Archiving Data

Preserving Data

Across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, it is increasingly the case that the primary data that drive research are seen as important, valuable resources in their own right, beyond simply being vehicles for the preparation of publications or other research reports. Preserving these resources is an important part of the research process—regardless of whether the goal is for the original researcher to maintain access to the data or for the data to be made available to others. In fact, funding agencies, such as the Economic and Social Research Council in the United Kingdom, the National Science Foundation in the United States, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada, are increasingly developing policies that incentivize or even require funded research projects to archive their data.

Archiving for Different Time Scales

A major question facing researchers when archiving data involves the time scale needs for the data. Short-term questions for archiving involve the needs for the data during the period of active research using those data. These needs include analysis procedures—ensuring that data are well organized for the specific goals of the research—but also extend to questions of data sharing and data security (e.g., confidentiality of private information as well as data backups). Medium-term questions involve how a researcher might store and share data over the course of her or his career, while perhaps continuing to access the data for additional research purposes. Long-term questions involve how the data can be preserved, accessed, and shared into the unforeseeable future. These long-term questions involve logistical questions about ensuring that data are maintained independently of (and after) the original researcher’s career. Academic libraries make for excellent partners for long-term archiving endeavors.

These questions of time scale interact and the lines between these three time scales are blurry. An individual researcher’s computer may be a necessary site for the data in the short-term (e.g., during active analysis) but offers little in the way of data security. Planning for medium- and long-term preservation should not wait until the research project is over, and planning for all three time scales as data are initially generated leads to fewer problems later.

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