Skip to main content
Researchdata.se

Long-term preservation

Long-term preservation of data places different demands on storage compared to the solutions used during active research work. Data files must be saved in a format that is expected to be readable in the future and should include detailed accompanying metadata and documentation.

Research data collected at or produced as part of research at Swedish universities, higher education institutions, and other Swedish government agencies often fall within the scope of legislation regarding public records and official documents, as outlined in the Swedish Freedom of the Press ActOpens in a new tab (SFS 1949:105, PDF). This means that research data are official documents and must be handled in accordance with the Swedish Archives ActOpens in a new tab (SFS 1990:782).

Universities and government agencies may have different rules for how long research data should be preserved and how to choose which data and documents should be kept, but a minimum retention period for research data is 10 years. Clinical drug trials should be stored for at least 15 years, and in some cases, research data and documentation must be preserved indefinitely. Public records may only be destroyed if the National Archives’ regulations allow them to be and only after a formal and documented disposal decision. Speak with the archives at your institution to learn about what rules apply there.

FAIR over time

The FAIR principles play an important role in making research data accessible, but also in preserving research data and other research information. All archival work is based on the notion that the information in archives should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. One goal for the archival work at universities is that research data and information remain FAIR for future generations of researchers.

Keeping research data FAIR over time requires continuous and deliberate information management decisions. This is known as “life cycle planning”, which applies both to the information itself and how it is managed. The document Konceptet FAIR över tid (zenodo.org),Opens in a new tab The Concept FAIR Over Time, provides a description of what life cycle planning entails and how data can be made FAIR over time.

The Archives Act

The Swedish Archives ActOpens in a new tab (SFS 1990:782, only available in Swedish) regulates how Swedish government agencies (including universities and other higher education institutions) should manage their archives. According to Section 3 of the Act, archives are part of the national cultural heritage and must be preserved, organized, and kept to meet:  

  • the right of public access to official documents;
  • the need for information for public administration and the administration of justice;
  • the needs of research.

Section 6 of the Act, on archive-keeping, includes that the agency must: 

  • organize the archive in a way that facilitates public access to official documents;
  • create an archive presentation that provides information about what types of official documents may exist in the agency's archive and how the archive is organized, as well as a systematic inventory of the archive;
  • protect the archive from destruction, damage, theft, and unauthorized access;
  • define which documents should be considered archival records;
  • implement prescribed disposal of documents (gallring) in the archive.

Disposal of documents

The general rule is that public records at universities and higher education institutions should be preserved and archived. It is essentially forbidden to destroy public records unless there is legal support for disposal of records, something referred to as gallring.

Section 10 of the Archives Act states that public records may be disposed of, but that the provisions on preservation form the general rule. The Swedish National Archives' regulations and general advice on retention and disposal of records in government research activities (RA-FS 1999:1) describe when it is possible to dispose of research documents. For instance, documents that are no longer of significance may be destroyed. An example of this could be an agenda for a meeting about a research project, where the agenda is no longer significant after the meeting has taken place and adjusted minutes from the meeting have been created. However, documents that contain important information about the purpose, method, and results of the research project, or documents that reflect the project’s context, such as financial conditions, external contacts, and changes in direction made during the project may not be destroyed (Section 6 of the Act). Additionally, public records that are deemed to have continued academic value or value for another research field, records that are deemed to be of significant scientific, historical, or cultural value, or records that are of significant public interest (Section 7 of the Act) must also be preserved. In other words, research data that cannot be collected again in the future – for example, because individuals cannot be re-examined, an archaeological site cannot be excavated again, or research respondents cannot be interviewed again under identical conditions – should never be destroyed, but archived permanently. 

There may be more specific regulations within certain research fields, such as for clinical drug trials, where the regulations of the Swedish Medical Products Agency must be considered. In research where questions about patents or copyright may arise, it is also important to preserve all documents that can prove the rights of the original creators or innovators. 

When it comes to digital archiving, it is important to note that digital information is not inherently permanent. While paper records are typically archived once, digital records must be regularly converted (saved in a newer format) and migrated (transferred from one medium to another). The readability of digital files should therefore be checked regularly.

Page created:| Updated: