Open Research Data
Open (Research) Data refers to research data generated in the course of scientific work that are made available without legal or technical restrictions. According to the Open Data Handbook, such data can be freely used, reused, and shared. The only requirement is the proper attribution of the original creators.
Open Data is as an integral part of Open Science next to Open Access and Open Educational Resources. The term Open Data also refers to open administrative data: HHU also provides access to open administrative data.
Open research data foster transparency, quality, and collaboration in science. The HHU Research Data Management Competence Center (FDMK) supports researchers in publishing their data as Open Data.
- Transparency and reproducibility: Results can be validated and further developed.
- Visibility and citation: Datasets can receive persistent identifiers (e.g., DOI) and be cited as independent research outputs. Persistent identifiers for researchers, such as ORCID iDs, further enhance visibility and ensure proper attribution.
- Collaboration and reuse: Openly licensed data facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and enable new research projects.
- Efficiency: Existing data can be reused, avoiding duplication of effort and accelerating research processes.
- Long-term preservation: Data repositories typically guarantee availability for at least ten years.
- Meeting requirements: Funding providers and scholarly journals increasingly expect that data id published as Open Data.
A clear license is essential to ensure that others can reuse your data in a legally compliant manner.
- Check copyright and usage rights in advance (e.g., with co-authors or third-party funding).
The most common open licenses are Creative Commons (CC BY, CC0, etc.). - Helpful tools:
- forschungslizenzen.de – Overview of licenses
- CC Licence Chooser – Support in selecting the appropriate license
If you have questions regarding licensing, the FDMK team will be happy to assist you.
One of the most common ways to publish research data as open data is through a repository. Ypu can find more information on relevant aspects we well as further ways of publication here.
Next to Open data there is also the concept of FAIR data. Both concepts overlap only partly.
- Open data have a focus on accessibility – data are public and freely usable.
- FAIR Data have a focus on quality – data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
- Data can be FAIR even if they cannot be published under an open license or published at all because of legal issues (e.g., data protection, competitive concerns).
- The goal of FAIR data is high data quality and reusability, regardless of whether the data are available under restricted access or under an open license.