Terms of Use

Registration

Before using REFODAT for the first time, please register via Shibboleth using the login credentials of your university or research institution. If your institution is not listed in the drop-down menu, please use this form form. Immediately after submitting the form, a link will be sent to the email address provided. Follow the link to complete the registration process. With these login credentials or via Shibboleth, you can now log in to REFODAT at any time log in.

Upload of documents

After successful registration, you have the option to publish as many datasets as you like on REFODAT (see Step by Step for publishing your research data on REFODAT). To publish data, log in and enter all available information in the input form (Metadata Schema Guidelines). Upload the corresponding file(s) via the menu options “Actions” and “Add a Data Object.” Then, notify the curation team to review a dataset by selecting “Start Publication.” We will now formally review your submitted contribution and inform you once it has been approved. If any questions arise during the review, we will contact you via email.

You are responsible for ensuring that the data does not infringe upon copyrights or other rights of third parties and complies with data protection requirements. Only anonymized or sufficiently pseudonymized data is accepted on REFODAT. By uploading your datasets, you grant REFODAT a simple usage right to make the metadata of your entry publicly accessible on the internet. You determine the reuse of the datasets themselves through license terms. Additionally, you grant REFODAT the right to make changes to the respective file format, particularly for archival purposes. You retain all usage rights to your content and only grant REFODAT a restricted, purpose-bound usage right.

Content indexing

The metadata of all datasets published on REFODAT is made fully searchable using search engine technology. To ensure thematic browsing of all REFODAT content, please provide descriptive metadata for your work via the REFODAT input form. Additionally, you have the option to describe the content of your entry with both freely chosen and standardized keywords. Please enter each keyword separately and use the Integrated Authority File of the German National Library for assigning standardized keywords.

Indexing

The contents of REFODAT are indexed by the following search engines:
DataCite Search, Google Dataset Search

Contact details and deletion policy

We reserve the right to refuse registration with REFODAT as well as the publication of individual contributions in justified exceptional cases. Deletion and subsequent modification of data and documents published on REFODAT are not provided for. Additions and corrections to the metadata are only possible in consultation with the editorial team. Changes to the attached files cannot be made. Substantive modifications to contributions already published on REFODAT are made by uploading an updated version. REFODAT reserves the right to block datasets that violate the usage guidelines. However, the metadata will remain accessible even if the attached files are blocked.