The Radboud Data Repository (RDR) is Radboud University's solution to sharing, archiving and publishing research data acquired by researchers of the University and the Radboudumc. It has been designed to accommodate research data management workflows throughout the research life cycle. The repository ensures the long-term preservation of large datasets (no size-limit) and helps researchers adhere to the FAIR principles and Radboud University's research data management policy.

The RDR was initially developed as a pilot project at the Donders Institute of Brain, Cognition and Behaviour. Several researchers, ICT developers and data stewards at the Donders Institute provided the requirements that resulted in the design and implementation of the Donders Repository. After several years of extensive use, the Donders Repository was made available to all Radboud University research institutes under the name Radboud Data Repository (RDR). The RDR continues to be developed and maintained by the University's Information & Library Services department.

Each research institute of Radboud University can choose to use the RDR. Research institutes that are currently affiliated with the RDR are listed here. Within the RDR, research institutes are accommodated as 'Organisational Units' (OUs). RDR users can be added to one or more of these OUs.

A dataset in the repository is called a 'collection'.  A collection is defined as a set of research data files related to a specific topic, project, or publication. It always includes metadata that support the findability and accessibility of the research data. A collection is sufficiently well documented to allow end users to use the data collection for its intended purpose. This intended purpose may be internal reuse of research data, external reuse of research data, and/or verification or replication of published research. A collection is accommodated in one of the RDR's Organisational Units.

To allow research data management throughout the research life cycle, the RDR offers three collection types that serve three goals. Be aware that not every OU in the RDR uses all three collection types. The  implementation of collection types and what kind of research data should be stored where depends on the policy of the OU.

The goals of the three collection types are designed to be used as followed:

Collectively, these three collection types support a researcher throughout an entire research project, as shown in the image below.

Raw data can be deposited into a Data Acquisition Collection (DAC) directly after data collection. The DAC can be updated every time new data is collected. The DAC serves as an environment to document and organise the data, a way to access the data from anywhere, and a backup. As soon as data collection for the  project is finished, the DAC can be archived (closed access).

Soon after the first data have been collected, data analysis and processing begins. Lab notes, analysis scripts, processing pipelines, intermediate results, and all other files that document the research process can be deposited in a Research Documentation Collection (RDC). The RDC can be updated as necessary  at milestones in the research project. The RDC offers an environment to document and organise the data, a way to access the data from anywhere, provides a backup, but also a safe manner to share (sensitive and/or personal) data with colleagues and collaborators from inside and outside of Radboud University. When the project is finished, the RDC can be archived (closed access).

Towards the end of the research project, the results of the project will be published in a scientific journal. The data underlying that publication can be deposited in a Data Sharing Collection (DSC) as the researcher is preparing the manuscript. The DSC offers a way to provide double anonymous access to the reviewers of the submitted manuscript prior to publication of the data. When the manuscript is accepted for publication, the corresponding DSC can be published so that the data can be reused or the results in the paper validated by the scientific community.

Before publication or archiving (see below), access to collections is based on various roles with specific rights in the RDR.

1. The support administrator offers user support for the RDR. They are members of the university's Digital Competence Centre and are responsible for providing user support for all users (RU and non-RU) of the RDR. To do that, they have access to data and metadata of all collections in the RDR and to all user profiles in the RDR. They will only access collections if there is a valid reason to do so, mindful of GDPR compliance and the sensitivity of the data.
2. The research administrator has an administrative function in the research institute (OU). The research administrator initiates data collections and assigns a collection manager: the researcher responsible for the collection. The research administrator ensures that each collection has an up-to-date manager who can be reached. Research administrators have access to all of their OU's collections in order to perform their tasks and for scientific  integrity. They will only access collections if there is a valid reason to do so, mindful of GDPR compliance and the sensitivity of the data.
3. The collection manager is the researcher responsible for the collection. The manager is responsible for the archiving and publication of the data collection in compliance with the RDR Repository Policy. The manager can invite colleagues to view or work on the collection,  edit metadata, and add, modify, or delete the collection's data. Once the collection is ready to be published or archived, the manager can change the status of the collection to archived or published (according to the review steps described below).
4. A collection contributor is a researcher who has been invited to work on the collection by the manager. The contributor can edit metadata as well as add, modify, and delete the collection's data.
5. A collection viewer is a person who has been invited to view the collection by the manager. A viewer can view and download the collection's data.

Data collections in the repository can have various states.

1. Data collections are initiated in an editable state. The collection manager can invite colleagues from in and outside of Radboud University to work on the collection. Researchers can edit a collection's metadata and add, modify, and delete data files.
2. When researchers have finished working on the collection, it should be reviewed. There are three states for review purposes: internal review, FAIR review, and external review. The collection becomes read-only (i.e. 'frozen') in the review states so that it can no longer be edited, but it can easily be changed to editable again if the review process identifies changes that should be applied. The internal review state serves for internal reviews, namely reviews by all researchers working on the collection. During the FAIR review state a FAIR reviewer (an RDM expert of the university library's Digital Competence Centre) reviews the collection. External review serves for reviews by the journal to which the manuscript has been submitted. The last two review states are only available for DSCs (not for the internal DACs and RDCs).
3. After the review process, the collection can be closed. DACs and RDCs are archived, while DSCs are published. From this moment on, the RDR starts the preservation of your data collection and aims to ensure continued content readability and accessibility for as long as the indicated retention period. The collection is made read-only permanently, and a persistent identifier pointing to the collection becomes active. Apart from some descriptive metadata, data, and core metadata can no longer be edited except in a new version of the collection. Data and metadata of archived DACs and RDCs remain internal. However, if the researcher chose to make the metadata public, the collection's metadata become publicly available at the moment the collection is archived, and they are automatically registered in the University's current Research Information Services (RIS). DSCs' metadata are always made publicly available upon publication and are also automatically registered in RIS. The data of published DSCs are accessible depending on the access level of the DSC selected by the collection manager.

The publication workflow for DSCs is displayed in the image below:

Researchers affiliated with Radboud University or the Radboudumc can be made collection manager in the RDR and therefore become responsible for a collection. The research administrator can make a user “eligible manager” within their OU.

Anyone else can create a user profile in the RDR, for example using their ORCID or a social media account. Collection managers are therefore free to invite any colleague, whether affiliated with Radboud University or the Radboudumc or not, to become a collection contributor or viewer.

End users of data collections in the RDR can browse and search the metadata of published data collections (DSCs) without logging in. They can download the content of published DSCs depending on the access level.

The RDR has two user interfaces for accessing and managing datasets: a web-based portal to access and manage data and metadata and a WebDAV interface to manage data. Details can be found in our user manual.

Before a collection is published or archived, the collection manager may request the removal of a collection that is no longer needed. More details can be found here.

After publication or archiving, the collection manager may remove a collection's data only after expiration of the indicated preservation period. In this case, the collection's data files are removed, but its metadata are retained indefinitely.

Sometimes, a published data collection must be retracted. For example if the collection is not in compliance with the RDR Repository Policy or if a wrong access level, licence, or Data Use Agreement has been selected.

When a published or archived collection is removed or retracted, its metadata are retained indefinitely and the DOI will continue to resolve to a so-called “tombstone” page. The “tombstone” page contains a message stating that the data collection has been retracted or removed and -if  applicable- refers to the data collection's successor.