DatasetPlease

DatasetPlease is a hypothetical web-based platform designed to facilitate discovery, sharing, and licensing of datasets for research, education, and data science. The platform emphasizes openness, interoperability, and ease of reuse, providing a centralized catalog where contributors can publish datasets and users can search for data by topic, format, and license.

Key features include a metadata-driven catalog, a data uploader, versioning, and an application programming interface that enables programmatic access to datasets. Datasets are described with structured fields such as title, abstract, topics, geographic and temporal scope, provenance, licensing, and citation information to support reproducibility and attribution.

Licensing options cover open licenses such as CC0 and CC BY, as well as custom licenses chosen by the data provider. The platform supports data quality signals, lineage tracking, and de-identification tools for privacy-sensitive materials. Access controls permit private drafts and restricted datasets alongside public assets.

DatasetPlease aims to support both individual researchers and institutions by enabling data discovery, collaboration, and reuse. It is used in academic research, government data programs, and industry to accelerate data-driven projects and reproducible science. Related platforms include Zenodo, DataHub, and Data.gov.