TUDOdata: Bridging Institutional Standards and International Visibility in Research Data Management

Research data is a valuable resource that forms the foundation for scientific pro-gress across disciplines. According to the guidelines of the German Research Foun-dation (DFG) on good scientific practice [1], universities must store research data in a usable form for at least 10 years. To support researchers in this task, TU Dortmund University provides TUDOdata, a trustworthy repository for managing and publishing research data. However, offering a repository alone does not address the complexity of ensuring high-quality and reusable data. To meet these challenges, TU Dortmund University has established a structured curation process aligned with its principles of research data management [2] and the FAIR [3] principles. TUDOdata serves researchers across diverse disciplines, from natural sciences to social sciences, providing tailored support for their unique data management needs. The platform also aligns with the goals of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), distributing research data for broad reuse. Its underlying technology Dataverse [4] supports subrepositories, referred to as collections, which can incorpo-rate customized metadata schemes designed to meet specific disciplinary require-ments. This flexibility allows TUDOdata to implement guiding principles developed by NFDI [5] consortia alongside discipline-specific standards while reinforcing global efforts toward open data and interdisciplinary collaboration. Beginning their work with TUDOdata, researchers must contact the Research Data Service at TU Dortmund University [6] to ensure compliance with institutional stand-ards and receive tailored guidance on preparation steps. This process establishes dedicated collections where working groups can organize their data within each fac-ulty's hierarchy, reflecting TU Dortmund University's organizational structure. Re-searchers are informed about system usage and conditions while receiving advice on dataset preparation regarding format selection, metadata provision, readme files, and licensing options [7]. Templates are provided for creating detailed readme files and license documents [8]. Prior to publication, submitted datasets undergo review by a data curator who evalu-ates files and metadata with respect to formal criteria and offers recommendations for improvement. Once finalized, publication rights are granted so that datasets re-ceive their reserved DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) and become publicly accessible. By guiding researchers through metadata preparation and licensing choices, TUDO-data addresses common barriers to publishing reusable research data while en-hancing discoverability through standard APIs that facilitate integration with third-party tools. With its established curation process, TUDOdata improves both the quality of pub-lished research data and international visibility of TU Dortmund University's outputs. As more datasets are published via TUDOdata, deeper insights into disciplinary re-quirements emerge – insights that inform alignment with NFDI consortia's guiding principles while ensuring visibility within NFDI frameworks. These efforts pave the way for broader interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation in global research data sharing. In the future, we aim to integrate advanced tools for automated metadata generation into TUDOdata, provide long term availability and enhanced interopera-bility with other NFDI repositories, further strengthening its role as an essential infra-structure component in modern scientific workflows.