RDM Demerit Badges

The RDM Demerit Badges were developed by Felix Rau and Elisabeth Mollenhauer at the Data Center for the Humanities at the University of Cologne. The Demerit Badges are intended to raise awareness for common mistakes in research data management (RDM) and to encourage good RDM practices as well as a positive culture around mistakes. The badges were designed to be used in workshops, lectures, and other teaching or outreach settings. The home of the RDM Demerit Badges is https://dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/rdm-demerit.

All materials are licensed under the CC-BY 4.0 license.

See also:

Rau, F., & Mollenhauer, E. (2025). Fehlerkultur und die Vermittlung von Forschungsdatenmanagement. DHd 2025 Under Construction (DHd2025), Bielefeld, Deutschland. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14943156

File types and function

In this resource, we provide files that can be used to reproduce the stickers (image files) and files to adopt and modify the stickers (Adobe Ilustrator files). The Inforsheets are intended to contextualize tand explain the badges in an offline teaching setting. They are provided as PDF files for reproduciton and as InDesign files for modeification.

Badges

• Adobe Illustrator files for exporting JPEGs for printing (badges_illustrator_print)
• Adobe Illustrator files for exporting web images (badges_illustrator_web)
• JPEG files for printing stickers (badges_jpeg_print)
• PNG files for web pages (badges_png_web)

Infosheets

• Indesign files for exporting PDFs (infosheets_indesign)
• PDF files for printing (infosheets_pdf)

Context

The origin and design model of our materials are the badges of Anglo-Saxon boy scouts, which are awarded for proven experience and acquired skills. These badges are worn by scouts as a patch on their uniform. In the context of the maker community, Adam Savages’s Website and YouTube channel Tested.com has used these merit badges as a conceptual and visual template for its demerit badges. The patches sold by the channel are intended to promote an open approach to mistakes (demerit) in the maker community. We really liked Tested’s adoption of badges for a positive approach to mistakes and failure. Targeting the scientific community, stickers seem to be a more suitable medium than patches. We have therefore adapted the concept of demerit badges to the context of research data management and created the RDM Demerit Badges.

License

CC-BY 4.0