Scholarly Communication & Institutional Repository: Digital Repositories

Preservation is done at the completion of a project. Ideally the preservation strategy reflects long term thinking and should not be the same as how the data were stored during the project. Things to consider when developing a plan for preservation include:

• What do you need to keep?
• What are the funder or journal requirements?
• How long does the data need to be preserved?
• Who is responsible for the data at the end of the project?
• Does the funder or journal specify a repository?
• Is there sufficient documentation that anyone can use your data without your assistance, including software needed and file structures?
• Are file formats open and sustainable?
• If you are not depositing in to a repository, what is the shelf-life of the hardware and when will data need to be migrated.
• Per U.S. Office of Management and Budget Circular A-110, data must be retained at least 3 years post-project (But >6 years is better)

Additional Resources

Many funders and journals have data sharing requirements and others call for open data. Managing your research data throughout the project can help ensure that either of these goals can be met.

If you are working with a specific funder or journal it is important to check their exact requirements.

Data Sharing:

Data Sharing encompasses the spectrum from making data available upon specific request to depositing data in an open and publicly accessible repository. It is important to know specifically what is required by a funder, journal, or institution. For example the Department of Energy's Statement on Digital Data Management defines Data Sharing as "...making data available to people other than those who have generated them. Examples of data sharing range from bilateral communications with colleagues, to providing, free unrestricted access to the public through, for example, a web-based platform."

Open Data:

In general, Open Data is data that is deposited in an open, publicly accessible repository. Specifically, the Open Knowledge Foundation summarizes Open Data as "A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it- subject only to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike". The full definition includes eleven detailed points that address issues such as access, reuse, redistribution, licensing, technological restrictions and more.

The Panton Principles are a set of recommendations for making research data open. To support the position on open data, the Panton Principles declare:

Science is based on building on, reusing and openly criticisng the published body of scientific knowledge. For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavours, it is crucial that science data be made open.

By open data in science we mean that it is freely available on the public internet permitting any user to download, copy, analyse, re-process, pass them to software or use them for any other purpose without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. To this end data related to published science should be explicitly placed in the public domain.

Additional Resources