Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI)
Published June 3, 2026 | Version v1
Other Open

Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) Data Packaging Comparison Matrix

Authors/Creators

  • 1. EDMO icon Harvard University
  • 2. Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences
  • 3. University of California
  • 4. ROR icon California Digital Library
  • 5. Open Science Framework
  • 6. ROR icon Figshare (United Kingdom)
  • 7. Elsevier
  • 8. ROR icon Dryad Digital Repository

Description

In late 2025, the Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) collaboration surveyed its member repositories to better understand their current data packaging practices and to identify their views on data packaging and available packaging formats. 

This document contains a comparison matrix of the characteristics of five popular data packaging formats identified in survey results as currently or potentially implemented by GREI repositories: Data Package v2 (Frictionless Data), RO-Crate, BagIt, CSV on the Web (CSVW), and Croissant (MLCommons). 

These formats were examined using nine criteria: 1) Specification & Governance, 2) Primary Purpose / Model, 3) Technical Capabilities, 4) Tooling & Ecosystem, 5) Adoption / Community, 6) Performance & Scalability, 7) Extensibility, 8) Implementation Considerations, and their support of 9) Tabular vs. Non-Tabular Data (CITE MATRIX ON ZENODO).

The resulting matrix provides a baseline, side-by-side view of various data package standards across governance, capabilities, tooling, adoption, and extensibility. It is not intended to be an evaluation or ranking of data packaging formats.

 

Files

GREI Data Packaging Standards Comparison Matrix.pdf

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Additional details

Funding

National Institutes of Health
The Harvard Dataverse repository: A generalist repository integrated with a Data Commons 3OT2DB000004-01S1
National Institutes of Health
Advancing Figshare and the generalist repository landscape to meet research community needs 3OT2DB000006-01S1
National Institutes of Health
Center for Open Science (COS) Proposal for the NIH Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) 3OT2DB000001-01S1
National Institutes of Health
Dryad and the Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) 3OT2DB000005-01S1
National Institutes of Health
Vivli: A Generalist Repository For Clinical Trials Data 3OT2DB000003-01S1
National Institutes of Health
THE GENERALIST REPOSITORY ECOSYSTEM INITIATIVE (GREI) 3OT2DB000002-01S3