da|ra - The German Registration Portal for Social- and Economic Data

In the interest of good scientific practice there is a demand to make collected primary data publicly accessible, so that one sees not only the final, conclusive research results, but the entire research process can be followed as well. This is why the GESIS–Leibniz-Institute for Social Sciences (GESIS) and the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW) decided to implement the DOI registration portal for German social and economic data – da|ra. This infrastructure will lay the foundations for a permanent identification, storage, localizing and ultimately a reliable citability of research data. A DOI is a name that permanently identifies an object (such as research data) in the digital environment. The DOI name won't change, even though the information about the data, including where to find it, may change from time to time. In cooperation with DataCite, the international initiative to establish easier access to digital research data, GESIS is already operating the non-commercial registration agency for social data. The service was initiated in 2010 with a pilot phase in order to set up the technical and organizational framework. Meanwhile 4780 studies are registered with DOI names. From 2011 onwards the registration service will be expanded to economic data. The paper will deal with the technical and organizational solutions of the DOI Name Registration Portal and focus on how the new features are included in the already existing DOI service. http://www.gesis.org/darahttp://www.zbw.eu