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Library & Archives

Depositing Data in Repositories: SRA

How to submit to SRA

SRA, standing for Sequence Read Archive, is an NCBI repository that accepts genetic data and the associated quality scores produced by next generation sequencing technologies. It requires cross-submitting to BioProject, which can be done during the SRA submission process. Read the instructions below for more information. 

Submission steps

The steps for submission are as follows. Note that you must make an NCBI account before submitting if you have not already.

  1. Provide a project name and description
  2. Choose the type or ‘package’ of your samples
  3. Provide sample metadata that is unique by sample
  4. Provide sequence metadata
  5. Upload your files

Additional guidance

Watch SRA's 10 minute video tutorial on how to submit to the repository on YouTube.


The SRA Submission Wizard, which you will use for making submissions and can be accessed through your NCBI account, has an FAQ and help page with more detailed instructions for each step of the submission process, as well as screenshots for troubleshooting and guidance.

If you need further information, you can email the SRA help team with questions and concerns about your data or the submission process. 

File formatting

Below are general guidelines for files submitted to SRA. Read the full File Format Guide for more detailed information. 

  • Files can be compressed using gzip or bzip2 (do not use zip!), or may be submitted in a tar archive; however, archiving and/or compressing your files is not required. 
  • All file names must be unique and not contain any sensitive information. File names as submitted appear publicly in the Google and AWS clouds. Use best practices for file naming, including providing descriptive names and removing special characters. 
  • Each file must be listed in the SRA metadata table. If you are uploading a tar archive, list each file name, not the archive name.
  • Use the preload option if you are uploading files >10 GB or >300 files. All files for a submission must be uploaded into a single folder that is associated only with a single submission.

Please complete your submission within 30 days of creating a folder. If you upload files and do not submit them, they will be automatically deleted 30 days after folder creation.