Recommendations of the AG Greening DH on the resource-efficient handling of research data Edit

Sustainable research data management (RDM) is part of good scientific practice. It enables transparent research results and their reuse, and helps to avoid duplication of work and unnecessary consumption of resources. At the same time, FDM itself requires resources, which is why careful consideration must be given to the balance between transparency, reuse, and effort. These recommendations support researchers in creating research data management plans to reduce the ecological footprint of data, hardware, and software. They offer concrete approaches to formats, interoperability, versioning, metadata, usage scenarios, storage space, and long-term archiving. The aim is to promote resource-efficient solutions without compromising the principles of FDM.

Key points at a glance

1. Green research data management in five points:
2. Maximize reuse: Data formats and software should be chosen so that data can be easily reused. Use storage space efficiently: Versioning, compression, and targeted selection of relevant data prevent unnecessary consumption of resources.
3. Optimize metadata: Uniform standards and well-designed metadata facilitate discoverability and reuse.
4. Plan publication sustainably: Data should be published in open formats and with free licenses wherever possible.
5. Consciously manage long-term archiving: Only store essential data for the long term and use existing infrastructures.

Final version dated April 30, 2025, following open peer review.

This [source](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15288095) is currently only available in German.

@article{baillot_empfehlungen_2025,
	title = {Empfehlungen der {AG} {Greening} {DH} zum ressourcenschonenden {Umgang} mit {Forschungsdaten}},
	copyright = {CC-BY 4.0},
	url = {https://zenodo.org/records/15288095},
	doi = {10.5281/zenodo.15288095},
	urldate = {2026-01-30},
	publisher = {Zenodo},
	author = {Baillot, Anne and Gerber, Anja and König, Mareike and Rosendahl, Lisa},
	year = {2025},
}