Kategorie: ‘Informationen & Beratung’
Publishing Research Data: Questions to Clarify in Advance
Source: Own Illustration
In the previous post, “Creative Commons Licenses Explained Simply,” we explained how Creative Commons licenses work and the options they offer for making scholarly works available for reuse.
However, choosing an appropriate Creative Commons license is just one step toward publishing research data. Various legal and organizational issues should be clarified in advance. These include, for example, whether the research data may be published at all, whether intellectual property rights apply to it, and which license or repository is appropriate in each case.
This post provides an overview of the most important issues and highlights what researchers should keep in mind when publishing their research data.
Creative Commons Licenses Explained Simply
Source: creativecommons.org
Whether it’s a scientific publication, presentation, graphic, or teaching material: Anyone who publishes research findings should specify how others are permitted to use them. This is exactly where licenses come into play.
They clarify whether content may be shared, modified, or even used commercially. In this way, they promote the reuse of scientific findings and support the goals of Open Science.
Creative Commons licenses (CC licenses) are an internationally established licensing system. But what do the various abbreviations actually mean, and which license is suitable for which purpose?
Where Should I Store My Research Data? A Decision-Making Guide for RWTH
Source: Own Illustration
At the very latest when research data needs to be stored, archived, or published in a structured manner, an important question arises: Where is the best place to store the data?
At RWTH, various services are available to researchers. At the same time, there are numerous discipline-specific repositories tailored to the needs of individual fields. The right choice depends less on the file format and more on the goal: Will the data be actively used? Does it need to be preserved long-term? Or should it be published and made available for reuse?
ELN@RWTH: Digitizing Research Documentation
Source: Own Illustration
Experiment logs, measurement data, analyses, and notes are part of everyday research life. However, this information is often stored in various locations: in lab notebooks, on network drives, in email attachments, or on personal computers. This can make it difficult to retrieve data, trace workflows, or share information with colleagues.
Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) offer a digital solution to this problem. They enable structured documentation of research processes and help researchers make their work traceable, efficient, and accessible over the long term.
Coscine in Everyday Work – Development, Service, and Marketing
Source: Own Illustration
There is much more to a platform like Coscine than just technical development. To enable researchers to manage and store their data in a structured way and collaborate on projects, various departments must work closely together. At Coscine, two teams in particular take on key roles: the Development Team and the Service Management Team. These are complemented by other departments such as Communications and Marketing, which support the platform’s visibility.
State Initiative for Research Data Management – fdm.nrw
Source: fdm.nrw
The state office of the State Initiative for Research Data Management (abbreviated as Landesinitiative fdm.nrw) serves as the central hub for strategic developments in research data management (RDM) in North Rhine-Westphalia. Since its founding in 2017, it has been connecting universities and stakeholders across the state, supporting the establishment and expansion of RDM structures and state-level RDM services, and providing information on current, cross-cutting developments in RDM. In addition, the Landesinitiative fdm.nrw supports the implementation of the DH.NRW State RDM Concept, which was published in 2024. With its information, networking, and exchange offerings, the fdm.nrw state initiative is aimed in particular at FDM staff at universities.
In this blog post, you will find an overview of the development of the fdm.nrw state initiative from its founding to the present, as well as its key areas of activity and its collaboration with RWTH.
Policies That Bring People Together: Coscine Policies as a Guide for FAIR RDM!
Source: Own Illustration
In today’s digital research landscape, it is crucial to ensure that research data management and use are clear and transparent. For this reason, the Service Management Team, in cooperation with RDM staff from other universities, has drafted several policy documents related to Coscine and DataStorage.nrw over the past few months. In this blog post, we take a closer look at these documents and their significance for review processes in North Rhine-Westphalia and beyond.
Coscine Meets RDMO – Incubator Launched With DMP4NFDI
Source: Own Illustration
How can data management planning and research data management be more closely integrated without duplicating form filling, copying, and manual transfers? This is precisely where a new incubator comes in: Coscine and RDMO are being technically linked for the first time. Together with DMP4NFDI, an interface is being developed over six months that will simplify workflows and merge processes. Find out what this will look like in this article.
FDM-Werkstatt 2026 – Contributions from RWTH
Source: Own Illustration
The next FDM-Werkstatt will take place in Düsseldorf from March 23 to 25, 2026, and will be conducted in English. This hands-on workshop is intended for researchers, data stewards, and others interested in gaining experience in research data management. Attendees will have the opportunity to collaborate, exchange ideas, and familiarize themselves with established tools. RWTH Aachen University is participating this year with several contributions, offering different perspectives from the realms of support, infrastructure, and practice.
Where Is the Data? In Coscine, of Course!
Source: Own Illustration
“Where is the data?” – This question was at the heart of Love Data Week 2026 and describes a challenge shared by many research projects. Research data is continuously generated, processed, shared, and archived. At the same time, there is a growing need to keep this data findable, traceable, and usable in the long term. With a presentation and a workshop during Love Data Week, Coscine showed how research data management can be implemented in practice in this area of tension.
