Trustworthy or not? Research data on COVID-19 in data repositories

Abstract The outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the need for seamless, unrestricted, fast, and free access to the latest research results on the virus, on its treatment, prevention, protocols, and so on. Open access to publications and research data, suddenly, became self-evident, not only for researchers in life and medical sciences but also for politicians, journalists, and society as a whole. At the same time, this sudden awareness triggered another debate on the quality and, moreover, the trustworthiness of this mass of information made available most often without any form of quality control (peer review). Thousands of datasets from research on COVID-19 and related topics have already been deposited on data repositories. Our chapter discusses the issue of the quality and trustworthiness of research data in data repositories using examples from the ongoing pandemic. It offers insights into some fundamental concepts and summarizes recommendations for quality assurance and evaluation of research data.