May 2021

Research Data Policy of Freie Universität Berlin

Content
1 Preamble...................................................................................................................................................... 1
2 Scope............................................................................................................................................................ 2
3 Definition..................................................................................................................................................... 2
4 Handling Research Data.............................................................................................................................. 2
4.1 Research and Project Planning; Administering and Managing Research Data................................... 3
4.2 Publishing, Licensing, Storing, and Archiving Research Data............................................................. 3
5 Legal and Ethical Considerations................................................................................................................ 4
6 Responsibilities............................................................................................................................................ 4
6.1 Research and Teaching......................................................................................................................... 4
6.2 Institutional Obligations...................................................................................................................... 5
7 Entry into Force........................................................................................................................................... 5
8 References.................................................................................................................................................... 6
9 Imprint......................................................................................................................................................... 7

1 Preamble
Today, a responsible approach to digital research data is one of the cornerstones of transparent, high-quality,
visible, and sustainable research. Freie Universität Berlin supports its members (researchers, instructors, and stu-
dents) in implementing the relevant principles in alignment with the German Research Foundation’s Guidelines
on the Handling of Research Data1 and Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice,2 Freie Universität
Berlin’s Statute for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice,3 Freie Universität Berlin’s Open Access Policy,4 the FAIR
Data Principles 5 as well as other recommendations6 regarding the entire research process, from data collection
to the publication of research findings. Above and beyond these basic principles, Freie Universität Berlin believes
that in the long term, research data are useful not only in a scientific context, but also have the potential to be
used and distributed throughout society in accordance with the principles of open research (open science, open
scholarship). The university encourages a culture of dialogue as a basis for developing quality assurance concepts
for research data in the various departments and subject areas.

1 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). 2015. ‘Guidelines on the Handling of Research Data’.

https://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/foerderung/grundlagen_dfg_foerderung/forschungsdaten/guidelines_research_data.pdf.
2 DFG. 2019. ‘Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct’. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3923602.
and DFG. 2021a. ‘Research Integrity’. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://wissenschaftliche-integritaet.de/en/.
3 Freie Universität Berlin. 2020. ‘Satzung zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis (GWP-Satzung)’. Mitteilungen. Amtsblatt der
Freien Universität Berlin 2020 (42). https://www.fu-berlin.de/service/zuvdocs/amtsblatt/2020/ab422020.pdf.
4 Freie Universität Berlin. 2021. ‘Open Access Policy of Freie Universität Berlin’. https://doi.org/10.17169/refubium-31442.
5 Initiated in 2016, the FAIR principles of findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable for the management of scientific data (‘FAIR
Principles’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/.) aim to improve the discoverability, accessibility,
interoperability and reusability of digital data; see Wilkinson, Mark D., Michel Dumontier, IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, Gabrielle
Appleton, Myles Axton, Arie Baak, Niklas Blomberg, et al. 2016. ‘The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and
Stewardship’. Scientific Data 3 (1): 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18.
6 See, e.g., the compilation DFG. 2021b. ‘Subject-specific Recommendations on the Handling of Research Data’. Accessed 22 October
2021. https://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/principles_dfg_funding/research_data/recommendations as well as the subject-
specific commentaries of the Code of Conduct – Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice (DFG 2021a).
 2 Scope
This policy applies to all members of Freie Universität Berlin 7 as well as to visiting researchers and guest lec-
turers, and partners and institutions with which the university holds a cooperation agreement. Where specific
funding agreements with external funders stipulate other rules on data management, those rules take prece-
dence. The binding policies of Freie Universität on data protection 8 and IT security 9 also apply.

