Use Cases for the National Repository Platform

Suitable documentation of the National Repository Platform (NRP) depends heavily on who you and your needs are.

Repository Users: Accessing the Data

If you just search for data in a repository, you either have a direct link or a persistent identifier that leads you to the dataset or document in question directly. Anyway, you are advised to check policies of the particular repository to fully understand what level of assurance is given regarding immutability of the data. It always depends on the particular repository.

Besides the web interface for human users, you can also access the data through APIs.

If you are searching for a data set and you don’t know which repository the data set rests in, you can start in the National Metadata Directory (Národní metadatový adresář in Czech, therefore NMA). The NMA harvests metadata of all repositories in the platform and also some data repositories elsewhere. It doesn’t keep the data, just the descriptive metadata about the data and links to where the data is actually stored. The NMA can be thus used as the primary search interface for scientific datasets in the Czech Republic.

Repository Users: Data Deposition

For data deposition into a repository, you need to choose a suitable repository and then to learn how to use it.

Choice of a Repository

If you are searching for a repository for your data, the choice of a repository depends heavily on what is customary in your scientific community. We can therefore give you very general guidelines:

• the first choice should be a well established, community-recognised repository,
• if not available, an institutional or the catch-all repository can be used.

FIXME To search for repositories in the NRP, you can use the National Repository Catalogue/FIXME list of repositories.

The Catch-all Repository

The catch-all repository is a generic repository for controlled publishing of scientific data enriched with basic metadata. The repository supports DOI persistent identifier.

Data deposition is available to registered users, for further instructions, follow the user documentation of the catch-all repository.

Establishing a Repository

If you represent a user community or an institution wishing to establish a repository, there are

• documents on basic aspects of establishing a repository (in Czech, this document covers necessary roles and their responsibilities),
• FIXME documentation for repository administrators for particular repository implementations.

Note that the role of repository administrator covers tasks like:

• establishing repository curator and administrator,
• defining metadata profiles and available licenses,
• defining the deposition and data access workflows,
• defining user group roles in the repository,
• instantiating user documentation,
• setting and describing repository policies,
• providing first-level support for the users,
• registering the repository, setting up metadata exports. Components for all of those tasks are prepared by the infrastructure.

FIXME where to seek help, role of methodic support

Low-level Technical Documentation

If you are an infrastructure operator or repository developer, follow a dedicated page listing available documentations.