diff --git a/quapy/data/datasets.py b/quapy/data/datasets.py
index d2060a5..2fe08c4 100644
--- a/quapy/data/datasets.py
+++ b/quapy/data/datasets.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from quapy.data.base import Dataset, LabelledCollection
 from quapy.data.preprocessing import text2tfidf, reduce_columns
 from quapy.data.reader import *
 from quapy.util import download_file_if_not_exists, download_file, get_quapy_home, pickled_resource
+from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
 
 
 REVIEWS_SENTIMENT_DATASETS = ['hp', 'kindle', 'imdb']
@@ -21,11 +22,13 @@ TWITTER_SENTIMENT_DATASETS_TEST = [
     'semeval13', 'semeval14', 'semeval15', 'semeval16',
     'sst', 'wa', 'wb',
 ]
+
 TWITTER_SENTIMENT_DATASETS_TRAIN = [
     'gasp', 'hcr', 'omd', 'sanders',
     'semeval', 'semeval16',
     'sst', 'wa', 'wb',
 ]
+
 UCI_BINARY_DATASETS = [
     #'acute.a', 'acute.b',
     'balance.1', 
@@ -230,7 +233,7 @@ def fetch_twitter(dataset_name, for_model_selection=False, min_df=None, data_hom
     return data
 
 
-def fetch_UCIBinaryDataset(dataset_name, data_home=None, test_split=0.3, verbose=False) -> Dataset:
+def fetch_UCIBinaryDataset(dataset_name, data_home=None, test_split=0.3, standardize=True, verbose=False) -> Dataset:
     """
     Loads a UCI dataset as an instance of :class:`quapy.data.base.Dataset`, as used in
     `Pérez-Gállego, P., Quevedo, J. R., & del Coz, J. J. (2017).
@@ -248,14 +251,20 @@ def fetch_UCIBinaryDataset(dataset_name, data_home=None, test_split=0.3, verbose
     :param data_home: specify the quapy home directory where collections will be dumped (leave empty to use the default
         ~/quay_data/ directory)
     :param test_split: proportion of documents to be included in the test set. The rest conforms the training set
+    :param standardize: indicates whether the covariates should be standardized or not (default is True). If requested,
+        standardization applies after the LabelledCollection is split, that is, the mean an std are computed only on the
+        training portion of the data.
     :param verbose: set to True (default is False) to get information (from the UCI ML repository) about the datasets
     :return: a :class:`quapy.data.base.Dataset` instance
     """
     data = fetch_UCIBinaryLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home, verbose)
-    return Dataset(*data.split_stratified(1 - test_split, random_state=0), name=dataset_name)
+    dataset = Dataset(*data.split_stratified(1 - test_split, random_state=0), name=dataset_name)
+    if standardize:
+        dataset = qp.data.preprocessing.standardize(dataset)
+    return dataset
 
 
-def fetch_UCIBinaryLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, verbose=False) -> LabelledCollection:
+def fetch_UCIBinaryLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, standardize=True, verbose=False) -> LabelledCollection:
     """
     Loads a UCI collection as an instance of :class:`quapy.data.base.LabelledCollection`, as used in
     `Pérez-Gállego, P., Quevedo, J. R., & del Coz, J. J. (2017).
@@ -279,6 +288,7 @@ def fetch_UCIBinaryLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, verbose=Fals
     :param dataset_name: a dataset name
     :param data_home: specify the quapy home directory where collections will be dumped (leave empty to use the default
         ~/quay_data/ directory)
+    :param standardize: indicates whether the covariates should be standardized or not (default is True). 
     :param verbose: set to True (default is False) to get information (from the UCI ML repository) about the datasets
     :return: a :class:`quapy.data.base.LabelledCollection` instance
     """
@@ -568,6 +578,10 @@ def fetch_UCIBinaryLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, verbose=Fals
     data = pickled_resource(file, download, identifier, dataset_group)
     data = binarize_data(dataset_name, data)
 
+    if standardize:
+        stds = StandardScaler()
+        data.instances = stds.fit_transform(data.instances)
+        
     if verbose:
         data.stats()
 
@@ -580,6 +594,7 @@ def fetch_UCIMulticlassDataset(
         min_test_split=0.3,
         max_train_instances=25000,
         min_class_support=100,
+        standardize=True,
         verbose=False) -> Dataset:
     """
     Loads a UCI multiclass dataset as an instance of :class:`quapy.data.base.Dataset`. 
@@ -610,6 +625,9 @@ def fetch_UCIMulticlassDataset(
         set to -1 or None to avoid this check
     :param min_class_support: minimum number of istances per class. Classes with fewer instances
         are discarded (deafult is 100)
+    :param standardize: indicates whether the covariates should be standardized or not (default is True). If requested,
+        standardization applies after the LabelledCollection is split, that is, the mean an std are computed only on the
+        training portion of the data.
     :param verbose: set to True (default is False) to get information (stats) about the dataset
     :return: a :class:`quapy.data.base.Dataset` instance
     """
@@ -622,10 +640,15 @@ def fetch_UCIMulticlassDataset(
         if n_train > max_train_instances:
             train_prop = (max_train_instances / n)
 
-    return Dataset(*data.split_stratified(train_prop, random_state=0))
+    data = Dataset(*data.split_stratified(train_prop, random_state=0))
+    
+    if standardize:
+        data = qp.data.preprocessing.standardize(data)
+    
+    return data
 
 
-def fetch_UCIMulticlassLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, min_class_support=100, verbose=False) -> LabelledCollection:
+def fetch_UCIMulticlassLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, min_class_support=100, standardize=True, verbose=False) -> LabelledCollection:
     """
     Loads a UCI multiclass collection as an instance of :class:`quapy.data.base.LabelledCollection`.
 
@@ -649,6 +672,7 @@ def fetch_UCIMulticlassLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, min_clas
         ~/quay_data/ directory)
     :param min_class_support: minimum number of istances per class. Classes with fewer instances
         are discarded (deafult is 100)
+    :param standardize: indicates whether the covariates should be standardized or not (default is True). 
     :param verbose: set to True (default is False) to get information (stats) about the dataset
     :return: a :class:`quapy.data.base.LabelledCollection` instance
     """
@@ -755,6 +779,10 @@ def fetch_UCIMulticlassLabelledCollection(dataset_name, data_home=None, min_clas
             f'is no longer multiclass. Try a reducing this value.'
         )
 
+    if standardize:
+        stds = StandardScaler()
+        data.instances = stds.fit_transform(data.instances)
+
     if verbose:
         data.stats()