3 Definition
This policy applies to all research-related analog data, documents, and objects that are to be digitized in the
course of a given research process as well as to “born digital” (i.e., originally created in a digital medium) data,
documents, and objects produced in the course of a research process and/or that are the object or result of
such a process. Research data are also defined as any data that facilitate the documentation, transparency, and
– depending on the research area – replication of research outcomes (metadata).10

Common examples of such research data are digitizations, audiovisual data, digital representations of an-
alog data, measurement data, observation data, survey data, texts and text editions, databases, object col-
lections, protocols, methodological test procedures, questionnaires, software, and simulations.11 The German
Research Foundation (DFG) also defines source code and software as research data where they represent central
outcomes of scientific research.12 The broad spectrum of data types reflects the diversity of scientific disciplines
and their different research methods and processes.
In the course of the research process, research data can take on several forms. They may vary in quality depend-
ing on how they are prepared or if additional data are added. The form of the data may also depend on the stage
of processing, or they may be provided in different formats for presentation purposes. Furthermore, they may
be subject to varying access regulations (open data, restricted data, closed data).
The management of research data is an ongoing part of the entire research process. It includes the organiza-
tion, documentation, storage, back-up, archiving, sharing, and publication of data. Research data management
not only increases the visibility of the generated and/or processed data, but also the related research. It also
helps to improve data quality and data processing, while making subsequent use of the data easier both for
the original researchers and for others. Moreover, it facilitates the use of data in new contexts created when
different data sets are linked. Sustainable research data management ensures the fulfillment of subject-specific
requirements, as well as potential obligations related to funding agreements. It also helps meet publishers’
standards and requirements, as well as ensuring compliance with the principles of good scientific practice.

4 Handling Research Data

Freie Universität Berlin encourages researchers to structure and archive their research data and to make these
accessible in accordance with the FAIR principles. These principles aim to make digital data more findable,
accessible, interoperable, and reusable. Research data should be managed in a way that is compatible with
the relevant subject-specific practices, with the principles of ethical research, 13 and the guidelines and recom-
mendations issued by professional associations in the relevant subject.14 Freie Universität Berlin adheres to the

7 Section 43 of the Berlin Higher Education Act defines members of the university (‘§ 43 Mitglieder der Hochschule’. 2011. Gesetz
über die Hochschulen im Land Berlin (Berliner Hochschulgesetz - BerlHG). https://gesetze.berlin.de/bsbe/document/jlr-
HSchulGBE2011pP43.).
8 Freie Universität Berlin. 2013. ‘Datenschutzsatzung der Freien Universität Berlin’. Mitteilungen. Amtsblatt der Freien Universität Berlin
2013 (53). https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/it-sicherheit/downloads/Datenschutzsatzung.pdf.
9 Freie Universität Berlin. 2019. ‘IT-Sicherheitsrichtlinie der Freien Universität Berlin (Version 4.0)’. https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/it-
sicherheit/downloads/IT-Sicherheitsrichtlinie.pdf.
10 In addition to the definitions formulated here, see the glossary accessible on the University Library’s research data management
website at ‘RDM-Glossary’. 2021. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/forschungsdatenmanagement/glossar.
11 DFG (2019), op. cit.
12 DFG (2019), op. cit.
13 See e.g. with regard to data sovereignty and ethical aspects, the CARE Principles (‘CARE Principles of Indigenous Data Governance’.
n.d. Global Indigenous Data Alliance. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.gida-global.org/care.).
14 See DFG (2019), op. cit..

PAGE 2
 principles of the “Sorbonne Declaration on Research Data Rights,” 15 and recommends that researchers work on
the guiding principle of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.”

4.1 Research and Project Planning; Administering and Managing Research

Data
It is recommended that project leaders include the costs of resources required to store and manage data (staff
costs, project-specific hardware and software, charges for use) in grant applications. Even if funding institutions
do not require it, Freie Universität Berlin recommends that researchers create a data management plan (DMP)
as early as possible. The DMP should include details on how data will be collected, administered, secured, stored,
used, and published. It should also include an agreement on data organization, the assignment of responsi-
bilities, intellectual property,16 regulations regarding staff fluctuation, as well as specifications on data access.
The data management plan should be reviewed regularly in the course of the research project and updated
whenever necessary.
Descriptive metadata should be linked to the research data on an ongoing basis as an integrated part of the re-
search project rather than waiting until the project is completed. It is also essential that the methods and tools
used to generate, enrich, structure, and analyze the data are documented in full. This ensures compliance with
quality standards, helps to keep the process transparent, and also ensures that the research can be replicated in
accordance with the respective subject-specific norms. The University Library can help with choosing suitable
tools for this process.

