Research Data
What is research data?
The term "research data" is used here to refer to gathered data together with its metadata.
Access to research data has an increasingly important role to play in the provision of scientific information. However, the data gathered in projects tends to be broadly distributed over multiple research institutions and is gathered and managed by scientists. A lack of appreciation for the work involved means that project data is often poorly documented, which means that it is hard to access and is not secured for the long-term. Large data sets tend to be left unused or are collected multiple times, since they are only known to a small portion of scientists.
In 2004, the committee responsible for "Wissenschaftliche Literaturversorgungs- und Informationssysteme" (Scientific Literature Supply and Information Systems) at the German Research Foundation (DFG) embarked on a project to improve access to scientific research data. More information on the "CoData" project.
The German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) took on the role of DOI registration agency for research data in 2005. Starting with the field of geosciences, research data sets are being provided with a DOI name as a permanent identifier, and some of this data is now even accessible via the TIB's catalogue.
What research data is included in our stocks?
Out of the hundreds of thousands of data sets that have so far been registered with a DOI name at the TIB, several thousand of these are also available at GetInfo / TIB catalogue search.
These generally comprise collections of data that form the basis of a scientific publication, so-called supplementary data. You will find the data sets in the TIB catalogue search by processing a standard search for author's name. Data sets gathered by this author are displayed as normal hits with document type "Research data". If you wish to delimit your search to the research data collection, please restrict the database selection to "Forschungsdaten" resp. refine your search by using the drilldown for "Document type: Research data".
