The SSHRC and the National Archives of Canada asked a panel of experts to investigate whether the structures and mandates of existing institutions meet the record archiving needs of the research community, what those needs are, and who will benefit from improved research record archiving services . While the archive and library communities are convinced of the need for a national data archiving service, a significant number of researchers are unconvinced or have a limited understanding of the value of a research data archive. A number of university-based research and research infrastructure projects are currently under development that will require the services of the research data archiving function.
In mid-2000, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) formed a partnership with the National Archives of Canada to conduct a two-phase consultation on research data archiving. Today, no one knows how many social science and humanities research datasets exist in this country. SSHRC, the National Archives, and indeed Canada, are not alone in grappling with the issues of research data archiving.
What gaps exist in the mandates and structures of existing institutions regarding research data management? 79 percent believe that research data belongs to the principal investigator as his or her intellectual property. One hundred percent of respondents from the federal and provincial sectors were of the opinion that there is national support for the retention of research data.
They are less in agreement about the importance of preserving research data from the private sector.
Stakeholder Submissions
The vast majority (95 per cent) of respondents agreed that it is "very important" (70 per cent) or "important" (25 per cent) for Canada to establish such national support. Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that they know about data that is at risk of being lost. DLI Contacts are a special sub-population of university professionals charged with providing access to Statistics Canada materials and other research data at their institutions.
Consequently, this group is knowledgeable about the importance of data for research, works to create access to research data on behalf of researchers and students, and is aware of the challenges in providing access to such data. Thirty-one responses were received from this group to a short questionnaire that focused primarily on the importance of national data archive services to various sectors and research activities in Canada. In addition, they were asked specific questions about the efficiency of existing data storage practices and whose responsibility it is to store research data.
Librarians and data access staff at their institutions recognize the importance of preserving research data from all levels of government and academia. Their remarks and comments, together with those who responded to the questionnaires and members of the working groups and support groups, are presented below in the context of the questions asked in the project terms of reference.
Gaps in Existing Research Infrastructure
Mandates of the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada
SSHRC Data Archiving Policy
University Data Services
Of the seven archives that responded to the Data Repositories questionnaire, none have more than 2.5 full-time employees, and 1 has less than 1 full-time employee.
Authentication of Research Data
Canadian Presence on the International Scene
Needs of the Research Community for a Data Archiving Function
Lost Data
Lost Opportunities
Researcher Knowledge and Attitudes
Indeed, one function of a data archive may be to inform the research community of the value of research data archive services. It's not that they don't understand the concept, but rather that data archiving is not part of their normal practices for doing research. I see this flaw in the training of researchers in their graduate school years and in senior researchers who have to mentor junior researchers on data archiving.
Unless the importance of practice is taught as part of the research method, data archiving will generally not be considered or perceived as an important research activity. Professional associations and research leaders responsible for training the next generation of researchers must deal with this. Several university data archivists pointed to self-interest among researchers and a research culture that de-emphasizes data sharing.
One archivist cited "concerns about losing control of their data's research potential—their fear of being scooped up by others. In fact, 76 percent of SSHRC-funded researchers surveyed reported that they had used datasets in previous research. Of the 45 respondents who reported that they had used or attempted to use data produced by other researchers, three had been denied access to the data.
Nine respondents reported denying other researchers access to their data, despite this being a direct violation of SSHRC policy.
Security of Research Data
Benefits of a National Data Archiving Function
Beneficiaries
Building Resources for Multidisciplinary Analysis
Many researchers in the social sciences—historians, geographers, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists, and lawyers—and in the health sciences—geneticists and epidemiologists—have been drawn to the wealth of data in the BALSAC database. In most cases, they worked in interdisciplinary groups and shared their problems, methods and conclusions. Some researchers have combined BALSAC data with their own nominal data and as a result have created extensive multi-source datasets and been able to conduct innovative research.
In the social sciences and humanities, research has covered themes such as the history and development of fertility, population migrations, social mobility, social divisions, land take, transformation of the rural world, literacy, labor history and urban history. IREP has done an excellent job of making the BALSAC database available to the Quebec research community, but no established facility exists to ensure its long-term preservation, nor to publicize its existence across Canada. Equally important, there is no central repository for the numerous spin-off databases that built on the original work.
Contributing to Education and Research Training
Building Capacity for Data Archiving
Preservation and Access for Electronic Text Resources
Non- Reproduceable Data
Building Models for the Public and Private Sectors
There are many aspects of data archiving that we simply do not know how to implement, the most important of which is effective long-term storage, both technically and conceptually, such as retrieval and retention protocols. Organizations around the world, both public and private, struggle to preserve and manage the vast amounts of data that are generated every day.
Accessibility for Researchers to Expensive Resources
Conclusion
In addressing these needs, the National Research Data Archive would be uniquely positioned to draw on the research talents of computer scientists. The value of Canadian research data lies in its current and future scientific value, in the public investment used to create it, and in its significant contribution to the general record of our society. Without the intentional collection, systematic preservation, intellectual organization, and purposeful management of our research data, we will lose this part of our heritage and undermine our future research capacity.
Recommendation
Appendices
A Survey of SSHRC-funded Researchers
Twenty-two percent of respondents reported that they have plans to archive data from past projects. As shown in Table 1, 18 percent indicated that they expect to file data in an archive. In terms of percentages, between 80 and 85 percent of researchers who have created data in past research have not made an archival deposit.
Twenty-two percent of respondents reported that they plan to deposit data resulting from previous research into an archive (see Table 1 - Q2D). Forty percent of this group are among the researchers who said they had deposited data from previous research, that is, those who responded. As shown in Figure 1, 76 percent of respondents use or have used data in their research.
Twenty-two percent did not generate data in their current project, but had generated data in the past and/or used data generated by others. Forty percent of the 1980 graduating cohort answered "yes" to all three data use questions (see row percentages in Table 4). The 1970 cohort has the highest percentage of researchers who are or have been data users at 84 percent.
Of this group, seven percent reported being denied access to data produced by others (Q3B). Eight percent of all respondents said they had denied other researchers access to data they had produced (Q4). As shown in Figure 4, 17 percent are low supporters of data archiving (those with scores from zero to three), while 24 percent are high supporters (those with scores from eight to 11).
Furthermore, 89 percent of this group agree or strongly agree that the data belong to the principal investigator as her or his intellectual property. This is followed by 72 percent of those who have not created data in their current project, but have created data in the past and/or used data created by others. Sixty-five percent of this group also endorse the statement that data should only be shared if the principal investigator decides to share them.
Thirty percent of this group support national services to store research data, while 50 percent are unsure. It should be noted, however, that 56 percent of this group are still supporters.
National Data Archive Consultation
Working Group and Resource Group Members
National Data Archive Consultation List of Submissions
Prof. John Wilson, Department of Political Science University of Waterloo
Mr. Doug Hodges, Information Technology Services The National Library of Canada
Michel Lespérance, Secrétaire général
- Prof. Mary Jane Miller, Department of Fine Arts Brock University
- Marc Lacasse, Président
- Gary Strike, Data Librarian, Data Library Services University of Manitoba Libraries
Research Data Archiving Reports and Other Related Documents
