Since 2018, the research data repository OpARA (Open Access Repository and Archive), which was developed in a research project of the Free State of Saxony, has been in operation. It offers researchers the opportunity to archive their digital research data in accordance with the guidelines of good scientific practice and optionally make it available to third parties under an open access licence. Since 2022, this service has also been fully available to all members of Leipzig University.
To the service “Research data archiving”
In the newly acquired OpARA4Saxony project, further Saxon research institutions will be connected to OpARA in cooperation with the ZIH, specific user requirements will be analysed and, based on this, the OpARA system will be further developed in order to comprehensively support data-driven research processes and FAIR data in the future. An integral part of the further development is the planned connection of local research information systems to the central repository and the associated integration of decentralised research reporting. In addition, innovations are planned for the automatic DOI allocation as well as for citation recommendations and the transfer of large amounts of data from local storage systems.
A training and operating model tailored to the requirements of researchers will be developed and implemented in parallel in the project. The overall goal of the project is to identify the growing requirements of researchers for a research data repository and to implement them in a sustainable user-friendly way within the framework of OpARA's further development.
The duration of the project at the University of Leipzig is one year and begins on 1 July 2022.