Selecting and preserving data
Answer
Towards the end of your project, you will need to decide what data will be preserved longer-term, and what data you will dispose of.
It may not be necessary to preserve all of the data you have collected or created, but before disposing of your data you should consider what data might have value. You must also follow any legal, regulatory, or policy requirements to retain or dispose of certain data.
Key considerations when deciding what data to preserve
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Value and uniqueness
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Does the data have inherent value?
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Can the data collection be replicated?
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What would the cost be (financial, time and resources) to collect the data again?
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Validating research findings
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Would the data be useful to others to read alongside published findings?
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Will you need to provide further evidence to support your findings or conclusions?
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Volume and cost
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If large volumes of data have been produced, does it all need to be retained, or only select parts of the data?
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Storage of large datasets can incur costs or technical challenges
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Data preservation should be cost-effective
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Legal and ethical
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Was informed consent obtained to preserve the data? If so, for how long and where?
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What documentation needs to be preserved e.g. Consent forms, ethical approval?
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Was there a data sharing agreement which specified what should happen to data at the end of the project?
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Further guidance on selecting data to keep is also available from the Digital Curation Centre.
Retention periods
The Records Retention Schedule is the University’s policy on the retention and disposal of records and data. The retention periods given in the schedule are mandatory and any exceptions should be agreed with the Information Governance Office.
Funders also expect data to be preserved, with expected retention periods varying from three to ten years or longer, depending on the funder.
Preserving data
For data that can be shared with others, you can deposit data for long-term preservation and reuse in a data repository.
If you need to retain data that will not, or cannot be shared, then the Research Data Storage service provides long-term preservation of your data, providing a member of the research team remains at the University and has continued access to the service.
Secure disposal of data
If you decide that you no longer need some or all of your research data, it is important to dispose of it securely. Just deleting files is usually not enough to remove them from hard drives or servers and it is recommended to use specialist software for this purpose. IT Services can also help with the safe and secure disposal of physical devices, such as hard drives and laptops.
If you will dispose of confidential or personal data then please see the Information Governance Office guidance on disposal of confidential material.