A stack of books and four dices on top. On the dices are the letters DATA.
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Research Data Management

Research data management enables a structured and efficient handling of (mostly digital) research data. This does not only save time and resources, but also increases the reusability and publicity of research data. Do you have any questions on research data? Do not hesitate to contact us! We will be happy to help you. We support you in all organisational, technical and legal questions concerning your research data.

 

Our services

  • Information on research data management in the form of
    • Individual consultations,
    • Information events and
    • training sessions
  • Support in solving questions
    • for data backup,
    • for long-term archiving,
    • for cooperative work on data and
    • for the publication of research data

Offers for students

  • Externer Link
    Online course Scientific Work [German]

    The course helps with the preparation of scientific term papers and contains a chapter on the introduction to research data management.

  • Externer Link
    Online Course Information Literacy [German]

    The course deals with the evaluation, organization and utilization of information and data.

  • Interner Link

    For questions regarding the handling of research data for supporting documents, term papers and theses, we offer consulting services.

Weitere Dokumente/ Antragsformulare finden Sie hier: https://www.htw-dresden.de/en/rdm

Quick introduction to the topic of research data

Already at the application stage or at the latest at the beginning of a new project, it should be planned more precisely what should happen to the data generated in the project.

Some sponsors have special requirements, e.g. the creation of a data management plan. But even if a data management plan is not explicitly required, the creation of a data management plan is helpful to work with the research data in a structured, well documented and organized way.

Data management plan

A data management plan contains information on how the data is gathered and documented, where the data is stored and who has access to it. In addition, it records how the data can be shared and what should happen to the data created in the project after the end of the project.

The data management plan is created at the beginning of a project and regularly updated.

Examples of data management plans and creation tools:

Would you like to create a data management plan and need advice? Please contact us.

How do I store my research data?

At the HTW Dresden there are several ways to save your project data.

The easiest way is to use your personal network drive. As soon as more than one person is involved, however, group drives are suitable for the projects. Using a VPN connection, you can also access your network drives from outside the HTW.

In case something goes wrong: The network drives are automatically backed up every 2 hours by creating so-called "snapshots". 

OwnCloud, a cloud service for collaborative work with external partners, is available to employees and students of the Faculty of Computer Science/Mathematics. Employees of other faculties and departments of the HTWD can also access the laboratory area of the Faculty of Computer Science/Mathematics on request.

Regardless of the storage systems used, the data should be structured, organised, documented and regularly backed up.

If possible, research data as a raw material for research should also be made available to other researchers. This increases the publicity of the results, ensures an open knowledge culture and efficient scientific work. For the publication and archiving of the data, (online) repositories are recommended. To select a suitable repository, you can use our Repository Recommender or search for repositories in the Registry of Research Data Repositories (Re3Data).

The Open Access Repository and Archive "OpARA" is a service provided by HTWD that allows you to publish and/or archive your research data across disciplines. Members of HTWD have access to this institutional repository via your HTW login at https://opara.zih.tu-dresden.de/xmlui/login.

Do you need support in choosing a repository? Feel free to ask us.

Long-term archiving

A retention period of at least 10 years corresponds to good scientific practice, so that the resulting data is also available and usable in the long term. Further special guidelines for storage may be determined by the project executing agencies or by separate contractual conditions.

Repositories can be used as an infrastructure for archiving, since access to certain data can also be set to non-public. At this point, members of the HTW Dresden are especially recommended to use OpARA to archive research data.

In the case of long-term archiving, the questions of which data all should be archived and which sustainable data formats (and data carriers can be used when deciding on an archiving solution of one's own) are particularly decisive. In addition, metadata should be assigned and the data documented.

Further information on archiving can be found in our recommendation for action (German).

Information on research data management at HTW Dresden

Weitere Dokumente/ Antragsformulare finden Sie hier: https://www.htw-dresden.de/en/rdm

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