Version as of Nov. 2022
By means of the Research Data Repository (RDR) UHH offers all UHH scientists a technical platform for structured long term storage, documentation, and publication of research data according to the FAIR data principles. Research data will be made available in the long run, the exchange and accessibility of the data will be fostered and the requirements of third-party funds and the code of good scientific practice will be satisfied.
The RDR is not suited for storing working copies of data used on a daily basis. Rather, only reviewed and consistent data should be saved in the RDR in the long run.
UHH scientists can independently upload research data on the RDR platform and describe them with structured metadata. Besides mere research data, the routines or scripts employed as well as other materials, such as documents that describe the data or project, can also be provided in the RDR. The RDR system automatically assigns persistent identifiers (DOI) to the data, which makes it referenceable and citeable.
The metadata are always accessible via the internet without restrictions. The usage and accessibility of research datasets themselves comply with the access conditions chosen by the researchers. UHH recommends open access of all publicly financed research data whenever possible (Open Data).
The UHH Center for Sustainable Research Data Management (FDM-Center) operates the RDR platform in cooperation with the computing center (operator). The RDR service is free of charge for all members of the UHH.
The physical preservation of all uploaded objects and metadata will be guaranteed for the duration of operating the RDR, but at least for 10 years from the time of the upload. Longer time intervals for storage can be chosen by the researcher.
The uploaded data and materials will not be checked for content or scientific adequacy by the operator. The RDR operator will not alter the data uploaded to the RDR. There will be no automatic migration to new data formats. Instead physical preservation, the so-called method of bitstream preservation, will be applied. Hence, the long term interpretability of the data cannot be guaranteed because it may depend on the availability of the necessary software. Because of this, it is recommended to use file formats fit for preservation purposes, as listed here, among other places. The operator reserves the right to convert the data of openly available records with appropriate liceneses into different data formats; the original data will still be kept at its original place. Before datasets are made available for indexing by external research data search engines and portals, they will be checked for consistent metadata and proper licensing terms.
The datasets and metadata stored in RDR will be saved on the long term storage infrastructure of the computing center. Several copies of the data will be preserved at spatially separated devices and backed up regularly. The operator reserves the right to move the data to other storage systems that are under the control of the computing center.
The deletion of uploaded datasets by the scientists is generally not intended. In justified exceptional cases (e.g. defective files, legal problems) data can be withdrawn after consultation with the operator. The respective metadata, however, will continue to be publicly detectable and the DOI referring to that dataset will also continue to match to the respective entry. This entry will be extended by a note indicating the withdrawal of the data.
Datasets with a specified storage duration (e.g. 10 years) will not be directly deleted after reaching the end of the agreed storage time. First of all, a message will be sent to the contact email address that is linked to the dataset. If the storage time should not be extended or no response is received from the researcher, the data will be offered to the UHH archives for commitment. All steps taken will be documented and added to the metadata. The record metadata will always remain in the RDR.
The researchers grant UHH the simple right of use for the uploaded digital datasets and documents in the RDR. More specifically, it means
the right to archive systematically the datasets and documents and to copy them for the purpose of long term digital preservation and publication (for that matter the UHH may use all appropriate technical means, formats and methods) as well as
the right to make all approved datasets and documents publicly accessible in the long run within the scope of the UHH online services including the download of data, as well as
the right to migrate open access datasets to other systems if their license terms allow so. For datasets that are not openly available or where the license terms do not allow for that kind of migration, the researchers will be contacted whether they want a migration.
For all of that, the copyright of the researcher remains untouched. Thus data and documents, for example, may furthermore still be consigned to other institutions for archiving or publishing.
At the time of delivery to RDR, data and additional materials that will be available without access restrictions must be exempt from the rights of third parties and the relevant regulations of privacy protection must be followed. In particular, datasets that contain personal information (e.g. survey data) must be anonymized so that identifying an individual case can be entirely excluded (actual anonymity).
Data that does not comply with the provisions of data protection or that affect the rights of third parties may not be uploaded the RDR without access restrictions. It is the responsibility of the data providers to regulate the potential disclosure of such data by interested parties who are granted access to the data.
UHH reserves the right to reject the inclusion of data and miscellaneous materials or to remove already accepted data from the service if doubts on the legal requirement of archived objects exist. In case the operator is notified of illegitimate usage or any violation of the legal requirements, the operator reserves the right to embargo or delete the affected data from the RDR.
UHH continues to develop consistently the RDR and reserves the right to adjust this service technically as well as organizationally, to stop the service at any time or to replace it with another service (see also 3). Data, metadata and other materials will be kept for the remaining and agreed deadline date of preservation in the case of the shut down of RDR.
All research data that is collected within the scope of research and teaching at UHH can be archived in the RDR.
It can make sense for various reasons (e.g. completing a publication or a research project), not to publish data at the time of archiving.
The provider of data may choose between the following options to grant access to users of their research data and other documents:
Unrestricted access: The research data are accessible without any limitation for all users and without receiving approval of the provider of the data.
Restricted access: Datasets will be made accessible after approval of the provider of the data.
No Access Datasets are only available to the data providers.
For options 1 (unrestricted) and 2 (restricted), there is the additional option to set an embargo date. Before that date, the data will only be accessible by the data providers.
For the definition of the specific terms of use, we like to recommend the use of standard licenses (such as Creative Commons or Open Data Commons).
The descriptions of research data and documents or projects (metadata) respectively are accessible and searchable via the internet without registration for all who are interested, regardless of the access conditions of the actual data. They are published using a CC0-Lizense.