In March 2019, the SIS African Studies organized a survey in the academic community on the topic of “Research Data Management in African Studies”, in which academics from various German universities participated. The survey revealed that, in addition to the traditionally important analysis of already published literature, researchers’ own generated primary data play a particularly important role in data analysis.

Multilingualism and the importance of original-language documents and translations are characteristic of the diversity of material prevalent in African Studies as well as a large proportion of “raw materials” of the most varied forms. The heterogeneity of these research data and the different ways in which they have been digitally formatted must be taken into account by a future research data management in African Studies that goes beyond traditional approaches to literature discovery and accessibility.

On the one hand, there is a need for consultation, networking, and organizational support. On the other hand, there is a need for the establishment of repositories that are prepared for such diversity of material and corresponding volumes of data, and that are available as digital archives for research in a reliable and long-term manner.

In the 2020-2022 funding period, the task of developing an appropriate advice and information service to support researchers in questions related to research data remains one of the SIS African Studies’s priorities. We invite you to accompany us in this process with your suggestions and feedback.

Here are the results of the survey on research data in the African Studies (available in German): Auswertung-zur-Umfrage-FDM-in-den-Afrikastudien