4.2 Publishing, Licensing, Storing, and Archiving Research Data

Machine-readable, processable research data can be deposited, referenced, and made accessible in different re-
positories. Depending on the project, researchers might choose a domain-specific repository, a subject-specific
repository, or Freie Universität’s own institutional repository, “Refubium.”17
Where intellectual property or data protection legislation or the principles of ethical research require restricting
access to research data, Freie Universität offers technical archiving solutions. 18 If there are reasons why re-
search-relevant data are not to be stored, this should be documented in accordance with the recommendations
on good scientific practice. If the research data are archived but not published, Freie Universität recommends
that the metadata are deposited in Refubium to ensure the maximum visibility and long-term citability of re-
search outcomes.
The University Library assists members of the university in documenting and cataloguing their data for publi-
cation 19 and in using sustainable and/or open standard formats 20.
If usage or publication rights are to be transferred, use of the data for academic purposes should be guaranteed
on a perpetual basis. Freie Universität Berlin therefore recommends granting open licenses for use when data
(including their metadata) are published, e.g., CC0 or CC BY 21 for data, GNU General Public License 22 or MIT
License 23 for source code. Data should be assigned persistent identifiers, e.g., Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs).

15 ‘Sorbonne Declaration on Research Data Rights’. 2020. https://www.leru.org/files/Sorbonne-declaration.pdf. Signatories are, among
others, the German U15, of which Freie Universität is a member, as well as other international university associations at the national
level.
16 Freie Universität recommends that university members use the author and contributor identifier ORCID (Open Researcher and
Contributor iD), which ensures unique assignment to publications and research data (‘ORCID’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021.
https://orcid.org/.).
17 ‘Refubium – Freie Universität Berlin Repository’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/?locale-attribute=en.
18 See the offers of the backup and archive service of ZEDAT ‘Backup-Service für Server im FU-Netz’. 2021. Accessed 22 October
2021. https://www.zedat.fu-berlin.de/Backup. Users can take advantage of consulting services to implement appropriate archiving
solutions.
19 In the context of final theses, quality assurance is carried out by reviewers.
20 See e.g. Böker, Elisabeth. 2021. ‘Formate erhalten’. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.forschungsdaten.info/themen/
veroeffentlichen-und-archivieren/formate-erhalten/. and ‘Data Formats for Preservation’. 2019. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://
www.openaire.eu/data-formats-for-preservation/.
21 ‘About The Licenses - Creative Commons’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.
22 ‘A Quick Guide to GPLv3’. 2016. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.en.html.
23 ‘The MIT License | Open Source Initiative’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.

PAGE 3
 The University Library offers this service free of charge. 24 For the citation and/or referencing of data 25 and soft-
ware 26, researchers should refer to established standards.
Research data must be stored and made accessible for as long as required and possible according to the rec-
ommendations and rules of research funders within the framework of statutory and legal provisions (e.g., the
EU regulations on personal data [GDPR], intellectual property law). The minimum time for which research data
should be stored is usually ten years from the date of publication of the data or the relevant work and/or the
end of the project. 27 Freie Universität’s institutional storage systems (ZEDAT; Refubium) ensure that data are
stored for at least this long.
If research data are to be deleted from the institutional storage systems, then this must be done in agreement
with the relevant researchers as well as the infrastructure providers (i.e., the University Library and ZEDAT)
following the expiry of the required archiving period and in compliance with all legal and ethical requirements.
The decision as to whether to retain or delete the data should take into account the interests and contractual
obligations of external funders and/or other stakeholders, such as cooperation partners, participating research
institutions, etc.

