Pricing Policy for Digital Research Data Archives

Not every digital research data archive is fully funded. Charging fees for data services may help archives to survive. Archives which follow this funding stream have to decide who has to pay, data producers or users, and how much. For the calculation of data service prices a multi-linear price function is suggested. Variables are the number of datasets and the data volume. Different user requirements and data complexity are mirrored as service levels in the price function. Its utilization is shown in a case study at the World Data Centre for Climate (WDCC)