Open Data has become an important field for researchers over recent years. The increasing number of scientific datasets has led to more questions concerning their accessibility, use and how they are curated. In the field of economics, the increased importance of empirical research data and the increasing free availability of research data is playing a major role. Data from official statistics are being made freely accessible on the internet by statistic authorities, both nationally and internationally, according to the principle of “Open Government Data”. The spectrum of research data that is interesting for Open Data is immense: Research data are all data that are created during a scientific project. In the case of most scientific publications, only a small proportion of the data collected during the research is published in the final publication.

Science benefits, however, if the entire data of a project is made publicly available as rapidly as possible. The fastest way to do this is to deposit the dataset directly in a repository. Another possibility is to publish a data publication that primarily consists of the dataset and its description. As data that are prepared during publicly funded research are public property, more and more research funding bodies are requiring that they are made publicly available.