The re3data.org – Registry of Research Data Repositories is moving forward

NIF / SciCrunch is very excited about a couple of upcoming collaborations with re3data. Please take a look below for their new announcement about the DataCite (from Harvard) collaboration. Re3data's goals align with one of the main goals at NIF / SciCrunch, to avoid silos of user interface that interfere with the user finding content relevant to their research. We list many of re3data's registries through our registry (check out the re3data repositories here: https://scicrunch.org/browse/resources?query=re3data.org&filter=). Happy Crunching!

The DataCite General Assembly met at the British Library last week and approved the inclusion of the re3data.org – Registry of Research Data Repositories into the portfolio of services that are managed by the DataCite organization.

Scince 2012 re3data.org offers researchers, funding organisations, libraries and publishers a comprehensive overview of the heterogeneous landscape of research data repositories.

 In May 2015 re3data.org lists more than 1,200 research data repositories from around the world covering all academic disciplines.  The databases, repositories and data infrastructures are described following a detailed schema (Vierkant et al. 2014). Besides the detailed description, re3data.org summarises the properties of a repository into a user friendly icon system helping researchers to easily identify an adequate  repository for the storage of their data sets (Pampel, et al. 2013).  More than 5,000 unique visitors are using the registry  per month. An average of 10 repositories are added to the registry every week.

The registry offers two search possibilities: (1) free text search through a simple search box, and (2) filters for more specific searches. In the list of results each record includes the name of the repository, the subjects covered, a brief description of the content and a set of icons visualizing key properties of the repository. A comprehensive view of the descriptive record of the repository can be obtained by clicking on the name of the repository in the search results.  It is also possible to simply browse through the list of indexed data repositories.

A REST-API is currently being beta tested that provides the full list of repositories and enables retrieval of full, structured records describing individual repositories. The interface aims to implement a RESTful application architecture. In line with the HATEOAS concept, the data can be discovered automatically and retrieved in XML by following hypermedia links. The interface, currently being beta, supports versioning and will be extended with future requirements.

The re3data.org registry cooperates with other Open Science initiatives like BioSharing and OpenAIRE. Project partners in re3data.org include the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Purdue University, and KIT. The work of re3data.org has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Germany and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in the United States.