The World Stress Map (WSM) is the global repository for contemporary tectonic stress data from the Earth's crust. Its uniformity and quality is guaranteed through quality ranking of the data according to international standards and a standardized regime assignment. The WSM merges data which otherwise would be fragmented in separate, often inaccessible archives. It provides the long-term preservation of tectonic stress data from physical loss of data carriers or organizational problems of data storage.