Guideline for Preparing Submissions in ReSeeD

General Information

• Purpose: The metadata and description of your dataset should enable third parties to find, understand, and reuse your data even without prior knowledge of your project. Please follow the FAIR principles, which require rich metadata as description for all data.
• Language: Please provide all information (title, description, README, metadata) preferably in English to increase international reusability. You may use German or another language, if your field of scientific study is so inclined when publishing datasets.
• Self-sufficency: Ensure that all information necessary for understanding and reusing your dataset is included with your dataset in ReSeeD. You may link external resources but they should not be required to make use or sense of your data publication.

File Naming

• Descriptive File Names: Name your files so that their content and purpose are clear (e.g., survey_results_2023.csv instead of data1.csv).
• Please use alphanumeric characters when naming files:
  • Numbers: 0-9
  • Letters: a-z, A-Z (no umlauts)
  • Allowed special characters:
    • _ (underscore)
    • - (hyphen)
    • . (dot)

README File

Place a README.txt or README.md file at the top level of your dataset (not inside a ZIP archive).

The README file may include, for example:

• An overview of all files included (file name + short description)
• Description of the used file formats (including any software/versions required to open them)
• Context of data creation (e.g., project, method, time period, devices/software)
• Notes on special aspects (e.g., proprietary formats, abbreviations, relationships between files)
• Contact information for further questions
• Name the file clearly as README so that it is easy to find.

Required Metadata

Title

• The title should reflect the content, the method, subject, project name, or other distinct features of the dataset.
• Example: Survey Data on Student Wellbeing at Ruhr University Bochum (2023)

Creators and Contributors

• List all persons involved, including their role (e.g., Author, Data Curator, Supervisor).
  • See DataCite Documentation for Creator: "The main researchers involved in producing the data, or the authors of the publication".
  • See DataCite Documentation for other Contributor Types
• If available, add each person’s ORCID iD as a complete URL (e.g., https://orcid.org/xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx).
• Check whether additional contributors (e.g., supervisors, technical support) should be mentioned.
• Affiliation
  • For RUB: Enter “Ruhr University Bochum” (without hyphen and in English spelling).
  • For other institutions: Use the official ROR-ID or the English spelling given there (e.g., https://ror.org/04t3en479 or Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for KIT).
  • Do not specify chairs, faculties, or departments. If you wish to group datasets published by members of your department, these can be joined in a Collection.

Description

• Provide an overview of the data included and the context of its creation.
• Explain abbreviations and technical terms.
• The description should be detailed enough for outsiders to understand and assess the dataset.

Resource Type

• The default for resource type is Dataset
• See DataCite documentation on general resource types

Keywords

• Enter each keyword in a separate field (use the Add another Keyword button).
• Do not separate keywords with commas or semicolons.
• Choose keywords that cover the method, location, topic, and any specific terms.

License

• The default license for dataset publication in ReSeeD is CC0 (Public Domain). Change this if desired.
• Choose an appropriate license for your dataset:
  • For research data: Creative Commons licenses (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0)
  • For software: Open Source licenses (e.g., MIT, GPL)
• An overview of CC licenses can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

Additional Metadata

Funding Reference

• Optional: Indicate whether and by whom the project was funded (e.g., DFG, ERC, BMBF). Related Items

Relationships

• Optional: Link related publications, dissertations, or other relevant resources.
• We can also add related publications after a dataset has been published, e.g., when your dataset is accompanying a journal paper. Please contact us for this.

A Word on Collection

• Collections are not required in ReSeeD. You may use the dataset description to explain relationships to other datasets.
• Information about collections will not be processed as part of the metadata for either publishing or archiving. You may freely add and remove datasets from collections at any point.
• If you wish to bundle multiple datasets for a project, this can also be done at any later stage and even post-publishing.