We are the Data Curation Network
As professional data curators, data management experts, data repository administrators, disciplinary scientists and scholars we represent academic institutions and non-profit data repositories that steward research data for future use.
What we do
We strive to build a trusted community-led network of curators advancing open research by making data more ethical, reusable, and understandable.
Get involved
Our Values
Open. We share data curation techniques that are practical, transparent and available to all.
Trusted. We add value to data while maintaining data integrity and upholding the ethical responsibilities of data sharing.
Inclusive. We foster an accessible and welcoming environment to equitably support all participants.
Collaborative. We build an innovative community of practice for data curation.
Empowering. We advocate for data professionals by providing a pipeline for training data curators, promoting data curation practices and enriching capacities for data curation writ large.
Recent blog posts
This is the work: Tales from a journey towards racial justice in the DCN
This post is authored by members of the Racial Justice Working Group (RJWG). This serves to document our efforts, along with the evolution and status of a DCN ethics statement. Many racial justice efforts were born out of the upheaval of 2020 and have since faded. The DCN’s Racial Justice Working Group (RJWG) persists and…
Get to Know DCN Curator Sarah Reiff Conell!
Sarah Reiff Conell is the Research Data Management Specialist at Princeton University. Sarah was interviewed by Jennifer Patiño in April 2025. How did you come to your current position? I came to this position through a PhD in art history. I was a project manager for a few different projects, but in each of my positions,…
DCN Leadership Transition
Mikala Narlock, DCN Director, has accepted a new position at Indiana University Libraries as the Director of Research Data Service. Beginning March 28th, Emma Molls, the Director of Open Research and Publishing at the University of Minnesota Libraries, will serve as the interim Director. We anticipate filling the vacancy during the summer of 2025. This…
Get to Know DCN Curator Jennifer Patiño!
Jennifer Patiño is the Data and Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Jennifer was interviewed by Matthew Murray in March 2025. What’s your current position and how did you come to it? I am the Data and Digital Scholarship Librarian over at UW Madison. I’m from Chicago, and I have a background…
The Data Curation Network is hosted by the University of Minnesota Libraries.