Library Subject Guides
You will need to appraise the research data you have collected and/or created to decide which data should be archived and shared, and which data will be deleted.
Not all research data needs to be archived and shared, and in many cases it would be impractical to do so.
There are costs to archiving and sharing data (time, technology, space, maintenance) and risks in keeping things (keeping intermediate processing files or obsolete versions can make it difficult to find the files that you/others want to use), just as there are in not keeping them.
It is good practice to consider which research data you will archive and share before you start to collect and/or create it, documenting your decisions in your data management plan
As each research project is unique it’s impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all approach to selecting data for archiving and sharing. However, careful consideration, meeting funder and institutional requirements, referring to relevant disciplinary standards, and documenting all the decisions you make and why you made them, should mitigate against many unforeseen issues that may arise later.
To help you make your decision, you should:
Identify how the data could be reused. Data that underpins a research publication should be archived and shared to allow others to verify and build on your published research findings. Some publishers now require data to be made available as a condition of publication.
Identify data that must be shared. For instance, to meet a policy requirement.
Identify data that should be shared. UKRI’s Common principles on research data hold that research data with acknowledged long-term value should be preserved and remain accessible and usable for future research.
Weigh up the costs and benefits (time, resources, repository storage and curation) associated with archiving and sharing the data. Do I have the funds and/or resources available to archive and share the data? Can the data be replicated, easily and cost-effectively?
The Digital Curation Centre has a guide to help researchers select data for archiving and sharing: Five steps to decide what data to keep: a checklist for appraising research data.
You may also find it useful to refer to the NERC data value checklist or to the University of Bristol research data evaluation guide [PDF].
This video introduces the open research practice of sharing data, why it is important and the benefits.
If you plan to share sensitive data from your research, you must:
to safely share it.
You can find further guidance on the working with sensitive data page.
If you reuse existing data obtained from a third party (e.g. data from online repositories or data provided by project collaborators) check the licence or terms of use to see if you are able to archive and share the data with others. You may be able to share derived datasets.
You can find further guidance on the working with third party data page.
Postgraduate researchers (PhD and MPhil) are expected to work with their supervisor(s) to put in place a data management plan. Your plan should include consideration of how research data is to be treated once you have completed your programme (e.g. safe disposal or archiving and sharing of selected research data in appropriate data repository). If you are unsure as to whether you could or should share your research data, the Open Research team can provide guidance.
Data which has fulfilled its purpose and does not need to be kept for archiving and sharing needs to be disposed of securely. Remember, you are responsibility for the information you store and you must ensure information security.
The University' Records Management Guide disposing of information provides advice.
Further advice and support on the disposal of digital data is available from IT Services, email itsupport@york.ac.uk.
Some projects, agreements and research contracts may specify how data is to be disposed of. For example, users who obtain access to Special Licence data from the UK Data Service must follow the data destruction guidelines in the document research data handling and security guide for users [PDF].
In some cases requirements for data destruction may differ from or exceed those recommended in University guidance and therefore special attention should be paid to such obligations.
When you have decided which files you are going to archive and which you are going to delete, schedule some points at which you will review your files and implement your decisions. This will help to keep the task manageable.