Publication makes your research data publicly accessible, citable and, in most cases, searchable worldwide. Moreover, the assignment of a so-called persistent identifier (PID), such as a URN or DOI, is important for the citation of your data.
There are several ways to publish research data:
datastore is a service of the University of Münster for the publication of research data. It is available free of charge to all members of the university.
On the following pages you can search for other repositories (including subject-specific ones) where research data can be published:
In case of data journals, typically only the documentation of the dataset (information on data collection, characteristics and functions, and potential reuse options) is published in order to facilitate distribution and reuse. The research data themselves are stored in an external repository, i.e. the data journal and the repository are separated. Review procedures ensure the quality of the published datasets.
A detailed list of data journals can be found at forschungsdaten.org.
It is also possible to enrich interpretative text publications with so-called data supplements. The publication refers to data that is specifically used to support the publication. In this publication model, research data is most closely associated with the traditional publication process.
Originally, supplementary data were published as an appendix to the interpretative article in the form of figures, tables, or more detailed methodological information. The data were published on the same platform as the text publication, but were not treated in an individually persistent and standardized manner. In this model, the data are part of the article.
In newer models, however, research data can also be published as independent objects on the publishing platform or in parallel to the interpretive article in an external data repository. Referencing is ensured by persistent identifiers. This identifier is then given in the article. In some cases there are collaborations between publishers and data repositories (e.g. Elsevier and PANGAEA). In this model, textual publications and research data can be used and cited, individually.
A persistent identifier enables the stable, globally unique and location-independent referencing of an electronic object and thus offers citation security even if the internet address changes. There are different types of persistent identifiers. In Germany, the two identifier types URN (Uniform Resource Name) and DOI (Digital Object Identifier) are most commonly used. All research data published in datastore, the University of Münster's research data repository, is automatically assigned a DOI.
URNs or DOIs cannot be accessed directly through a browser, but must be translated into a URL using a so-called resolver. For more information, we have created a guide to proper citation.
