Guidelines and Principles

Over the past years, funding agencies and other initiatives released a number of principles and guidelinesExternal link on how to manage research data. When conducting research projects, funding agencies increasingly expect compliance with these guidelines and principles. While planning your research project and writing your proposal, we recommend to study the relevant guidelines and clearly state how research data management will be implemented in your project.

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

On December 20, 2016, the senate of Friedrich Schiller University Jena agreed upon a policy on the handling of research data as well as on guidelines and recommendations for research data management. Both documents were developed by a working group on research data management, which consists of representatives of the University's central service facilities (UCC, ThULBExternal link, SFT, Legal Office de), the scientific community, the vice-president for research, and the research data management helpdesk.

The policy on the handling of research datapdf, 170 kb · de provides a first overview on general recommendations and best practices for working with research data. The guidelines and recommendationspdf, 316 kb · de complement the policy and specify the general recommendations.

Since July 2023, the University’s Statutes for Safeguarding Good Research Practice de have also included statements on research data and software that comply with the DFG Code of Conduct mentioned below.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

In July 2019, the DFG published the Code of Conduct ‘Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice’External link, which is a fundamental revision of the 1998 Memorandum on Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice. The Code of Conduct consists of 19 guidelines. Several of these are highly relevant to the management of research data and research software. The Guidelines on the Handling of Research DataExternal link from 2015 supplement these gudielines.

A comprehensive compilation of the principles, support services and funding opportunities can be found on the DFG's website Handling of Research DataExternal link. A checklist for the handling of research data in research projectsExternal link and specific recommendations for some disciplines can also be found there. Information on the handling of research data in DFG funding proposals is now mandatory.

European Commission — Horizon Europe

The European Union (EU) framework program Horizon Europe is the European Commission’s funding program for research and innovation until 2027. It followed the EU framework program Horizon 2020. Horizon Europe requires immediate free access to publications that have gone through a peer review process. Embargo periods are no longer envisaged.

In Horizon Europe, free access to research data should also be guaranteed in principle, following the principle of ‘as open as possible – as restricted as necessary’. Researchers should be guided by the FAIR principles when handling research data. This includes the mandatory preparation of a data management plan for each project and the storage and provision of data in an appropriate repository. All other guidelines are described in the Horizon Europe Program GuideExternal link. 

The creation of a Data Management Plan (DMP) for ERC projectsExternal link is mandatory from 2021 onwards. The DMP must be provided at the latest 6 months after the start of the project.

FAIR Data Principles

The so-called ‘FAIR Data PrinciplesExternal link’, which have been published in 2016, have reached a high level of acceptance and general approval. Further information on this topic can be found in the article ‘The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship’ by Wilkinson, M.D. et al. (2016)External link.