation. Over 50,000 datasets have been published, and partnerships span more than 80 institutions, publishers, and academic societies, including exclusive designations such as AAAS/Science and participation in the NIH-funded GREI program.
Dryad's revenue model combines per-dataset Data Publication Charges (DPCs) set on a cost-recovery basis, sliding-scale Annual Service Fees from partner organizations, sponsored DPCs through institutional memberships, grant funding (e.g., NIH/GREI), and SCOSS community funding. Its go-to-market blends direct researcher self-service (ORCID-authenticated submission at datadryad.org) with a partner-sponsored channel in which universities, libraries, publishers, and societies fund and promote DPCs for their affiliated authors.
Dryad firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Dryad
- Legal name
- Dryad
- Website
- https://datadryad.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Dryad is a nonprofit, community-governed repository that curates, publishes, and preserves research datasets underlying scientific publications across all disciplines, serving academic researchers, universities, publishers, and academic societies worldwide.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Dryad industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Research Data Repository
- NAICS
- Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131), Libraries and Archives (51921)
- SIC
- Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing (MPAJABAK)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- OER Authoring, Remixing & Publishing Tools/Platforms (EDAGAJAM)
Keywords
Where Dryad is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Davis
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Dryad business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Data Publication Charges (DPC): All authors incur a Data Publishing Charge based on the variable costs of curating, publishing, and preserving one dataset. Pricing scales with use, with the DPC covering metadata and data files related to a single course of investigation. Authors can pay directly or have their DPC sponsored by a partner organization.
- Partner Annual Service Fee: Partner organizations (institutions, publishers, academic societies) pay an Annual Service Fee that funds Dryad's fixed costs for operations, infrastructure, and administration. The fee is calculated on a sliding scale based on the organization's annual revenue or expenditure.
- Sponsored DPCs through partnerships: Organizations partner with Dryad to sponsor DPCs for their affiliated researchers at a reduced rate, covering the variable costs of data curation, publication, and preservation.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Data Publication Charge (DPC) - variable based on dataset size and volume |
| Subscription | Annual | Annual Service Fee for partner organizations |
| Subscription | Annual | Sponsored DPC rates for partner-affiliated authors |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels9 records
Dryad product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Dryad operates a curated, non-profit, general-purpose digital repository that enables researchers to publish, curate, and preserve the data underlying scientific and medical publications. Authors submit data files, receive expert curation review, and obtain a citable DOI registered through DataCite, with datasets permanently archived under CC0 licensing. The platform integrates with major journal submission systems and preprint servers to streamline data deposit at the point of publication.
Product overview
Dryad is a non-profit, community-driven open data publishing platform offering a comprehensive suite of services for research data sharing and preservation. The core product is the Dryad Data Publishing Platform, a curated general-purpose repository that provides data curation, permanent archiving, and citable DOIs for research datasets across all disciplines. Key services include Private for Peer Review (controlled access during manuscript review), expert data curation ensuring FAIR compliance, DOI assignment via DataCite, and README file creation tools. The platform integrates with major journal management systems (Editorial Manager, eJournalPress) and preprint servers (bioRxiv, medRxiv) to streamline the data submission workflow within the research publication process.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Dryad Data Publishing Platform A curated, non-profit, general-purpose data repository where researchers across all disciplines submit data underlying scientific and medical publications, receive expert curation, and obtain a citable DOI with permanent archiving under CC0 licensing.
- Data Curation Services Expert human curation service where Dryad curators review each submission to ensure data are usable, properly documented with appropriate metadata per FAIR standards, and follow file organization best practices before release.
- DOI Assignment Service Service that assigns a citable Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to every dataset through DataCite membership, making datasets discoverable and citable alongside associated publications.
- Private for Peer Review Optional feature that grants controlled access to datasets for journal staff, editors, and peer reviewers before datasets are publicly published, enabling data availability during the manuscript review process.
- README File Creation Tool Integrated tool in the Dryad submission process that creates a README file included in all dataset downloads, providing context and documentation for data interpretation and reuse.
- Automated Publication Updater (APU) Webapp service that compares Dryad data packages with Crossref publication metadata to automatically update article-related fields, link datasets to published articles, and release data embargoes when articles appear online.
Quantifiable outcome
- All Dryad data published CC0 and freely available with permanent DOI and clear citation
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Dryad
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Dryad technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration9 records
Feature7 records
Dryad partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and key.
- openRxiv (bioRxiv/medRxiv)coreIn September 2025, openRxiv and Dryad announced a new partnership enabling researchers to publish data on Dryad as part of the bioRxiv preprint posting workflow. Six months later, the partnership expanded to include medRxiv, allowing researchers posting preprints to easily archive associated datasets.
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)coreAAAS strengthened the scientific record by requiring all data underlying published papers to be publicly available. AAAS designated Dryad as the exclusive partner to simplify deposit of data not having a home elsewhere.
- WileykeyDryad works directly with Wiley to streamline data submission processes for authors publishing in Wiley journals, supporting compliance with data sharing policies.
- The Royal SocietykeyThe Royal Society partners with Dryad to support data sharing across their journal portfolio, helping realize their data sharing policy goals.
- PLOSkeyDryad integrates with PLOS journals to enable authors to submit data during manuscript processing, supporting PLOS data availability policies.
- Editorial Manager (Aries Systems)coreJournals using Editorial Manager can integrate with Dryad through a free API-level integration, enabling authors to submit data to Dryad from the manuscript submission point. The integration helps ensure proper timing for curation and publication.
