eDissPlus – Long-term preservation and publication of electronic dissertations and research data

International audienceFor researchers and scientific institutions the significance of digital research data as well as their storage and publication increases permanently. Using IT-based technologies improves the generation, processing and distribution of data in the context of research projects significantly. With regard to the long-term availability and accessibility of research data the need for research data management is becoming ever clearer. The archiving, publication and therefore increased reusability of research data contribute significantly to the research activities and lead to a greater acceptance and an increase in the reputations for researchers. To date, there is no explicit requirement for doctoral students at German universities to archive the research data generated during their doctoral project or to publish them as part of their dissertation. However, the principles of good scientific practice also apply to them, as the dissertations are explicitly an independent scientific achievement of doctoral students. Therefore research data of doctoral projects should be archived and linked to the corresponding dissertation to enable the verification and traceability of the results. Considering that doctoral students often leave the university or even the academic world after completing the doctoral examination procedure, it becomes clear that research data access and availability needs to be secured directly related to the submission of the dissertation