What is Research Data?

"Research data are [...] understood as digital and electronically storable data resulting from a scientific project such as the the study of source material, experiments, measurements, surveys or polls." (DFG) 

Research data can be very diverse in the respective disciplines. They include e.g. observations, experiments, simulations, programmings, references.

Research data can be available in different forms. In addition to tables, laboratory books and presentations, audio and video recordings are also included. The formats in which research data are available are also diverse (e. g. generated with EXCEL or SPSS, image formats such as JPEG or GIF, multimedia formats such as MP3 or MP4, translated JAVA or C programs, MSWord or PDF text files, proprietary binary formats of commercial software and much more).

The goal of a comprehensive research data management is the long-term usability of the data.

Further questions?

Some answers to the most frequently asked questions can be found here.

Further information provided by the RDM-Community: forschungsdaten.org.

If you prefer an individual consultation, please contact us directly.
We will reply as soon as possible in order to arrange an appointment.

ORCID iD

Researchers can create an Open Research and Contributer iD (short ORCID iD) to clearly and permanently assign their own research achievements (including published research data). The publication guidelines of the UoC recommend this to all researchers at the University of Cologne.

Further information about ORCID and the notification of the ORCID iD to the UoC can be found here.

---