5 Legal and Ethical Considerations

Research data management must always and at all times take into account the current statutory requirements,
especially in relation to the protection of individuals and of intellectual property (copyright law, General Data
Protection Regulation), as well as the requirements of this policy, subject to special arrangements with third
parties (e.g., research groups, joint projects) and to ethical considerations.
The ownership of usage rights is regulated in the employment contract between the researcher and Freie
Universität and/or other specific agreements with the researcher. The rules stipulated in other agreements
(funding agreements, cooperation agreements, research permissions) and the rights and standards applicable
to the persons and groups, if any, who form the object of the research also apply. It may be necessary to carry
out individual assessments of cases where ownership of the intellectual property in relation to the data is vested
solely in the researcher(s) and/or specific research institutions.

6 Responsibilities

6.1 Research and Teaching

Members of Freie Universität Berlin are bound by the principles of good research practice set out by the Ger-
man Research Foundation (DFG). Freie Universität’s statute on safeguarding good scientific practice 28 stipu-
lates that researchers must ensure that the research data created and processed in the context of their research
project must be, wherever possible, organized, documented, made accessible, and stored in a long-term and
sustainable way. The researchers at Freie Universität are responsible for implementing the various rules and
guidelines that apply to their research, including rules and standards issued by their respective departments
and in consideration of all ethical and statutory requirements.29 Proper handling of research data is also
highly relevant in the context of teaching and education. Members of Freie Universität do their best to ensure
students and researchers for whom they have a responsibility are aware of the various methods of research
data management applicable to their respective subjects 30, whether this is in teaching and training (especially
research-oriented teaching), research-based internships, projects, or final theses.

24 ‘DOI’. 2018. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/refubium/a-to-z/identifiers/doi.html.

25 Data Citation Synthesis Group. 2014. ‘Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles’. FORCE11. 2014. https://doi.org/10.25490/a97f-
egyk.
26 Smith, Arfon M., Daniel S. Katz, and Kyle E. Niemeyer. 2016. ‘Software Citation Principles’. PeerJ Computer Science 2 (September): e86.
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86.
27 See DFG (2019), op. cit.
28 Freie Universität Berlin (2020), op. cit.
29 See DFG (2019), op. cit.
30 See DFG (2019), op. cit.

PAGE 4
 6.2 Institutional Obligations
The University Library provides consultations on the organizational, legal, and ethical aspects of research data
management, as well as on questions related to information science in this context. It offers support to re-
searchers, especially in designing a research data management plan, and in selecting and implementing the
best archiving and, where applicable, publishing strategy. Where researchers are dealing with more complex
requirements, the Office of the General Counsel, the Central Ethics Committee, and ZEDAT also offer advice
on finding tailored solutions for specific legal, ethical, and technical issues. The University Library also supports
researchers through training in basic skills and norms in relation to research data management. It can advise
the departments and other units in setting up and developing their own training programs, e.g., for Collabo-
rative Research Centers (CRCs). ZEDAT offers one-on-one consultations for researchers along with workshops
for small or large working groups on subjects such as computation for scientists, finding the right software,
and identifying capacity needs, for example, for big data projects 31.
The Open Access Policy of Freie Universität Berlin 32 encourages the idea that publishable research data should
be accessible, and the university supports all researchers in making this possible as well as supporting rec-
ognition for data publications and developed software. The university strongly recommends that researchers
consider and implement the relevant practices when handling research data in the context of assessing final
theses and dissertations, in evaluations, and recruitment and appointment procedures. Freie Universität Berlin
is also working toward the establishment of research data management as a core aspect of the curricula in all
subject areas and in the courses offered by the central facilities as part of its endeavors to embed good scientific
practice in all areas of the university.

7 Entry into Force

This policy was approved by the Academic Senate of Freie Universität Berlin on May 5, 2021, and thereby
entered into force.

The University Library will be responsible for coordinating a review of this policy every two years with the
participating central offices and committees to evaluate its validity in order to adapt it to new challenges,
developments in infrastructure, and the needs of researchers.

Compliance with statutory and regulatory norms (including data protection legislation) is regularly
monitored.

The University Library is the point of contact for any questions related to this policy
([email protected]).

31 ‘High-Performance Computing’. 2018. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/high-performance-computing.

