A systematic and planned handling of research data
across the entire life cycle of the data.
User orientation of data management
Different purposes of use (who, when, how often, for how long, where) place different demands on data management and data management practices. Generally speaking, the more diverse purposes of use, the more unfamiliar potential users and the more distant the users are with regard to time and space, the more unspecific and universal the demands are regarding data management.
Data sharing – transfer to a data archive for secondary usage – as a purpose of use
Transfer to a data archive for secondary use (data sharing) is a highly unspecific purpose which poses universal demands on data management. Data sharing in the most general sense relates to use for an unlimited and unknown circle of users for unknown and unlimited purposes, long term and permanent.
The following scenarios exemplify challenges to practices of data management:
Data management orientation towards purposes of use is not only relevant for the specific case of data sharing. Potential purposes of use need to be anticipated to adjust data management practices appropriately, and meet the demands of respective purposes of use and account for future usage.
Usage by primary researchers - independent from data sharing
User orientation is fundamental to systematic data management and thus essential if data management is to meet the high demands on data sharing.
Data management is yet also necessary to assure the realization of the researchers’ own desires for usage.
A timely estimation of user requirements, ahead of or at the beginning of a project, is essential to the adequate governance of subsequent processes and assuring the best possible fulfilment of user requirements.
To the specifications and funding opportunities by DFG and BMBF