Research Data Sharing and Valorization

12Issues and Prospects for Research Data Repositories

Joachim SCHÖPFEL

University of Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

12.1. Introduction

Repositories play a key role in the management of research data. This chapter summarizes the main challenges facing these systems, which include not only data volume and complexity, integration into the ecosystem of research infrastructures and openness to the world, but also data quality and acceptance by researchers. What are the prospects? The future of data repositories will be affected by scientific and technological developments, along with political and economic choices. It will also be affected by the search for a balance between the specific needs of communities, the trend toward standardization and, last but not least, the consideration of the human factor.

12.2. The central role of repositories and diversity in the field

In his foreword to this book, Renaud Fabre underlines the essential function of research data repositories in the process of building data sharing: “the repository is the current canonical form, global or local, of any constructed data policy process”. As a vehicle for a new scientific practice, the data repository is “the very place for researchers to learn collectively in favor of sharing”. Renaud Fabre agrees with Jeffery et al. (2021) who place data repositories at the heart of the data-driven science process (Figure 12.1).

Figure 12.1. The research data cycle (source: RDA Data Fabric IG; Jeffery et al. ...