IVW-Research Data Management

Research data is an indispensable component of the scientific knowledge-building process. As a member of Leibniz Association, IVW shares their view that making research data accessible is an equally valuable scientific achievement as the traditional publication of aggregated data and conclusions. To meet this goal and, at the same time, significantly enhance the initial and long-term benefits of research data at IVW, the IVW Research Data Management Handbook came into effect on May 1. This handbook serves as a guide for IVW researchers in the collection, storage, utilization, and publication of research data. In addition to an institute-wide introductory lecture, many IVW researchers also took advantage of the subsequent workshops to learn about the goals and structures and to learn the specific practices of research data management.

The program initially focused on the creation of research data plans, the practical organization of research data, and the revision control of research software. For the cornerstone of research data management, metadata, training was provided for both manual creation and the use of the Python programming language, and these resources were widely utilized. Furthermore, the institute's own laboratory information system PKDE was expanded to significantly simplify the collection and use of metadata records.

As a result, IVW researchers have already realized a central objective of research data management: articles in scientific journals have been published with accompanying experimental datasets, simulation results supplemented with metadata have been published as independent datasets, and scientific software has also already been made accessible to a global audience.