More and more areas of life are increasingly data-driven. In the course of digitisation, the German government haslaunched a data strategy in November 2019. In all sciences, research data is collected using different and often discipline-specific methods. Conscientious handling, storage and archiving of data has long been a part of good scientific practice. However, it is also becoming more necessary and required by third-party funding agencies to prepare research data underlying scientific publications for reuse and data publication. Thus, research data is not only the result of a research process but also the starting point for new research projects and the object of research itself.
"... created through scientific research processes (measurements, surveys, source work), the basis for scientific research (for example digital artefacts), or documenting the results of research..."
(Glossary on forschungsdaten.info).