The concept of research data management (RDM) encompasses all tasks that arise from the so-called data lifecycle: data collection in research projects, data processing and analysis, and data storage in special university data infrastructures or (subject-) specific repositories:
In its research data management guidelines, CUAS Mainz has set out a framework for research data management.
The FDM@HAW.rlp project is a joint project of eight universities of applied sciences in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Given the growing importance and quantity of digital research data, the project aims to establish uniform standards, as well as shared infrastructures and consulting services, for the management of research data (RDM) at universities of applied sciences. Furthermore, it is designed to build on existing structures at Rhineland-Palatinate research universities (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, TU Kaiserslautern, University of Trier). Another goal is networking with existing regional and national RDM initiatives. By the fall of 2025, inventory and needs analyses are to be conducted at the participating universities, which will then form the basis for the subsequent establishment of sustainable and quality-assured research data infrastructures as well as consulting services for researchers. Another component of the project work is creating awareness of RDM among researchers at universities of applied sciences and developing and enhancing the related competencies in this field.
The German Data Forum (RatSWD) provides important guidance on research data management, particularly in the social sciences.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) also provides a checklist for handling research data. (https://www.dfg.de/resource/blob/174736/92691e48e89bf4ac88c8eb91b8f783b0/forschungsdaten-checkliste-en-data.pdf)
In addition, a comprehensive knowledge base on RDM has been developed as part of the FDMScouts.nrw funding line.
National and international funding bodies increasingly expect applicants to submit so-called data management plans (DMP) when requesting funds for research projects. Although the specific content to be provided in these plans may differ depending on the subject, they all share the following objectives:
The FDB network, a consortium of research data centres funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, also provides important guidance on this topic. The FDB network aims to establish a research data infrastructure and provide services for empirical educational research in Germany.
For more information, see https://www.forschungsdaten-bildung.de/ueber-verbund?la=en
Checklist for creating a data management plan in empirical educational research
Guidance on handling research data from a data protection perspective is provided by the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures (Rat für Informationsinfrastrukturen, RFII) and the German Data Forum (Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten, RatSWD). Taking these into account in the earliest planning stages of a research project is strongly recommended, as the responsibility for compliance with data protection regulations ultimately lies with the heads of a research project.
Before collecting data or conducting interviews/surveys, always be sure to obtain so-called informed consent in writing from the participants. For more details and examples, including suggestions for how to word such forms, see:
The Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Mainz has set up two communities on Zenodo, the European research repository, giving both staff and students at CUAS Mainz the opportunity to store and publish their research data and research results, as well as excellent bachelor’s and master’s theses, permanently and free of charge.
In the Zenodo CUAS Mainz OA Repository community, CUAS Mainz staff have the opportunity to publish journal articles and articles from collected volumes (as secondary publications), reports, research data, lectures and slide sets free of charge, as long as there are no legal obstacles.
In the Zenodo CUAS Mainz Final Theses community, bachelor’s and master’s theses of CUAS Mainz graduates featuring a final grade between 1.0 and 1.7 can be published and stored.
We have prepared a handout summarizing the process of adding your work to the community. The mandatory declaration of consent for storing your personal data, including the metadata associated with your publication, can be found here.
The authors themselves upload, license and publish their content under their own names. Please note that the uploaders are responsible for ensuring compliance with the legal requirements and that the data collected on all research participants must be anonymized in advance.
For questions or comments regarding the inclusion of your work, feel free to contact the community administrator at darina.schiliro(at)kh-mz.de
Zenodo is a large European repository operated by CERN and designed as part of the European Union’s OpenAIRE programme. It serves as an online storage service for all types of electronic documents, enabling their permanent publication and storage. Aside from research data, it can also be used to store presentation slides, software codes and documentation, articles or project reports, for example. All archived or published documents receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Data size is generally limited to 50GB; up to this size, storage with Zenodo is free of charge. For larger files, it is advisable to contact Zenodo directly.
Digital objects can be published and stored under different licenses. Authors are asked to choose their preferred access type: Published files are open access, whereas archived files (under “restricted” or “closed access”) are only accessible to authorized individuals or on request. In any case, the metadata are openly available worldwide under a Creative Commons CC0 license, as Zenodo is not a “dark archive”. Similarly, Zenodo is not a cloud service and therefore not suitable for the temporary storage and processing of files. Since the documents are assigned a DOI, editing and/or deleting records is only possible to a limited extent.
All digital objects are stored in CERN data centres, mainly in Geneva, with replicas stored in Budapest. Items are stored for the lifetime of the repository. In the event of repository closure, every effort will be made to transfer all content to appropriate alternative institutional and/or subject-based repositories. Zenodo is funded by the European Commission (OpenAIRE projects), CERN, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Arcadia Fund, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and donations via the CERN & Society Foundation.
Zenodo’s terms of use are available here. For Zenodo’s privacy policy, click here.
When requesting funds for research projects, your budget should already include the possible costs for storing and/or re-using your research data.
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is an international non-profit organization that provides members of the research community with a persistent digital identifier. Assigning a unique identifier (ORCID ID) links researchers directly to their publications, research activities, awards, research data, and the like.
It takes just a few steps to create your own ORCID ID and connect it to your analogue and digital publications. You decide who has access to what information, and you can change those permissions at any time.
Detailed information about ORCID and instructions for creating your own ORCID ID can be found here.
