Activities

The research data centres collaborating in the VerbundFDB are jointly expanding the services offered to educational researchers.

To this end, they organize annual networking events and a regular monthly exchange. The members meet in working groups to discuss selected topics.

 Annual networking events

 Working groups

If you are interested in working with us, the VerbundFDB would be pleased to hear from you!

An overview of work projects in the past project phases can be found here:
 Overview of work packages 2019-2021 (only available in German)
  Overview of work packages 2016-2019

Annual networking events

Fifth network meeting (2021)

The fifth meeting was held online on 20 April 2021. The main topic was the collection and use of impact. Various indicators of data use and measures of publication capture were discussed.

Fourth network meeting (2020)

In the fourth meeting on 22 April 2020, the joint activities of the network during the project period lasting until 2021 were discussed, amongst other things. The meeting was held virtually.

Third network meeting (2019)

The third meeting was held on April 11, 2019 in Berlin.The topic "Terms of use - forms of access and data use contracts" was discussed in depth. The aim of the exchange was to discuss whether and how harmonisation of the different processes can increase usability for researchers who want to re-use data.

Second network meeting (2018)

The second meeting was held on April 27, 2018 in Berlin.

The main topic of the second network meeting was the selection and evaluation of research data.

In addition, news and developments in the network in 2017 were reported and the results of the metadata working group were presented.

First network meeting (2017)

On March 29, 2017, VerbundFDB invited representatives of other RDC and research institutes in educational research to a first meeting to discuss the development of joint services for educational researchers.

The main topic of the first meeting was the harmonisation of metadata in educational research.

Our aim was to increase the visibility and findability of data holdings that are stored at different locations.

Working groups

WG Cessation (since February 2023)

What consequences will follow if an RDC ceases operations or no longer offers individual services? This can happen, for example, when the funding of an RDC expires or due to institutional shifts in tasks and the associated reorganisation in an institute.
Every data centre claims to guarantee continuous access to the data and metadata for which it is responsible beyond its own existence. To this end, preparations must be made for the transfer of digital objects and services to other repositories (succession planning).

In the WG Cessation, several repositories exchange ideas on the topic of succession with the aim of developing a common checklist that provides guidance for repositories.
In addition, the WG is concerned with raising awareness of the topic and facilitating the start. The WG deals with questions of data transfer and transfer of the archiving task as well as aspects of the continuation of services by other repositories in order to ensure the (subsequent) usability of the data elsewhere and after the dissolution of an RDC.

Participating institutions:  IQB,  GESIS,  DZHW,  DIPF,  Qualiservice

WG Basic Archiving (since November 2022)

The working group develops workflow(s) and criteria for basic archiving within the VerbundFDB. The aim is to enable projects to make research data from their surveys available quickly and independently via standardised channels of the VerbundFDB. This is to be enabled by a uniform submission of studies/data sets to the VerbundFDB and an efficient integration of basic services offered by GESIS. In addition to a timely provision of data, the capacities of the VerbundFDB and the participating operating partners will thus be expanded.

Participating institutions:  GESIS,  IQB,  DIPF,  DZHW

WG Automation in Data Preparation (since 2022)

In the working group, data scientists and stewards from various research data centres exchange ideas on ways to automate data preparation, data checking and documentation procedures. Furthermore, technical challenges that emerge in the context of data preparation are discussed. Topics include automated checks of value tags and missing tags, automated spell-checks, replicability of data preparation or dealing with problems of encoding. The working group is open and interested parties are always welcome.

Participating institutions:  DJI,  DZHW,  GESIS,  IQB,  ZPID

WG Metadata (since 2017)

In the WG Metadata, representatives of RDC are working on harmonising the metadata sets and schemes of different RDC. The goal is to achieve a high and comparable quality level. On the other hand, an automatic import of metadata from the different RDC into the portal forschungsdaten-bildung.de is to be realised via technical interfaces. Thus, educational researchers will be able to find data via searching one central place regardless of where they are archived.

Output:

• Core set and da|ra harvesting in the federated FDB, fdbinfo No. 7 (only available in German)
• Infotext: Metadata Registry (only available in German)
• Manual: Metadata Registry (MDR) of the Collaborative Research Data Education (only available in German)
  

WG Journal of Open Psychology Data (JOPD) Special Collection: Data for Psychological Research in the Educational Field ( https://openpsychologydata.metajnl.com/articles/) (2022 to 2023)

An editorial group for a JOPD Special Issue was set up among the members. The Data Papers will present various data sets from the field of educational research that are of interest for psychological research. The articles will be published continuously in 2023 and will present data from well-known projects (e.g. NEPS, PIAAC) and less well-known studies from Germany and outside.

WG "Procedures and experiences in recording publications by secondary users" (2021)

In the working group, the RDC involved exchanged their respective procedures and experiences in recording publications from secondary users. Publications based on data use are an important indicator of data use, its output and impact. In practice, however, the recording of these publications is fraught with difficulties and time-consuming. The results of the exchange led to a joint publication.

Participants:  Daniel Buck (FDZ DZHW),  Andreas Daniel (FDZ DZHW),  Stefan Jakowatz (GESIS),  Nadeshda Jung (FDZ Bildung am DIPF),  Alexander Schuster (FDZ Bildung am DIPF),  Alexia Meyermann (DIPF),  Kati Mozygemba (Qualiservice, Universität Bremen),  Lydia Kleine (LIfBi),  Aleksander Kocaj (IQB)

Output:

 Capturing publications from data use: procedures, challenges and benefits (RatSWD Working Paper) (only available in German)

WG Terms of Use (2019 to 2020)

If the research data centre and the researchers agree on the archiving of the project data, they will define the mutual rights and obligations in a data use contract, the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) or in licences. The concrete wording of the terms of use varies depending on the research data centre/institution. In order to standardise these terms, the working group has compiled sample formulations in terms of text modules. These can be individually compiled as needed. In this way, research data centres receive formulation aids for the subject matter of the contract (e.g. data use, duration of use), for rights and obligations (e.g. anonymisation, data security) and for final provisions (e.g. research results). The text modules support research data centres in defining specifications and regulations within the framework of their data provision processes or in developing their own terms of use or adapting the existing ones.

Output:

 Suggested formulations for research data centres on the topic of terms of use (RatSWD Working Paper) (only available in German)