PRESERVING

Where will your data be in 10 years? How about 50? Will you or others be able to find it, and, if so, how will it be protected against degradation? How would you respond now to questions about the methods and data behind some of your published research from 5 or 15 years ago?

Preserving data requires planning for future use, including by the data owner! Data must be protected against bit rot and from the technology becoming obsolete (think floppy disks).

TIPS

  • It is recommended that you consult with a librarian to plan for the long-term preservation of your data.
  • Be sure to adhere to data retention periods from your funding agency and from your institution/system, typically three years at the minimum; however, it is better to aim for longer with five to ten years being a good rule of thumb.
  • A long-term plan should be established from the outset of a project because of the steps that may need to be taken along the way as well as resources and time that should be allocated to it.
  • For long-term preservation, open file formats are strongly encouraged.

TOOLS

CAMPUS RESOURCES

UTA MAVS DATAVERSE

LONG-TERM DATA

Mavs Dataverse is a free and secure place for archiving and sharing research data sets and accompanying documentation. Data sets can be published with DOIs, searchable metadata, full-text indexing, and secured storage.