The Data Infrastructure of the German Kompetenznetzwerk Bibliometrie: An Enabling Intermediary between Raw Data and Analysis

Academic data infrastructures facilitate bibliometric research and reporting, as they link bibliometric data with research interests. In Germany the Kompetenznetzwerk Bibliometrie (KB), a national consortium of more than 20 institutions, serves this purpose by hosting, probing, and curating large-scale bibliometric raw data from commercial and open providers. Users at partner institutions regularly apply the data infrastructure in workflows. Due to its former focus on commercial data, the KB’s infrastructure has not been detailed transparently to date. However, as an increasing number of bibliometric publications and reports rely upon it, this article provides a comprehensive documentation of the KB’s infrastructure specifically designed for bibliometric applications. It explains the conceptual considerations employed to define the infrastructure’s technical characteristics and procedures. Descriptions are provided regarding (1) the technical infrastructure, (2) the KB’s own database schema consistently applied across several bibliometric databases, (3) processing bibliometric raw data, (4) multi-dimensional quality assurance processes, and (5) additional data curation. By making these procedures transparent and open to scrutiny, we aim to bolster the reliability of our infrastructure and facilitate reproducible research while contributing to the broader discourse on transparency in the field of bibliometrics and providing input to other organisations developing similar infrastructures.