If you choose to use a third-party service to store your data, ensure that the terms do not conflict with any funder, University or regulatory policies, for example in terms of the legal jurisdiction in which the service holds the data, or the protection of sensitive data.
Physical data
If you have physical data, such as hard copy consent forms, consider where you can store them securely for as long as needed.
Can you digitise hard copies and put them on OneDrive? If not, store non-digital data in your department. If the data is confidential, sensitive or personal, there should be two secure barriers to access, e.g. a locked filing cabinet in a locked room.
Storing data on laptops, computer hard drives or external storage devices alone is very risky and is against University policy. You should encrypt personal devices or audio/video recorders.
After the project
Which data are of long-term value and should be kept? What is your plan to preserve and/or share the data?
Keep:
data of high value (underlying a publication, difficult or costly to collect, impossible to reproduce)
data you may want to reuse in future
data subject to terms and conditions
But remember that preserving data can cost time and money so you should think about what you need to keep and what you can discard.
What should I consider in deciding which data to keep?
Do other outputs link to the data, e.g. a publication/thesis? Your intended outputs may inform what you need to do with your data.
Are there foreseeable future research or other uses for the data, e.g. to validate your research findings, conduct new studies, or for teaching?
Is your data unique or particularly valuable for historical, scientific or cultural reasons?
Are there any legal, contractual, funder or publisher obligations to retain or destroy certain data?
Your funder may require that data is preserved and accessible for a significant period of time.
Many funders expect you to make data underlying publications openly available.
Your publisher may require you to deposit all or a sub-set of your data in an open access repository.
You may also decide or be required to destroy some data, e.g. confidential data, biological samples that deteriorate over time.
How will the data be curated effectively after the project?
Will your selected data repository or archive charge a fee? What is economically viable to keep?
Remember that the University’s policy is that data should be made open if possible.
Considering whether to share:
Are there any restrictions on sharing/reuse of the data? e.g. confidentiality/sensitivity, lack of consent agreements or IP rights.
Are there other limits on who can use the data?
Is your data subject to Export Control measures which regulate the transfer of goods (including data) on the UK Strategic Export Control Lists, to other states?
Can you mitigate these issues in order to make the data open? E.g. anonymisation or aggregation of data, participant consent to share data, obtaining copyright permissions, agreeing a limited embargo period, separating data and depositing separately.
Can you share some or all of the data?
If so, deposit them in a repository:
Figshare is the University’s data repository and provides long-term storage. Figshare is an open repository and is not suitable for storing personal data or data you want to restrict access to.
Re3Data is a registry of repositories, including disciplinary repositories.
Do you need to restrict access to some or all of the data?
Think about where you will store the data.
What will happen to the data if you leave the University? You should make arrangements to delete/destroy data or to archive them.
Data that needs to be restricted or requires long-term curation are usually best managed by a specialist repository. Your funder may suggest one or you can search the Re3Data registry of repositories.
Whether you share your data or not:
Prepare your data for storage (see the section below).
Generally you should retain data for as long as they have value or as specified by legislation, funders or regulatory requirements or disciplinary best practice. It is University policy that data should be kept for 10 years.
Remember, if you share your data openly, your data will be stored for as long as the repository is able to keep them. You will not need to arrange with your Faculty to archive your data, unless restrictions are in place for access and/or reuse. Most repositories monitor usage and citations and have retention schedules.
Even if you do not share your data in an open repository, you should create a metadata record in Figshare which describes the data that you have. This helps to make your research discoverable as you can link this to your publications and other outputs.
How do I prepare my data for storage and/or sharing?
You should organise and document your data appropriately so that you or others know what you have and how to use them.
What additional effort or resource will be required to prepare the data, e.g. changing files to accessible formats, handling access requests? Have you costed in time and effort to do this?
If you are disposing of any data, especially personal data, you need to do this securely.
Software is available which securely and permanently removes data from your computer, such as WipeFile, DeleteOnClick, Eraser, BCWipe (Windows only), Permanent Eraser (Mac).
Use a certified shredder and service to remove hard copy records with personal data in them, such as consent forms.
When you leave the University
If you are a staff member, the University normally owns your data. Consider: if your data are no longer of use, should you delete/destroy them? If the data should be kept, use our flow diagram to work out your storage options (Edge Hill only).
Remember, if your data are in a publicly accessible repository, you don’t need to do anything more.
You must obtain permission from your Principal Investigator and/or Head of Department if you wish to retain data or copies of live data for personal use. If the data includes personal data, the request is likely to be refused unless it is clear that future use will be consistent with the terms of the consent given for the research (e.g. anonymisation).
Further support
For support with storing data or other questions about research data management, please contact Esther Byrom, Research Data Manager.