Case Study: GigaScience achieves rapid, reliable large-dataset transfers with Aspera

Fast Transfers Improve Research Data Accessibility for Life Sciences Community

GigaScience is an open-access, open-data life sciences journal that publishes data-intensive “big‑data” studies and hosts their complete datasets in GigaDB. Faced with terabyte‑scale submissions, slow and unreliable FTP transfers (one 15 TB submission had to be shipped on hard drives), and a goal to return peer reviews within two weeks, the journal needed a fast, reliable, and easy-to-use way for authors, reviewers, and readers to move large files worldwide.

GigaScience deployed Aspera’s Connect Server, Console, and the Aspera Connect browser plug‑in so contributors and users can upload and download datasets at maximum speed. Transfers that once took days now complete in hours, with automatic resume/retry and a simple web interface for nontechnical users—helping the journal meet its review and publication timelines and greatly improving data accessibility and reproducibility.

GigaScience

Laurie Goodman

PhD Editor-in-Chief