OER on Research Data Management in Conservation Science
Description
The results of the community survey on RDM in conservation show that it is recognised by the community as an important component of conservation research and practice. At the same time, there is considerable insecurity regarding practitioners’ own skills and the implementation of appropriate strategies. The lack of subject-specific documentation standards, heterogeneous data realities and a confusing landscape of tools and software make the systematic and sustainable implementation of RDM practices difficult.[1]
The planned TRAIL project addresses these challenges by developing and providing subject-specific Open Educational Resources (OER) on RDM in conservation. Building on existing, generic RDM OER, content is specifically supplemented with conservation-specific aspects, practical application examples and recommendations. The aim is to enable researcher, lecturers, students and practitioners to apply RDM principles confidently and consistently in their work.
Through the integration of specialist standards developed in parallel (TRAIL “FAIRification and mapping of controlled vocabularies for the care and preservation of cultural heritage” and “Data standards for interdisciplinary exchange in conservation-restoration”) and the development of guidelines for selecting suitable digital tools, existing resources are pooled and knowledge transfer within the community is strengthened. To ensure sustainable dissemination, various OER formats will be tested for use tailored to specific target groups.
The aim of the TRAIL is to develop and sustainably provide subject-specific, FAIR-compliant OER that enable the professional community to apply RDM strategies competently and in a practical manner, taking into account the specific requirements of conservation-restoration.
[1] Fischer, K., & Witt, N. (2025). Zusammenfassung des Status Quo im Forschungsdatenmanagement für den Bereich der Konservierung-Restaurierung (Version v1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17475354