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Scientific Library Services and Information Systems (LIS)
Primary Research Data
In the course of research activities, data is acquired and collected through examining sources, sampling, field studies, simulations and surveys. Once the research has been completed, this data, as a rule, remains unpublished and is generally stored in digital format at the research institute where it was collected. Excavation and GIS data and audiovisual and linguistic data are also produced, and these types of data are often stored in different decentralised databases in a variety of different media formats. While all this data is, in theory, available for further examination in the spirit of “good scientific practice”, only the author knows exactly how and where it is stored. This not only makes it difficult to verify publications based on the data collected, it also makes it almost impossible to use this data later for related research. This may, in the past, have led to the duplication of research, a practice that places unnecessary burdens on the resources of the research institute in question. For quite some time, therefore, the scientific community has been advocating the publication of the data on which research results used in scientific publications are based and its storage in a publicly accessible form.
Implementing this request, however, has proven difficult. Archiving requirements for primary research data differ from those for research publications. The data must be organised and archived using methods comprehensible to researchers from all over the world. The data must also be stored in reliable data centres, where it is maintained and archived for the long term, thus ensuring its continued availability. This can be done by discipline, by institution, or in national repositories for research data. The coordinated and transparent availability of research data collected by German scientists will benefit all scientists and academics, whether they are based in Germany or abroad. Making the basic data available will also increase the value of the research results.
Systematic cooperation between information facilities (primarily libraries) and scientific data centres or projects that produce research data can be supported in two ways. First, funding can be requested for the development of discipline-specific or data-type-specific cataloguing and retrieval methods. This will optimise specific methods of accessing the data. Secondly, models for referencing and making primary research data available should be developed. Within the framework of the pilot projects aimed at providing access to primary research data, each information facility should work together with one or more scientific data centres.
Related working groups and workshops aimed at developing the requisite technologies, standards and methods should be designed and organised in collaboration with the DINI (Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation, the German Initiative for Network Information) and the Knowledge Exchange Partners (see also “Project Funding – International Cooperation”). Regular studies should be carried out to evaluate the strategic funding goals, technologies, standards and usage scenarios.
For the humanities, too, the creation of an infrastructure for primary data is of paramount interest in order to facilitate the national coordination of verifying, accessing and safeguarding data from humanities projects in Germany. In order to ensure Germany’s international visibility, particularly within Europe (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures ESFRI), a nationally addressable organisational structure is urgently required, for both the humanities and the natural and life sciences.
