General information
On this page you will find a growing directory of information as well as curated link lists on individual topics related to general topics on research data
Information collections
Here you will find links to further collections with general information
- forschungsdaten.info
The information platform forschungsdaten.info describes itself as “the German-language information portal on research data management (RDM)”. The site, which is funded by the MWK Baden-Württemberg and hosted at the University of Konstanz, provides extensive information on all general RDM topics as well as on various scientific fields in cooperation with numerous institutions such as the NFDI. A very well structured practical compact section with information on tools and a very good glossary as well as a curated link list on RDM in German-speaking countries complete the offer. Information are avaiable in English only partly. - forschungsdaten.org
Forschungsdaten.org is a lively wiki on the handling of digital research data. Contributions (e.g. in the form of new articles, additions and changes) are very welcome. - FDMScouts.nrw Knowloedge base
Over three years of collaboration, the FDMScouts.nrw funding line has built up a knowledge base in the field of RDM based on the experience of the RDM consultants at the participating universities. The former RDM scouts have now made their knowledge base public in order to enable the experience gained to be passed on beyond the funding period and to support RDM service centers in building up know-how. Available only in German. - Praxishandbuch Forschungsdatenmanagement
Very good and comprehensive practical handbook on research data, research data management and information infrastructure published under open access license. Only available in German.
(Online) events and event series
Here you will find links to (regular) events with changing themes
- HeFDI Data School 2024/25
The next round of the HeFDI Data School starts on 16.10.2024. During two-week workshops, central core competencies of data management will be taught in practice & online and deepened through exercises. Participation is free of charge and also expressly desired for members of non-Hessian universities. - HeFDI Data Talks
The Data Talks of the Hessian Research Data Infrastructures are characterized by a very broad spectrum of topics covered by top-class experts. The talks can usually be found later on Zenodo and are available as videos. - EOSC Coffee Lectures
The EOSC Coffee Lectures of the Leibniz Information Center for Economics (ZBW) offers a webinar series on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), its goals, future prospects and opportunities for participation. - BERD Academy
The BERD Academy of BERD@NFDI helps to learn data science and data management with a variety of courses, workshops and other educational content.
Legal and ethical aspects
Here you will find links to publications and talks on legal and ethical aspects of research data
- Who “owns” research data?
The article outlines various (legal) positions and makes them accessible to researchers, especially at German universities.
Hübner, A. (2024). Who “owns” research data?. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11059314 - Health Data Utilization Act (Gesundheitsdatennutzungsgesetz , 2024)
The The Health Data Utilization Act (Gesundheitsdatennutzungsgesetz , GDNG) aims to make health data accessible for research. The core of the law is to make it easier to use health data for public welfare purposes. Among other things, a decentralized health data infrastructure with a central data access and coordination office for the use of health data will be set up for this purpose.
The Federal Ministry of Health has provided a page with FAQs on the most important content - Legal issues in Open Science
The Legal Issues Guide by Till Kreutzer and Henning Lahmann published under CC-BY license offers a very comprehensive compendium on various topics, from the description:
“Digitization enables open science (Open Science). This has many aspects, in particular free access to scientific publications and materials (Open Access), transparent review procedures (Open Peer Review) or open source technologies (Open Source).” Only available in German.
Kreutzer, T., & Lahmann, H. (2021). Legal Issues in Open Science: A Guide. Hamburg University Press. https://doi.org/10.15460/HUP.211
Licenses
Here you can find information concerning different licenses
- creativecommons.net
Creative Commons offers standardized license agreements with the help of which authors can release their works for use by everyone in a targeted manner and at different levels. Scientific data is usually placed under the CC-0 license (“public domain”) or the CC-BY license (“everything is permitted with attribution to the original author”). However, there are also other variants which, for example, exclude commercial use.
A Wikipedia article on the Creative Commons licenses contains detailed information as well as a good brief overview of the differences between the individual CC licenses. - gnu.org
The GNU licenses are a collection of (free) software licenses. The most important license type is the GNU-GPL (GNU General Public License) used by many free software packages. Two central requirements of the GNU-GPL are the disclosure of the source code of software under the GNU-GPL and the so-called Copyleft Principle. Alternatives to this are the less restrictive GNU-LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License) or the GNU-GNU-AGPL (GNU Affero General Public License), which, in comparison to the GNU-GPL, contains an additional condition for users who communicate with the licensed software via a network in order to receive the source code for this software.
FDM in the application process
Depending on the funding provider, the requirements for the applicant can vary considerably. Here you will find information on the most important funding providers.
- Requirements for Third-Party Applications
Third-party funders require varying degrees of information on research data management when submitting applications. Good overviews of the most important sponsors and further links can be found in the compilations of the
– University of Tübingen
– FU Berlin - Requirements of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
The requirements for RDM in DFG funding proposals can be found in the “Guideline for handling research data (2015)” as well as in the “Specification of requirements for handling research data (2022)” and the “Checklist for handling research data for applicants”. The HeFDI Data Talk: “DFG requirements on research data management” by Ortrun Brand provides a very good summary. It contains links to all relevant DFG documents.