Abstract
This paper summarizes the findings of an analysis of scientific infrastructure service providers (mainly from Germany but also from other European countries). These service providers are evaluated with regard to their potential services for the management of publication-related research data in the field of social sciences, especially economics. For this purpose we conducted both desk research and an online survey of 46 research data centres (RDCs), library networks and public archives; almost 48% responded to our survey. We find that almost three-quarters of all respondents generally store externally generated research data – which also applies to publication-related data. Almost 75% of all respondents also store and host the code of computation or the syntax of statistical analyses. If self-compiled software components are used to generate research outputs, only 40% of all respondents accept these software components for storing and hosting. Eight out of ten institutions also take specific action to ensure long-term data preservation. With regard to the documentation of stored and hosted research data, almost 70% of respondents claim to use the metadata schema of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI); Dublin Core is used by 30 percent (multiple answers were permitted). Almost two-thirds also use persistent identifiers to facilitate citation of these datasets. Three in four also support researchers in creating metadata for their data. Application programming interfaces (APIs) for uploading or searching datasets currently are not yet implemented by any of the respondents. Least common is the use of semantic technologies like RDF.Concluding, the paper discusses the outcome of our survey in relation to Research Data Centres (RDCs) and the roles and responsibilities of publication-related data archives for journals in the fields of social sciences.
Highlights
Background and introductionIn the social sciences more and more researchers analyse data provided by official statistics or by specialised providers of research data
Experiences in other scientific areas are integrated in our suggestions for establishing data archives that are based on the complementary know-how of research data centres (RDCs) and libraries
Within our analyses we examined the availability of application programming interfaces (APIs), which enable automated data exchanges
Summary
In the social sciences (especially economics, political science and sociology) more and more researchers analyse data provided by official statistics or by specialised providers of research data (e.g., from the ALLBUS at GESIS1 or from the SOEP at DIW Berlin). A rising number of publications in almost all scientific disciplines are based on the analysis of datasets, there are few effective ways to effectively replicate or re-examine the results of an empirical article, to verify it, or to make it available for re-utilisation and to support scholarly debates. The current situation confronts both the scientific community and scientific infrastructure service providers, like libraries and research data centres, with multiple challenges. In particular the roles and responsibilities of scientific infrastructure providers, e.g., research data centres (RDCs), for managing and operating a data archive that facilitates the replications of published research often are not clearly outlined. Our paper describes the outcome of desktop research and an online survey evaluating scientific infrastructure with respect to their potential services for the management of publicationrelated research data in the field of social sciences. Experiences in other scientific areas are integrated in our suggestions for establishing data archives that are based on the complementary know-how of research data centres (RDCs) and libraries
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