32 Freie Universität Berlin (2021), op. cit.

PAGE 5
 8 References
‘§ 43 Mitglieder der Hochschule’. 2011. Gesetz über die Hochschulen im Land Berlin (Berliner
Hochschulgesetz - BerlHG). 26 July 2011. https://gesetze.berlin.de/bsbe/document/jlr-
HSchulGBE2011pP43.
‘A Quick Guide to GPLv3’. 2016. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.
en.html.
‘About The Licenses - Creative Commons’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/.
‘Backup-Service für Server im FU-Netz’. 2021. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.zedat.fu-berlin.de/
Backup.
Böker, Elisabeth. 2021. ‘Formate erhalten’. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.forschungsdaten.info/
themen/veroeffentlichen-und-archivieren/formate-erhalten/.
‘CARE Principles of Indigenous Data Governance’. n.d. Global Indigenous Data Alliance. Accessed 22 October
2021. https://www.gida-global.org/care.
Data Citation Synthesis Group. 2014. ‘Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles’. FORCE11. 2014. https://
doi.org/10.25490/a97f-egyk.
‘Data Formats for Preservation’. 2019. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.openaire.eu/data-formats-for-
preservation/.
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. 2015. ‘Guidelines on the Handling of Research Data’. https://www.dfg.de/
download/pdf/foerderung/grundlagen_dfg_foerderung/forschungsdaten/guidelines_research_data.
pdf.
———. 2019. ‘Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct’. https://doi.
org/10.5281/zenodo.3923602.
———. 2021a. ‘Research Integrity’. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://wissenschaftliche-integritaet.de/en/.
———. 2021b. ‘Subject-specific Recommendations on the Handling of Research Data’. Accessed 22
October 2021. https://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/principles_dfg_funding/research_data/
recommendations.
‘DOI’. 2018. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/refubium/a-to-z/identifiers/doi.html.
‘FAIR Principles’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/.
Freie Universität Berlin. 2013. ‘Datenschutzsatzung der Freien Universität Berlin’. Mitteilungen. Amtsblatt
der Freien Universität Berlin 2013 (53). https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/it-sicherheit/downloads/
Datenschutzsatzung.pdf.
———. 2019. ‘IT-Sicherheitsrichtlinie der Freien Universität Berlin (Version 4.0)’. https://www.fu-berlin.de/
sites/it-sicherheit/downloads/IT-Sicherheitsrichtlinie.pdf.
———. 2020. ‘Satzung zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis (GWP-Satzung)’. Mitteilungen. Amtsblatt
der Freien Universität Berlin 2020 (42). https://www.fu-berlin.de/service/zuvdocs/amtsblatt/2020/
ab422020.pdf.
———. 2021. ‘Open Access Policy of Freie Universität Berlin’. https://doi.org/10.17169/refubium-30559.
‘High-Performance Computing’. 2018. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/high-
performance-computing.
‘ORCID’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://orcid.org/.
‘RDM-Glossary’. 2021. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/
forschungsdatenmanagement/glossar.
‘Refubium – Freie Universität Berlin Repository’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://refubium.fu-berlin.
de/?locale-attribute=en.
Smith, Arfon M., Daniel S. Katz, and Kyle E. Niemeyer. 2016. ‘Software Citation Principles’. PeerJ Computer
Science 2 (September): e86. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86.
‘Sorbonne Declaration on Research Data Rights’. 2020. https://www.leru.org/files/Sorbonne-declaration.pdf.
‘The MIT License | Open Source Initiative’. n.d. Accessed 22 October 2021. https://opensource.org/licenses/
MIT.
Wilkinson, Mark D., Michel Dumontier, IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, Gabrielle Appleton, Myles Axton, Arie
Baak, Niklas Blomberg, et al. 2016. ‘The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and
Stewardship’. Scientific Data 3 (1): 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18.

PAGE 6
 9 Imprint
Freie Universität Berlin
Kaiserswerther Straße 16–18
14195 Berlin

May 2021

Layout: Freie Universität Berlin, Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS)

www.fu-berlin.de/en
www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/forschungsdatenmanagement

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

PAGE 7