Research Data Services

It is important to think about a long-term plan from the earliest outset of your project so that you can set aside enough time and resources to ensure that your data will be accessible long after your project is over.

What should I keep?

Be elective about what data you plan to retain, as every file requires some measure of overhead in terms of storage and maintenance for the long term. It’s a good idea to:

• keep anything irreproducible, such as observations specific to a particular time and place,
• retain results that are tied to a specific publication or presentation,
• discard intermediate tests or failed experiments at the end of a project.

How long should I keep it?

Check with your funding agency to find out if there is a specific policy that spells out a data retention period. For publicly funded research in the US, this is often a minimum of three-years. It is better to aim for even longer, if possible, in case you or someone else need the data later on. Five to ten years is a good rule of thumb.

Keep files readable

Making sure your data remain accessible for the long term is a big challenge, especially since technology changes so quickly. Choosing the right file formats can help avoid obsolescence. Use formats that are:

• Non-proprietary, open, documented standards (e.g., .tif, .txt, .csv, .pdf)
• Used commonly in your research community
• Encoded with standard characters (e.g., ASCII, UTF-8)
• See the Library of Congress guide to file formats which are likely to have long term support https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/index.html

Where should I store my data (in which repository)?