Publishing and archiving data

Traditional publications of study results in a journal article or book has been the main way to share the findings. Increasingly best practice, and funders recommend the publication of the final set of data that underpins the findings. Datasets are outputs of research as much as papers. Data supporting the research conclusions should be published alongside the paper or soon thereafter. 

The final research dataset should be offered and assessed for deposit and retention in a subject-specific, trusted digital repository. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) website on where to keep research data offers helpful guidelines for evaluating data repositories. The institutional repository at Oxford Brookes is Research And Digital Assets Repository - RADAR. RADAR is not always appropriate for sensitive data. The repository will then specify the type of data access conditions for archived data. For example, ReShare is the designated repository for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) grant holders and offers a researcher different options ranging from open to access controlled data. 

For more information on publishing research data consult the library guide Publishing Research Data

Reminder: Data Access Statements.

Most journals and some funders require data access statements. Data access statements generally have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) linking to the data location. RADAR can generate Digital Object Identifiers.

Oxford Brookes University recommends keeping research data for at least ten years. Researchers should, however, refer to any specific funder requirements and consider the merits of each dataset.

The Digital Curation Centre guidance for data preservation recommends keeping the data if it meets any two of the following factors: 

• The data is of good quality, and it is well described.
• The data is going to be complicated, expensive or impossible to reproduce.
• There are few or no ethical, copyright or intellectual property issues associated with reusing the data.
• The data has a rarity value.
• Sensitive and personal data has been collected and needs secure archiving.
• There is going to be a high demand for the data based on its provenance and appeal.

Short-term preservation can be done on the Oxford Brookes University storage drives, whereas archiving requires a specific solution.

Archiving decisions may be determined, wholly or in part by a funder, the University's Research Data Management Policy, or the Intellectual Property Policy. 

Once curated, the researcher can deposit data in Oxford Brookes archiving solution, Arkivum. The dataset should have a persistent, meaningful and discoverable record. Metadata describing the dataset should be compliant with common standards. Data curation almost always requires that data retention decisions be revisited. If significant changes have to be made, then the data management plan should be revised, and a new plan should be developed. The new plan can then be archived with the dataset. 

For further information, please refer to Archiving Solutions