# README for Data Publication (HAW Hamburg Template)

This README accompanies the dataset and documents what it contains, how it was created, and how it can be reused.

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## 1. General Information

- **Dataset title** `[Required]`
- **Abstract** `[Required]`
  `[Short summary, approx. 5–10 sentences: content, purpose, and scientific context of the dataset]`
- **Dataset DOI/Persistent Identifier** `[optional]`
  `[If already available (e.g. from prior publication elsewhere), otherwise assigned automatically by the repository upon upload]`
- **Author(s)/Contact person** `[Required]`
  `[Name, institution, email, ORCID]` – for every person who can be contacted about the content of the data
- **Related project** `[optional]`
  `[Project title/acronym, funding programme, grant number, participating institutions]`
- **Related publications** `[optional]`
  `[Full citation + DOI of articles, preprints, software belonging to this dataset]`
- **Date/period of data collection** `[Required]`
  `[YYYY-MM-DD – YYYY-MM-DD]`
- **Geographic coverage** `[optional, if applicable]`
- **Keywords** `[optional]`

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## 2. Data & File Overview

*This is often the most useful section for reusers – please don't skip it.*

### 2.1 File list

For each file, or each group of similar files: `[Required]`

Optional checksum column: recommended for integrity verification after download, especially for large or binary files (e.g. SHA-256 or MD5 checksum).

| File name | Short description | Format | Checksum (SHA-256/MD5) | Created/version on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `[e.g. measurements_2024.csv]` | `[content in one sentence]` | `[CSV, TIFF, MAT, …]` | `[optional]` | `[YYYY-MM-DD]` |

- **Relationship between files** `[optional]`: `[e.g. folder structure, which file was derived from which]`
- **File naming and versioning conventions** `[optional]`: `[if a scheme was used]`
- **Related but not published data** `[optional]`: `[e.g. raw data not included for data protection reasons]`

### 2.2 Variable list/codebook (for tabular data)

`[Required, if the dataset contains tabular data]`

For **multiple files containing variables**: the first column unambiguously assigns each row to a file – important when the same column name can mean different things across files. For very large numbers of variables/files, a separate codebook (e.g. as its own CSV file) can instead be published alongside the data and simply referenced here.

| File/Table | Column name | Meaning (spelled out) | Unit | Data type | Missing value code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `[measurements_2024.csv]` | `[temp_c]` | `[Air temperature]` | `[°C]` | `[numeric]` | `[NA / -999 / blank]` |


### 2.3 Technical requirements to open/reproduce the data

- **Software/libraries required to open the files** `[Required, unless an open standard format such as CSV/TXT/PDF was used]`
  `[Software name + minimum version, required libraries/packages, link to the format specification for proprietary/binary formats.]`
- **Other technical requirements** `[optional]`
  `[e.g. minimum RAM for very large files, required hardware/drivers]`

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## 3. Data Generation (Methodology)

- **Research question/purpose of the data collection** `[Required]`
  `[brief, 1–2 sentences – the specific research question or hypothesis that motivated the data collection, as distinct from the broader abstract in Section 1]`
- **Collection/generation method** `[Required]`
  `[Study design, sampling, experimental setup, references to published protocols]`
- **Equipment/instruments/data collection tools** `[optional, if relevant]`
- **Software used** `[Required, if necessary to understand the data]`
  `[Name, version, repository link if applicable]`
- **Data processing & quality assurance** `[Required]`
  `[Cleaning, transformation, aggregation, plausibility checks]`

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## 4. Legal Framework & Access

- **Licence** `[Required]`
  `[e.g. CC BY 4.0 – preferably a standard licence]`
- **Access conditions** `[Required]`
  `[open / restricted / embargoed until YYYY-MM-DD / available on request – with justification]`
- **Ethics approval** `[optional, if applicable]`
  `[Approving body, reference number]`
- **Data protection/anonymisation** `[optional, if personal data were involved]`
- **Other legal notes** `[optional]`
  `[Third-party rights, contractual obligations, funder embargo requirements]`

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## 5. Reuse

- **Recommended citation for the dataset** `[Required]`
- **Contact for questions/long-term stewardship** `[Required]`
  `[Person or institution that remains reachable after the project ends]`
- **Known limitations for reuse** `[optional]`
  `[e.g. sampling bias, uncalibrated measurement series]`

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