Creating Trust in Research Data Repositories via a user-driven implementation: Case study of a hyrax-based, institutional data repository

Repositories play a key role for the long-term access and publication of research data. However, there are cultural barriers for the use of research data repositories, especially for data which are not (yet) intended for public access. In certain scientific disciplines there are renowned repositories available, in other disciplines there is a lack of research data management infrastructure. For the latter, institutional infrastructures come into play. We report a case study of a research data repository (ReSeeD) operated by Ruhr University Bochum (Germany) and based on the Hyrax platform of the Samvera community. Adaptations to the open source platform were made to lower the cultural barrier for data deposit and direct linking with relevant metadata: A fine-grained role and rights management enables tailored visibility of data. A multi-step and tiered review workflow is prerequisite for 10 years of preservation or publication with DOI. Easy authentication even beyond institutional affiliation is mediated via ORCID. The implementation was carried out in close collaboration between central IT, library and a research use case. In a first stage, ReSeeD was brought into service late 2023 and is intended to serve as infrastructure for the about 6000 researchers of the university and external project partners.