Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Research data management

Preamble

Handling of research data responsibly is critical for confirming research results, for the advancement of science and for the dissemination of knowledge. This policy is addressed to all researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin both in their role as independent researchers, and as teachers and supervisors. Their obligation includes instructing students and doctoral candidates about handling of research data properly, as well as imparting subject-specific skills and standards.

What is research data?

Research data means all data that was created in the course of research or results from it. Since the generation or collection of research data depends on a variety of research questions and methods, followed by processing, analysis and publishing and/or archiving, the data may involve a range of media, aggregation levels and formats. Sharing and reusing research data requires documentation about the original context and about tools that were used.

Policy

To further the Proposals for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice of the German Research Foundation, and the Rules of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice and Investigating Allegations of Scholarly Misconduct (Satzung der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis und zum Umgang mit Vorwürfen wissenschaftlichen Fehlverhaltens, in German) the University adopts following policy:

1. HU researchers are committed to the secure storage, processing, documentation and preservation of their research data for the long term. Responsibility for ensuring these processes lies with HU staff in charge of research projects or programmes.
2. All HU researchers are encouraged to process research data resulting from their research activities according to the conventions and standards of their respective scientific community. They should document the complete research lifecycle including tools and procedures that they used.
3. HU researchers should take responsibility for deciding at what time and on what legal terms research data may be accessed. The Open Access Declaration of the HU (Open-Access-Erklärung der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, in German) recommends making research data as well as scholarly publications publicly available in a timely manner. Protection of personal data, copyrights and the legitimate interests of third parties must also be ensured.
4. Research data underlying scholarly publications should be archived for the long-term and/or published in an appropriate trustworthy data archive or repository. They count as scholarly research output at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has commited itself to establishing the means to enable this policy to be fulfilled.

This research data management policy was approved by the Academic Senate on 8th of July 2014.

Please note that this translation is made available in addition to the original version of the “Grundsätze zum Umgang mit Forschungsdaten an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin”. Only the German version is authoritative.