Research data management is becoming increasingly important. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has published guidelines on how to deal with research data, as has the German Psychological Society (DGPs) focusing on its own subject, as well as the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) in its position paper "Recommendations on Scientific Integrity".
The Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID) is expanding this field and intends to work with other research institutes closely together. In order to learn how ZPID can support the psychological profession with its products, the exchange of experiences is important.
Dr. Nora Umbach from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen was invited to ZPID and gave insights into the work of the IWM. Umbach works as research assistant for method consulting and research data backup. She reported: "For a couple of years, data of all our studies have to be archived. Our metadata standards are based on the metadata guidelines of PsychData, the data repository of ZPID."
When asked what she wished for in order to archive data more easily, Umbach replied: "Colleagues keep telling me that they would like to have a tool to guide them through the entire archiving process. ZPID's DataWiz is well suited for the management of psychological research data. Maybe we could cooperate in this sector."
Prof. Dr. Michael Bosnjak, Director of ZPID, also sees opportunities for cooperation: "As a central infrastructure institution for psychology, we maintain intensive contact with institutes that constantly generate research data and make it available in the sense of an open and transparent scientific culture. The IWM in Tübingen is an important partner for us in developing our products and services tailored to the needs."
Nora Umbach's presentation on data management at IWM is available on video at leibniz-psychology.org/angebote/mediathek.
Only recently the German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved the follow-up grant of ZPID for DataWiz. DataWiz is a free open science tool that helps scientists process research data professionally. The aim of the second funding phase is to improve the usability and interoperability of DataWiz.