- eJournalPresscoreJournals using eJournalPress can integrate with Dryad for seamless data submission. The free API integration auto-populates metadata and enables data to be reserved for peer review.
- eLifekeyeLife and Dryad have a seamless data publishing integration. eLife is a top submitter of data to Dryad. The API connection eliminates manual processes and saves editorial team time.
- DataCitecoreDryad is a DataCite member repository. DOIs are registered through DataCite, and data-publication links are provided to DataCite as part of the Scholix framework.
- CrossrefcoreDryad's Automated Publication Updater uses Crossref metadata to match data packages with published articles and automatically update records.
- Scholix (Research Data Alliance / World Data System)keyDryad contributes to Scholix, a high-level interoperability framework for exchanging information about links between scholarly literature and data. DataCite serves as a Scholix Hub.
- ZenodokeyFunded partnership bringing Dryad and Zenodo closer together. Authors can upload associated software and code to Zenodo concurrently with Dryad submission, with direct linking between platforms.
- NIH (National Institutes of Health)keyDryad supports NIH-funded researchers in complying with the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing. NIH has funded Dryad through the Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI).
- Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA)keyGWLA consortium organized pledging campaigns for Dryad SCOSS funding. GWLA member institutions (Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Washington State University, West Virginia University) have joined as Dryad partners.
- ORCIDcoreDryad uses ORCID iDs to unambiguously identify researchers. Authors log in with ORCID and are invited to associate their ORCID with published datasets.
- ROR (Research Organization Registry)coreDryad uses ROR IDs to identify and link datasets to associated institutions, enabling users to discover other datasets from the same organization.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Dryad competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Zenodo: CERN-hosted general-purpose research data repository operated by OpenAIRE. Directly competes with Dryad as a free, multidisciplinary data publishing platform with DOI assignment and broad disciplinary coverage.
- figshare: Digital Science-owned research data repository and publishing platform used by institutions and publishers worldwide. Offers DOI-minted, citable data publishing with institutional repository deployments, directly overlapping with Dryad's core offering.
- Open Science Framework (OSF): Center for Open Science's open-source research collaboration platform that supports project management, preprints, registrations, and data archiving. Overlaps with Dryad on data archiving, DOI minting, and integrations with preprint and journal workflows.
- Harvard Dataverse: Open-source Dataverse software-based data repository hosted by Harvard for general research data sharing. Directly comparable to Dryad as a curated, DOI-issuing, multidisciplinary research data repository with institutional backing.
- Mendeley Data: Elsevier-operated research data repository that enables researchers to upload and cite datasets. Competes with Dryad in the data publishing, DOI assignment, and discoverability space for academic researchers.
Emerging players
- Vivli: Nonprofit clinical research data sharing platform that supports archiving, sharing, and analysis of individual participant-level data from clinical trials. Comparable to Dryad in the data archiving and curation layer, though focused on clinical research.
- PANGAEA: Data publisher for earth and environmental science operated by AWI and MARUM. Comparable to Dryad as a curated, DOI-issuing research data repository, though specialized in geosciences rather than general purpose.
- ICPSR: University of Michigan-based social science data archive. Comparable to Dryad in providing curated, citable research data deposit and preservation, though focused on social and behavioral sciences.
Others
- DataCite: Nonprofit DOI registration agency for research data. Functions as critical infrastructure for Dryad, which registers DOIs through DataCite; included as an ecosystem participant rather than direct competitor.
- Crossref: Nonprofit DOI registration agency for scholarly publications. Powers Dryad's Automated Publication Updater through Crossref metadata and is a key ecosystem participant for linking datasets to articles.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Dryad social profiles
Digital presenceDryad financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Dryad leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Dryad funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Dryad M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Dryad
What does Dryad do?
Dryad operates a curated, non-profit, general-purpose digital repository that enables researchers to publish, curate, and preserve the data underlying scientific and medical publications. Authors submit data files, receive expert curation review, and obtain a citable DOI registered through DataCite, with datasets permanently archived under CC0 licensing. The platform integrates with major journal submission systems and preprint servers to streamline data deposit at the point of publication.
Is Dryad a public or private company?
Dryad is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Dryad founded?
Dryad was founded in 2008. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Dryad based?
Dryad is headquartered in Davis, United States, in the North America region.
How does Dryad make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Data Publication Charges (DPC) is the primary driver. The others are partner Annual Service Fee and sponsored DPCs through partnerships.
Who are Dryad's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Zenodo, figshare, Open Science Framework (OSF), Harvard Dataverse and Mendeley Data. Emerging players are Vivli, PANGAEA and ICPSR. Others are DataCite and Crossref.
Does Dryad have an API?
Yes. Dryad provides programmatic data access via various APIs. Content is available via a variety of APIs including the ability to access Dryad data packages via journal ISSN (e.g., https://datadryad.org/api/v1/journals/2056-3744/packages). The Automated Publication Updater (APU) compares data packages with publication metadata available at Crossref and automatically updates article-related fields. API-level integrations are available for journal management systems including Editorial Manager and eJournalPress, allowing authors to submit data to Dryad from within manuscript submission workflows. Developer documentation is at wiki.datadryad.org/Data_Access.
What industry is Dryad in?
Dryad's product category is Research Data Repository. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJABAK, Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing, with a secondary code of EDAGAJAM, OER Authoring, Remixing & Publishing Tools/Platforms. Its NAICS code is 5192 and its SIC code is 2731.