Challenges in publishing research data - a FraunhoferCase Study

Sharing of research data is becoming more and more established as part of the scientific process, triggered by corresponding requirements of research funders. A large number of subject-specific and institutional research data repositories were created as publication agents for the research data. Nevertheless, the publication processes are not yet established and need to find a way to best practice. The aim of this paper is to work out what challenges currently exist in the publication of research data and how these can be overcome. Answers to the research question are provided by a case study of research data publication with the participation of industrial partners in the institutional research data repository of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft ”Fordatis”. The publication process is described from the perspective of the researcher, the data curator and the repository operator. In summary,
the challenges can be overcome primarily by the division of labor and communication.