Use of Research Data (Guidelines excerpt)

Within the field of art historical research, the entirety of research data must be subdivided into digital representations of cultural artifacts, on the one hand, and processual data, on the other.
Digital representations of cultural artifacts are to be understood as all digitized objects of art historic research. These are often two-dimensional image data of artworks but can also be documentary photographs, elevation drawings, and digitized archival material. The handling of digitized cultural artifacts and archival material poses particular legal and ethical demands. Each time image data is used, saved, and made available for public use, any rights of use and copyrights must first be reviewed and personal data must be deleted.

The DFK Paris supports scholars conducting their research at the DFK Paris as employees, with the support of a grant, during a guest research visit, or in cooperation with the DFK Paris in the publication of their research data in accordance with the FAIR data principles.

To this end, the DFK Paris offers the following means of support: 

• guidance in the development and updating of a data management plan
• guidance and support in the content-related description of the research data with metadata and the enrichment of data and metadata with authority data and relevant thesauri
• guidance and support in the licensing of the data (this does not include obtaining rights of use or copyright permission)
• accessibility of research data via the DFK Paris website insofar as they originated in the described context and were published in accordance with the FAIR data principles
• findability of the published research data in the common library catalogs of the German independent art historical research institute kubikat (this offering is currently in development)
• in collaboration with the specialized information service for art arthistoricum.net@heiDATA, the ability to publish publication-related data into the research data repository of the arthistoricum.net
• guidance in finding further thematically relevant repositories in Germany and the host country. 

Use of Software (Guidelines excerpt)

Research software is an elementary component of the research practice. Along with generic software, such as programs for word processing, the creation of bibliographies, and for image editing, special programs for data collection, management, and analysis are being introduced more and more in art historical research. Occasionally, they require a specific modelling of the examination and thus have a profound impact on the research.  On a case-by-case basis, they each require a specific modelling of the examination and consequently have a deep impact on the research. In order for the research to be reproducible, the research software must be just as carefully documented as the research data and made publicly available. Therefore, in addition to the development of exclusively open-source software, the documentation and observance of standards and conventions of research software engineering must be taken into account. In this context, the long-term availability of the program code is a challenge that has yet to be overcome in the sciences as a whole.

The DFK Paris supports scholars who have developed software at the DFK Paris as employees, with the support of a grant, during a guest research visit, or in collaboration with the DFK Paris in the publication of the software and improving its visibility.

For this purpose, the DFK Paris offers the following means of support: 

• guidance in finding thematically relevant software repositories in Germany and the host country
• guidance and support in the content-related description of the software with metadata and in licensing (this does not include obtaining rights of use or copyright permission)
• accessibility of research software via the DFK Paris website insofar as it originated in the described context and was published in accordance with the FAIR data principles.

arthistoricum.net@heiDATA

With arthistoricum.net@heiDATA, the SIS arthistoricum.net, as part of its e-publishing offering, has made available a research repository for art history operated by the Competence Centre for Research Data of Heidelberg University. Research data generated at or with the cooperation of the DFK Paris and saved in arthistoricum.net@heiDATA have been summarized and made researchable in a specially designated area, namely the Dataverse des DFK Paris.

GitHub

Since 2016, the DFK Paris has been developing applications and tools transparently and openly. The source code is published through a public GitHub repository, in which research data has also been stored as it is used for the application. The GitHub account is an offering aimed particularly at the community of research-software engineers.

GitHub Repository of the DFK Paris.

TextGRID

The TextGrid Repository is a long-term humanities research data archive with an emphasis on XML/TEI-encoded texts. The text sources edited as part of the research project ARCHITRAVE – Art and Architecture in Paris and Versailles in Accounts by Baroque-Era German Travellers have been published in the TextGrid Repository and remain available for further use.