About GFZ Data Services
GFZ Data Services is a research data repository for the Earth and enironmental sciences domain, hosted at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam (Germany). GFZ Data Services is open for research data and scientific software from the Earth and environmental sciences. Since 2004, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences assigns Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to datasets. These datasets are archived by and published through GFZ Data Services and cover all geoscientific disciplines. They range from large dynamic datasets deriving from data intensive global monitoring networks with real-time data acquisition to the full suite of highly variable datasets collected by individual researchers or small teams. These highly variable data (‘long-tail data’) are small in size, but represent an important part of the total scientific output.
Terms of Use
Although efforts are made to ensure the quality of the data and metadata, we cannot guarantee that they contain no errors. Therefore, the data available via GFZ Data Services are provided without a warranty of any kind.
All data and software are provided with a licence that is indicated on the DOI Landing Pages. Generally we recommend the use open international licences (Creative Commons for data, Open Source licences for software). Metadata are in the public domain.
To recognise the important role of the data providers, data users should formally recognise data providers, contributors and sources by citing them appropriately. Data with assigned DOI are citable as any other scientific article. The recommended citation for each dataset follows the recommendations of DataCite and is given in the top section of the DOI Landing Pages.
Publishing data with GFZ Data Services
The data repository of GFZ Data Services makes data citable by assigning DOIs to data and scientific software. To foster reuse, emphasis is placed on cross referencing scholarly publications describing the full provenance of a dataset (methods, parameters and how the data were created) with the published datasets. GFZ Data Services increases the interoperability of long-tail data through:
- the provision of comprehensive domain-specific data description via standardised and machine-readable metadata with controlled domain vocabularies via an online Metadata Editor
- complementing the metadata with comprehensive and standardised technical data descriptions or reports, and
- by embedding the research data in wider context by providing cross-references through Persistent Identifiers (DOI, IGSN, ORCID, Fundref) to related research products (text, data, software) and people or institutions involved.
In 2011, GFZ complemented its traditional Scientific Technical Report STR series with a report series specifically dedicated to the description of datasets. The GFZ Data Reports have standardized discipline-specific templates, are internally reviewed and offer a full and consistent overview and description of all relevant parameters of a published dataset.
Publishing step by step
- Please use the the GFZ Metadata Editor for providing your metadata for data discovery. The form contains extensive explanations in the top menu (About/Help), including a "Quick Start Guide for Data Publications".
- Please provide additional technical description of your data via our Data Description Template (the templates exist in commented and ready-to-use versions).
Can I publish data with GFZ Data Services?
GFZ Data Services is open for research data and scientific software from the Earth and environmental sciences.
Additionaly, GFZ Data Services is partner repository within the Fachinformationsdienst Geowissenschaften (FID GEO).
Contact us:
GFZ Data Services
Kirsten Elger (Repository Manager)
Florian Ott
Simone Frenzel (Technical Support)
