Updating and further development of the (DFG) Rules of Practice for Digitisation

• Applicants: Katrin Stump; Professor Dr. Thomas Stäcker
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 561536106

The DFG Digitisation Code of Practice, which was first published in 2009 and has been revised several times since then, continues to provide an essential basis for the planning and implementation of digitisation projects funded by the DFG and beyond. Given the increasing diversification of materials to be digitised in recent years, as well as the differentiation of technologies used, the previous centrally coordinated editorial process for the DFG Code of Practice with a small group of experts is no longer sufficient. For this reason, it makes sense for the research infrastructures themselves to organise and drive forward the further development of the Code of Practice. In this way, the infrastructures themselves will create a binding framework through joint agreements. This will promote standardisation and understanding within and between different disciplines and sectors. The aim of the VIGO project is to organise this process of further development of the DFG Code of Practice in such a way that the necessary differentiation takes place on the basis of an agreed basic structure and according to a transparent procedure. This will ensure that the DFG's Code of Practice meets the more stringent requirements for digitisation and indexing and will continue to have a positive impact and be binding in the future. As a dedicated bridge between research and infrastructure, the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is an ideal platform for identifying needs and initiating processes. The aim is to develop, with the involvement of the relevant stakeholders, an interdisciplinary and cross-material master document as a framework in which individual, independent material or subject-related specifications can be embedded in a modular way. The project will define governance, including an approval process, for the future, necessarily dynamic development of the DFG Code of Practice, and identify an editorial and publishing platform to ensure collaborative development and maintenance of the Code of Practice

• DFG Programme: Cooperation and Networking (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)