On Friday I read some news about the project re3data.org. This introduction may be interesting for our readers too, so I ‘m documenting the press release here:
More and more universities and research centres are starting to build research data repositories allowing permanent access to data sets in a trustworthy environment. Due to disciplinary requirements, the landscape of data repositories is very heterogeneous. Thus it is difficult for researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions to select appropriate repositories for storage and search of research data.
The goal of re3data.org is to create a global registry of research data repositories.
The registry will cover research data repositories from different academic disciplines. re3data.org will present repositories for the permanent storage and access of data sets to researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions. In the course of this mission re3data.org aims to promote a culture of sharing, a better understanding of data management as well as increased access and better visibility of research data. In the first phase of the project the following tasks are prioritized:
- the conception and construction of a web-based registry of research data repositories,
- the definition of selection criteria of research data repositories,
- the formulation of a metadata schema to describe research data repositories.
re3data.org cooperates with DataCite by recently signing a Memorandum of Understanding. With this Memorandum of Understanding DataCite and re3data.org define their efforts to enhance accessibility and visibility of data sets.
According to the schedule the registry will go live in autumn 2012.
re3data.org is funded by the German Research Foundation DFG from 2012 to 2014. re3data.org is a joint project of the Berlin School of Library and Information Science at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The partners are actively involved in the German Initiative for Network Information (DINI) and current research data management activities.#
Update#1 – 2012/7/26:
The first draft of the re3data.org vocabulary to describe research data repositories and its documentation is online (version 1.0). The vocabulary will be used to index research data repositories gathering issues such as:
- general information (e.g. subject)
- information on the provider (e.g. responsible institutions)
- information on legal aspects (e.g. licenses)
- information on technical, metadata and quality standards (e.g. software, api and certificates).
The existing vocabulary was developed out of 20 randomly chosen repositories of a survey of 400 research data repositories. These findings as well as suggestions from project partners have led to the current and preliminary version 1.0.
The re3data.org project appreciates your feedback and would like to invite you to give a feedback about their work done so far.