An RDM concept in line with the FAIR data principles (see below) should be developed at the UW/H before the project starts. Data management plans (DMP) are very useful for this.

A data management plan describes the life cycle of research data, from collection to archiving, including all measures to ensure that the data remains available, usable and traceable (data inventory, data genesis, workflow, consolidation, dissemination). First and foremost, it supports your own good scientific work and is helpful when preparing a funding application for a project. More and more research funders are demanding a data management plan.

The FAIR Data Principles or FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) help to prepare research data. Detailed information on the FAIR principles and their implementation can be found in the publication"The FAIR Principles for Scientific Data Management and Data Stewardship" and also in the English-language publication The FAIR Guiding Principles.

Subject-specific repositories in which the data is stored in an open format (interoperable) and described by metadata (findable) are suitable for implementing the FAIR principles. re3data is the portal for finding repositories that make research data available and publish it.

When the DFG Code of Conduct "Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice" came into force on August 1, 2019, all universities and non-university research institutions must implement the 19 guidelines in a legally binding manner in order to receive funding from the DFG.

"If scientific findings are made publicly accessible, the underlying research data (usually raw data) - depending on the respective subject area - are generally kept accessible and traceable for a period of ten years at the institution where they were created or in cross-site repositories." (Guideline 17)

If there are comprehensible reasons for not retaining certain data, this must be explained. The long-term archiving of research data is a prerequisite for the traceability and verifiability of scientific results that are based on the analysis of this data. Research data are thus made visible and recognized as independent scientific achievements.