Subject & Research Guides: Research Data Management: Preservation

Preservation

Repositories

The best way to preserve your data is to deposit your data into a repository.
Many funding agencies also require you to deposit your data into a repository.
Some publishers require that data be publicly available prior to acceptance and publication.

Digital Commons is Connecticut College's Institutional Repository.

Best practices for files

When selecting file formats for archiving, the formats should ideally be:

Non-proprietary: .docx, .xlsx, and other file formats used by Microsoft Word are proprietary and non-preferred for this reason
Unencrypted
Uncompressed
In common usage by the research community
Adherent to an open, documented standard, such as described by the State of California (see AB 1668, 2007)
- Interoperable among diverse platforms and applications
- Fully published and available royalty-free
- Fully and independently implementable by multiple software providers on multiple platforms without any intellectual property restrictions for necessary technology
- Developed and maintained by an open standards organization with a well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard.

Converting files to new formats

When stating what format you'll be using:

Note what software is needed to view the file
Provide information about version control
Explain any anticipated format changes - such as using one file type for collection and another for analysis.

Preferred file formats

Compressed:

Databases:

Text:

Still images:

Geospatial:

Moving images:

Spectra:

Sounds:

Statistics:

Web archive:

Further information on file formats