Ideally, research data should be published in the course of a project, but not all research data or versions of research results can be made publicly accessible. In this case, cold arch iving or even dark archiving is a suitable data management strategy.

In cold archiving, research data is stored securely in accordance with the standards of good research data management, but rapid access is not possible. The focus here is primarily on securing the research data and not on accessing it. The metadata, on the other hand, is typically public and the research data can at least be found. With dark archiving, the metadata is not published either, meaning that the entire archive is not public and cannot be found.

There are few offers and virtually no generally accessible services for cold archiving and dark archivingin particular, as the research data stored in cold storage and dark storage means less visibility and added value for the service provider. The DCH offers cold archiving and dark archiving services for members of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cologne.

For optimal and efficient advice and support in publishing and securing your research data, we are available to you in the current situation by e-mail or video conference. You can reach us easily and conveniently via info-dch(at)uni-koeln.de.