Scientific Information Service 'Religious Studies'

• Applicant: Regine Tobias
• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 286008381

In close cooperation with the academic community of the study of religion, the Specialised Information Service (FID) has the task to provide information services essential for research in the study of religion, which is widely distributed in Germany and therefore supplied with information in very different ways locally. The project aims to further expand and consolidate the existing research-supporting services. The proposal therefore contains an acquisition component to ensure the supply of literature, with which the provision of electronic resources is increasingly taken into account. The main task lies in the content-related, qualitative and technical development of the bibliographic open access database RelBib (https://www.relbib.de) as the central service platform of the FID. To this end, further journals are being added to the indexing, including retrospective volumes, as well as further collective publications. With the continuation of the secondary publication programme and its expansion in the form of a self-archiving tool, the proportion of full texts available in open access is continuously increasing. The data exchange with other FID responsible for certain area studies, which has already started in order to ensure better access to even more relevant information in the study of religion, will be expanded through ongoing cooperation. Furthermore, public relations work will be intensified and contact with national and international scholars will be strengthened, e.g. through participation in conferences, the organisation of information events and training classes in various formats, etc. A main focus of the funding period will be the support 1) of research data management (RDM) in the study of religion and 2) of the access to subject-relevant audio, video and image data. In cooperation with Qualiservice as an accredited research data centre, subject-specific manuals, advice and training on RDM will be developed and archiving options for qualitative research data in the study of religion will be provided. RelBib is also to become the central hub for research data. New accents will be set with the creation of an integrated media platform for research and teaching-relevant A/V media, object and image data as well as with the establishment of a curated collection for Open Educational Resources (OER) in the study of religion.

• DFG Programme: Acquisition and Provision (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)