Purpose of this Policy

This document outlines the DataverseNO plan for responsible and sustainable stewardship of published Datasets. The development of a reliable digital archive that adheres to, and remains compliant with, the standards expounded in the DataverseNO policies remains the best mechanism to support the access of research data published in DataverseNO.

Preservation Objectives

Following DataCite’s policy, DataverseNO commits itself to provide preservation of and access to published research data for a minimum of ten years after the date of publication in DataverseNO. The intention for DataverseNO is, however, to facilitate access to archived data in an enduring perspective.

To achieve this aim, DataverseNO shall:

• Provide or participate in a reliable preservation environment for published Datasets in collaboration with other national and international stakeholders.
• Provide reliable and consistent access to published Datasets available through the service to Depositors, the larger research community, and the public according to the DataverseNO policies.

In case of compelling reasons, DataverseNO may remove public access to (Deaccession) Data Files and/or Metadata Files in a Dataset from its holdings. Details regarding the process for Deaccession can be found in the DataverseNO Deaccession Procedure.

Operating Principles

DataverseNO shall adhere to the following operating principles:

• Endeavour to model services in accordance to the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Levels of Digital Preservation and the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model for the long-term preservation and access of digital collections whenever possible.
• Strive for compliance with emerging international standards for managing a reliable digital repository infrastructure.
• Adhere to prevailing community standards for preserving access to Datasets whenever possible.
• Participate in the development and implementation of standards.
• Commit to an interoperable, scalable digital archive with appropriate storage management for Datasets.
• Create policies, procedures, and practices that are clearly documented and consistent.
• Strive to maintain hardware, software, and storage media containing archival content in keeping with prevailing best practices.
• Strive to establish procedures that meet archival requirements, such as clearly documenting and maintaining provenance, chain of custody, authenticity, and integrity of Datasets.
• Comply with intellectual property, copyright, and ownership rights for all content.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Board of DataverseNO has the overall responsibility for the DataverseNO Preservation Policy, and for developing and keeping DataverseNO abreast of the challenges of digital preservation in an enduring perspective.

Development and management of preservation and access for DataverseNO is accomplished through the collaborative efforts of units at the University Library and the IT department at UiT The Arctic University of Norway (which is the owner of the system) in collaboration with units at the DataverseNO partner institutions working in accessioning, curation, information technology, and systems administration capacities. These groups further work with other groups as necessary to provide adequate managerial and infrastructure commitments to sustain DataverseNO.

Preservation Strategies

Datasets deposited in DataverseNO utilize the centralized back-end storage and management services at UiT (owner). This is a common storage and management infrastructure for digital collections of enduring value to UiT, covering digitized and born-digital books, manuscripts, photographs, audio-visual materials, scholarly publications, and research data. The UiT University Library manages the digital collections together with the UiT IT department.

The DataverseNO Deposit Agreement assures that DataverseNO may convert the deposited data files and/or Metadata Files to any medium or format and make multiple copies of the deposited dataset for the purposes of security, back-up, and preservation. In the event one or more Data Files and/or Metadata Files in a Dataset are transformed into more stable formats and/or migrated to successive formats, the conversion/migration will be documented in the DataverseNO version control system.

Addressing Challenges

DataverseNO plans to address the challenges facing digital repositories as follows:

• Technological Change: By developing a sustainable digital preservation model that will respond to technological changes as needed without under- or overestimating the costs imposed by these changes.
• Sustainability: By developing a sustainable digital preservation model that will deal with the technical and management challenges of preserving digital content within the constraints of available funding.
• Defining Preservation Needs: By providing a thoughtful balance among many factors including access, functionality, and preservation, while being mindful that preservation is critical to enabling long-term access and use.
• Ongoing Monitoring of Submitted Material Types and Formats: By monitoring different needs of the deposited materials (e.g., storage size, file format usability) as different types of materials are deposited and maintaining procedures and guidance based on these needs as necessary.

Financial Sustainability

DataverseNO is identified by the UiT management (owner) as an essential part of UiT’s strategy to fulfil the requirements for research data management from national and international funding agencies, and is a core service for UiT researchers and their partners. DataverseNO (by owner) commits to ensure the proper management and operation of the archive service in accordance with the responsibilities described in the Steering documents for DataverseNO.

UiT The Arctic University of Norway as owner of DataverseNO, makes a financial commitment toward the sustainable preservation of published Datasets through funding of the Research Data Service as well as through membership fees from DataverseNO partner institutions.

Technological Sustainability, Security, and Disaster Recovery

UiT (owner of DataverseNO) is committed to sustaining an effective digital preservation infrastructure for its digital collections, which includes the adequate provision of appropriate technologies. Datasets deposited in DataverseNO utilize the centralized back-end storage and management services at UiT. This is a common storage and management infrastructure for digital collections of enduring value to UiT, covering digitized and born-digital books, manuscripts, photographs, audio-visual materials, scholarly publications, and research data.

DataverseNO is running on UiT’s centralized storage and virtualization infrastructure which also hosts the accounting and payroll systems for the whole institution. Everything is backed up using an enterprise class backup system with retention policies ensuring that multiple copies are maintained of all data in the system. Data recovery is available from backup as necessary as for other storage services for researchers and students at UiT. The underlying hardware is mirrored between two datacentres in separate buildings on the UiT campus, where data is replicated to avoid data loss in case of physical threats like fires, floods etc. Both datacentres are secured with at least two layers of key access doors from public areas, and access is restricted to authorised operational staff.

All systems (included DataverseNO) and services delivered by the UiT IT department are subject to risk and vulnerability analysis at implementation, at start up, and at regular intervals throughout the lifetime of the systems and services.

The infrastructure and services are revised yearly according to the UiT IT department quality control system.

DataverseNO complies with the UiT requirements for good computer use practices. UiT has developed extensive technical and administrative procedures to ensure consistent and systematic information security. Good practice requirements include system security requirements, operational requirements and regular auditing and review.

Acknowledgements

Illinois Data Bank. Illinois Data Bank Policy Framework and Definitions. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/91039

Contact support@dataverse.no with questions or to request an addition or revision to this policy.

Policy Document History and Version Control Table
Version	Action	Approved By	Action Date
1.0	Policy issued.	Board of DataverseNO	2018-06-21