To keep track of where you are going, you need to check your compass from time to time. For this purpose, the re3data COREF project undertook a series of workshops in 2020 and have now come up with a new Conceptual Model for User Stories for the Registry of Research Data Repositories – re3data. We are grateful to welcome you along this journey and share our results with you.

Since 2012, re3data has been a relevant part of the open science service landscape. The registry provides substantial information about research data repositories (RDR) directly for researchers. In addition to this, several other services reuse re3data metadata about RDR to provide additional services for their target audiences (be it individuals or institutions). To adapt re3data and its metadata to the current needs of involved stakeholders the re3data COREF project conducted a stakeholder survey and held a series of workshops at the end of 2020. Participants were asked about the ways they already use re3data and how they would like to use re3data in the future.

The results and findings of the survey, presentations, and discussions are documented and have been published in the re3data Stakeholder Survey and Workshop Report. This report represents the basis of the Conceptual Model for User Stories, published in August 2021. The publication of both the report and the model are important milestones within the re3data COREF project. The model describes the history, governance, and current technical infrastructure of re3data. The results of the report were consulted in restructuring the model’s main section concerning target groups and user stories.

Both documents allow the project and service teams to recalibrate re3data according to current and future needs of the community. If you have any feedback regarding the report or Conceptual Model for User Stories, please get in touch with the re3data COREF team via info@re3data.org.

We would like to thank all participants for their contributions to the workshops and will continue to work to maintain and expand re3data as a vital resource for the scientific community and its infrastructures!