Research Data Sharing and Valorization

1The Research Data Repository Facility

Violaine REBOUILLAT¹ and Joachim SCHÖPFEL²

¹ Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France

² University of Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

1.1. Introduction

What is a research data repository? Where does this term come from? How can we describe this facility? This chapter attempts to answer all of these questions, even though the landscape of data repositories is very varied and heterogeneous. The issue of trust is at the heart of the development of research data repositories – trust in both the content and the quality of the facility. The issue of repository certification is closely related to the issue of trust.

1.2. The term repository in the context of open access

The term repository comes from the field of computer science. “In computing, a repository is a centralized and organized store of data. It can be one or more databases where files are located for distribution over the network or a place directly accessible to users”¹. There are repositories for source code, software, data... the list goes on.

In the early 2000s, the term repository found a specific use in the context of open access. It can be found in the acronyms ROAR (for Registry of Open Access Repository) and OpenDOAR (for Directory of Open Access Repositories), which are both directories of open access repositories that make scientific content (journal articles, conference papers, research data, etc.) available.

In the context of open access, repositories ...