Digital research data are stored and archived within the university's IT and information infrastructure or in recognized external or internal disciplinary repositories.

The Research Data Management Service Center recommends storing data in a disciplinary repository. Disciplinary repositories are usually superior in several respects to institutional research data repositories, which are required to offer services for all disciplines:

• Improved visibility of data within the relevant specialist community
• Subject-specific repositories are familiar with the data formats used in the field and can often offer data maintenance (curation). Curation entails the timely conversion of data formats—which risk becoming unreadable due to a lack of software compatible with modern operating systems—into a suitable alternative format
• Technical quality control, such as data format validation, completeness checks, and verification of data validity (e.g., for numerical values)
• Some subject-specific repositories even offer scientific quality control
• Subject-specific advice
• Potential use of discipline-specific metadata to facilitate searching within the repository
• Potential additional services for the data, such as visualization

Widely used subject-specific repositories are generally known within the relevant professional communities. They are often registered in re3data and can also be found there.

However, storage in a subject-specific repository is not always possible. Some examples:

• The research data do not align with the repository's terms of use. This applies, for instance, when the research data are not permitted to be published, yet the terms of use mandate precisely that. However, factors such as the research topic, data format, licensing conditions, level of processing, or data volume may also preclude storage—to name just a few examples.
• The costs cannot be reimbursed.
• The research data are prohibited from leaving the university due to contractual stipulations. Examples include consent forms regarding the use of personal data or contracts with industry partners that mandate such restrictions.

To nevertheless enable researchers to store their data, we have established an interdisciplinary university repository for the publication of research data, instructions in German.