Publishing Research Data

Advantages of publishing your data:

• Scientists can reuse and recycle their data for further research
• Reproducibility of your research results
• Scientific exchange is strengthened
• no redundancies in data collection
• Credibility of research results is strengthened by availability of primary data

Repository, data journal or data supplement?

In addition to subject-specific or generic research data repositories, there are also international journals that publish the metadata or documentation of the collected data and refer to the corresponding repository in which the described data is stored. The description of the data in the form of metadata is subject to an evaluation procedure to ensure the quality of the metadata.

Further information on data journals can be found here.

Preparation of data for publication

In order for other scientists to be able to use your data, you must prepare the data so that they are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. This path corresponds to the so-called FAIR principle. In order to ensure that the data can be easily found, the data set to be published should be provided with sufficient metadata. By assigning a DOI, you achieve a worldwide unique and location-independent referencing of your research data. Furthermore, the data set is citable and increases your reputation.

When publishing the data, please also consider data protection and copyright issues. In many repositories, you can restrict access to your data to a specific group of persons, for example, if it is personal data.

Further information on the legal provisions on the handling of research data can be found here.