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This documentation was auto-translated from German by AI and may contain inaccuracies.

Notes for Submitters • Notes for Reviewers • Large Data Transfers

The OPARA Research Data Repository

What is OPARA?

OPARA is the research data repository for Saxon universities. It can be used to archive or publish digital research data. The service is accessible via the website https://opara.zih.tu-dresden.de.

The archiving of digital research data is carried out in accordance with good scientific practice for an initial period of ten years. When digital research data are published, they additionally receive a DOI for permanent referencing, are stored indefinitely, and are discoverable and accessible to everyone.

Data are transferred via a submission process on the OPARA website. This includes providing descriptive metadata, uploading the data and—in the case of publication—selecting an Open Access license. (See: DFG: What is Open Access?)

Before final archiving or publication, a review process takes place in which the submission—particularly in the case of a publication—is checked for formal suitability (type of data, scope and significance of the provided metadata, description and documentation, choice of license) and content suitability (completeness, correctness, traceability of the documentation).

The acronym OPARA stands for "Open Access Repository and Archive".

Who may use OPARA?

1) All persons conducting research at the connected(*) public Saxon universities. This includes, for example, scientists researching within the framework of third-party funded projects, as well as students and doctoral candidates as part of their academic qualification work.

2) All scientists working on research projects involving the connected(*) public Saxon universities. These individuals receive access to OPARA via a guest login from the respective university.

*) OPARA is available to the following public Saxon universities:

  • Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Dresden
  • Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg
  • Technische Universität Dresden
  • Universität Leipzig

The use of OPARA is also open to other public Saxon universities. Please contact us if you belong to one of these universities and wish to use OPARA.

For which data may OPARA be used?

OPARA may be used for the archiving or publication of all digital research data. This concerns all digital data generated in the course of scientific work. These usually form the basis of every scientific publication, e.g., journal papers, conference contributions, dissertations, or student theses. In practice, digital research data are very heterogeneous. Therefore, there are no restrictions regarding data type, file format, or data volume.

The following are not research data:

  • Documents that have the character of a standard scientific publication, such as those documented on the QUCOSA website. For such data, either QUCOSA or a similar document or publication service should be used.

  • Administrative documents, e.g., from project or institute administration.

Source code for software is a special case and should be published on specialized code repositories, such as TU Chemnitz's GitLab or commercial providers like GitLab or GitHub. If a DOI is additionally required, source code can also be published in OPARA.

What costs are incurred when using OPARA?

None.

What should be considered during the preparation and submission of data?

The goals of archiving and publishing research data are, on the one hand, to ensure the reproducibility of research results in the sense of good scientific practice, and on the other hand, to make the data accessible to third parties to enable reuse, e.g., within the framework of further research or other contexts. The selection and preparation of data should be aligned with these goals.

Which data should be archived or published?

Data publications usually occur in the context of a standard scientific publication, e.g., in a scientific journal. In such a publication, a specific research question is discussed and the research result is presented based on the evaluation of the underlying data. These data should be the subject of the data publication. Because data published in OPARA are stored indefinitely and immutably, published data can also be considered archived.

In the case of pure archiving, the context is often the entire research project, e.g., a third-party funded project or an academic qualification work. Research data that exhibit a mature and immutable state of development are suitable for archiving. This often takes place at specific times, e.g., at the end of the project. However, it is also recommended to archive at least a subset of the project's research data at earlier stages. For example, raw data can be archived directly after the completion of data acquisition in an early project phase, or finalized analysis data after the completion of certain evaluation cycles. Early archiving can also prevent potential subsequent data loss or help in clarifying later copyright issues.

In any case, it should be checked which of the available data are of actual relevance. The presence of the originally recorded raw data is regularly necessary for the reproduction of research results, and these are often unique and irreplaceable. These data should be part of the publication or archiving. Intermediate results can often be restored by repeating the data processing or analysis and are therefore not worthy of archiving or publication, as the processing steps should be documented in a traceable manner and are thus reproducible. If final result data also exist, these are often small in data volume but high in information content, so they should also be considered. Furthermore, other data products may be relevant within the research process. In individual cases, it should also be assessed how the effort of cleaning and potential restoration of data compares to the costs of permanent storage.

Does encryption of data for archiving make sense?

In principle, the archiving of encrypted data is not recommended, because in addition to the problem of the permanent availability of the actual data, the secure availability of the key must also be guaranteed permanently. Without this, the archived data cannot be restored.

According to good scientific practice, data should be available for at least ten years, which is guaranteed by the OPARA service. The loss of a digital key cannot be ruled out during this period and is encouraged by the prospect of multiple (planned and unplanned) changes of digital working tools (PC, laptop, etc.) as well as by rare use and the resulting declining awareness of the purpose and existence of the key.

Notwithstanding this, your data will also be archived in encrypted form if there is a special need for protection, but we strongly point out the aforementioned risk and urgently recommend establishing a suitable concept for the permanent availability of the key.

May personal data be archived?

According to § 12 (2) of the Saxon Data Protection Implementation Act, personal characteristics must be deleted from research data as soon as the research purpose permits.

It can be assumed that the respective research purpose ceases with the end of the project. Since data usually remain preserved far beyond the end of the project through archiving, they must be cleared of personal characteristics.

Therefore, it must be decided in individual cases whether and with what effort personal characteristics can be removed from the data, and whether the traceability of the research process can still be guaranteed based on the remaining data and thus whether they are worth preserving. The responsible data protection officers of the universities can provide support in clarifying this question.

Deviating from the legal regulation, it is possible to obtain the informed consent of the persons concerned for the archiving or publication of their personal data before the data collection. However, this procedure should also be coordinated with the data protection officers in advance.

Who has access to archived data?

Each submission is assigned by the submitter to an organizational unit (OU), e.g., a professorship within the university. By default, all members of this OU can access the archived dataset. This prevents the dataset from being undiscoverable by anyone after the submitting person leaves the institution, which would create a so-called 'Dark Archive'. Individual manual rights assignment has proven impractical in the past and also carries the risk that the additionally authorized persons also leave the institution.

Published datasets are fully accessible to all users of OPARA—including those not logged in.

Are there alternatives to OPARA for the publication of research data?

The goal of a data publication is to provide the dataset for potential reuse by third parties. By using a discipline-specific repository, this goal can be better achieved for certain subject disciplines or certain types of data. The advantages of such repositories are a higher level of awareness in the respective professional community, the ability to describe certain types of data in more detail and specifically according to community standards, and the classification of a dataset with other similar ones. Suitable repositories can be found by discipline, data type, or other keywords on the website www.re3data.org.