23.04.2025 Publication: Curation guidelines for HeFDI repositories

This publication contains recommendations for the curation of data publications in the research data repositories of Hessian universities.

This publication contains recommendations for the curation of data publications in the research data repositories of Hessian universities. In view of the individuality and diversity of data publications, the authors propose a flexible approach that takes local particularities and institutional framework conditions into account. Accordingly, the recommendations are not binding, but serve as a guide. The handbook identifies jointly developed quality features and criteria to facilitate the development of locally customised curation processes. It also contributes to the transparency of the curation process and can serve as a basis for other research institutions to develop their own curation criteria.

As part of the cooperation within the research data management state initiative HeFDI (Hessian Research Data Infrastructures), all eleven Hessian universities have named requirements for the operation of a research data repository and tested various tools on the foundation of these requirements. In the end, they agreed on the open source software DSpace and a distributed-coordinated operation. In total, there are four independently operated instances, with the TU Darmstadt and the Philipps University of Marburg also providing instances or areas for all Hessian universities that do not operate their own institutional repository in a joint co-operative operation. The primary purpose of these institutional repositories is to enable researchers to store and / or publish their data free of charge.

You can find the publication in our Zenodo-community: https://zenodo.org/records/14442045

Feel free to take a look at further information on HeFDI and Institutional Data Repositories.