Implementation phase: during the research project

Subject-specific standards

Different academic disciplines and their sub-disciplines have different ways of working with research data, which makes it difficult to make interdisciplinary recommendations on the use of specific procedures. Therefore, it is generally recommended to find out in advance about the data formats, software and standards for documenting and annotating research data, such as ontologies, controlled vocabularies or metadata schemas, that are established in the respective scientific community. The latter are often driven by worldwide initiatives or, in Germany, by the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and help to make research results more comprehensible and interoperable. Furthermore, the use of open, non-proprietary data formats supports the accessibility and long-term availability of research data.

You can find the current list of standards at https://www.dfg.de/foerderung/antrag_gutachter_gremien/antragstellende/nachnutzung_forschungsdaten/index.html.

Storage and filing of research data and associated software

PC² and IMT provide central storage space incl. data backup for the temporary storage of research data for all researching members and affiliates of the University. Make sure that all persons involved in the research project regularly store their research data centrally. Define a binding structure and responsibilities at the beginning of the research project and integrate them into your data management plan. If there are special security requirements (e.g. confidentiality in externally funded projects), contact the university's information security team.

If special software is developed in your project, this is also part of the "data" to be secured, for which standards may already exist in your subject community. Pay particular attention to meaningful documentation and tests of the developed software and use common version control systems.