Selecting research data for preservation
A researcher interested in preserving their data in DPS for Research Data can contact the support services of their organization, such as research services, data support or library services. As a researcher, you will receive support from your organization in defining the suitable data set.
The organization assesses the suitability of the data. The assessment should consider, for example:
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- Reuse of the data
- Resources that have been spent on producing data
- The data has been produced as part of research that would be difficult, expensive or impossible to replicate
- The data is otherwise of national or organizational significance.
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After finding the data to be preserved, the organization requests a preservation agreement for the data from the Ministry of Education and Culture and enters into a DPS contract with CSC unless a contract has already been concluded before. The data can then be prepared for transfer to the DPS.
Careful preparation of data for DPS for Research Data is important to ensure that the data is usable for a long time and the transfer to DPS is fluent. The preparation process is supported, in particular, by the data support of the researcher’s own organization, which supports the researcher throughout the process.
When preparing the data for preservation, it is worth noting in particular the following:
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- The rights of the content should be clear. The partner organization supports the researchers in agreeing the rights.
- The metadata should be sufficient and its file formats should be sufficiently transparent. Metadata and file format requirements are described in DPS specifications implemented in collaboration with organizations utilizing DPS. Specifications will be refined and expanded, considering the needs of organizations.
- The documentation of the content should be sufficient. Home organization’s data support in particular helps in assessing adequacy and supplementing documentation.
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Partner organization and DPS support help and support at every stage of the preparation and transfer of data.
The data must be prepared before transfer to the service. Easy to use, graphical user interfaces are available for this. If the data is in the IDA and the data set is described using Qvain or Metax API, preparation can be done with a readymade packaging service. The process can proceed, for example, as follows:
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- The data is transferred in the graphical user interface to IDA and frozen.
- Metadata required by the DPS are added to the data set in Qvain or via Metax API.
- The transfer of data to DPS for Research Data is initiated using the DPS management interface.
- If necessary, the data will be validated before packaging and transfer to DPS.
- The data undergoes a thorough inspection at DPS before it is accepted for preservation. The validation report can be retrieved from the DPS management interface.
- The metadata of the data can be found through Etsin-service and the data is stored in DPS for Research Data.
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The packaging can also be done other ways if the data is in the organization’s own systems. DPS has a packaging component that can be utilized. Read more about packaging. There are other options for transferring material to DPS for Research Data. Learn more about transfer options.
Contact
Support requests regarding DPS to pas-support (a) csc.fi.