Sustainably available, standardized, and traceable at all times: Research data must be managed well so that they meet the standards of good scientific practice. 

A new policy for research data management at Freie Universität now describes how this works. The topic covers a lot: It starts with the development of a research question, includes the organization and documentation, storage, backup and archiving, protection, and finally the sharing and – if possible – the publication of the data.

Pens, pieces of paper, or index boxes have long been more of a prop in research. “Today, in most disciplines, research is primarily done with digital methods, data, tools, and services. Universities must offer a sustainable infrastructure for the associated requirements,” says Sibylle Söring. “The new policy at Freie Universität is part of this: a working guide for researchers when dealing with their data.”

Sibylle Söring heads the Research Data Management team, which is based at the University Library. She and her team developed the policy over the past year and a half. Esther Asef, Heinz-Alexander Fütterer, and other colleagues as well as a university-wide steering committee all worked together on it. In this process they also updated Freie Universität’s Open Access Policy from 2008.

Making Research Transparent

“Basically, it is also about making research more transparent in the sense of open science. Data-based studies, for example, remain traceable even after they have been completed because all the collected data and the study design are still accessible, and follow-up research is therefore possible,” explains Sibylle Söring.

Previously Söring worked for many years as the scientific coordinator for various nationwide information infrastructure projects in the humanities. She points out that many third-party funders already expect very precise information on research data management at the time the applications are submitted.

The new policy was adopted in May 2021 and was created as part of a participatory process together with university members. “It was important to us not to create a 'paper tiger.' We involved researchers from all the departments at Freie Universität in order to be able to respond to individual requirements,” says Söring. For the first time, existing services related to research data management at Freie Universität are also documented together.

This was not an easy task because almost every discipline has its own understanding of research data: some work based on text, others with objects or measurement data in the laboratory, and still others with audio data or moving images. Therefore Söring and her team brought representatives from all the academic departments, the central institutions, and graduate schools on board to develop the policy.

Policy Emerged from a Participatory Process

Finally, in January 2021, at an online meeting, further expertise was obtained from members of the university who already had a great deal of experience in organizing and providing research data. More than 70 interested parties took part. “There was a great willingness to work on the policy and its implementation, which made us very happy. It underlines the relevance of the field of research data management,” says Sibylle Söring.

Elfrun Lehmann was also there. She said she felt good about the process. Lehmann works as a data manager at the Collaborative Research Center 170 at the Institute for Geological Sciences. In the interdisciplinary project, scientists are investigating the late growth history of the terrestrial planets around 4.5 billion years ago.

“The data we process are as diverse as the research methods: We analyze meteorite parts in the laboratory, create geological maps of the moon’s surface, and develop software models,” Lehmann explains.

Lehmann, who is a geographer and computer scientist, has been collecting and managing the data of scientists from the various projects of Freie Universität’s Collaborative Research Center and four other project partners since 2019. She explains, “First and foremost, it is about making the information findable and comprehensible.” It is now common practice for reviewers of science journals to be able to access the data sets when reviewing articles for publication.

Lehmann knows how important it is to think about all aspects of research data management at the beginning of a project. She says, “When raising funds, it is important to take into consideration staff and infrastructure needed for the processing, standardization, storage, referencing, documentation and, if possible, making the data available on a long-term basis.”

Support in Planning Research Data Management

The proposal stage is the right time for researchers to contact Sibylle Söring and her team. She points out that “ the earlier we can support the researchers – whether individual researchers or joint projects – in planning, the better. We need about four weeks to jointly create a plan for research data management.” She and her team are based in the new Services for Research department of the University Library. 

In the future Sibylle Söring and her team from the University Library will continue to build on the feedback and creative will of the researchers. In the fall of 2021 they started implementing the policy together with researchers, for example, through information events and subject-specific handouts. The team also offers on-site information, training, and support formats. In addition, they intend to regularly solicit feedback on the policy and update it as necessary.

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This article was originally published in German on August 10, 2021, in campus.leben, the online magazine of Freie Universität Berlin.