Short Answer
Research Data comprises comprise all data that is are either used, or produced in research processes.
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In order to understand the term research data a general definition of the term data is necessary: Data is are a set of measured values of qualitative or quantitative variables regardless whether it is they are recorded on paper or in digital format.
Although metadata is are data about data, and the related (data transformation) processes, it they should be considered as essential as the primary data of a study, because metadata could be the primary data of someone else's research (e.g. in a meta analysis).
Research data is are crucial for many processes successive to scientific discovery:
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Thus, society builds upon solid, and comprehensive knowledge from science, and the research data provides provide evidence for our findings.
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