Unravelling the data lifecycle

The Data Lifecycle is an oft-described model of the progressive transition of data from creation to scholarly application, reference and potential re-use. However, in practice, many modern research institutions confront the prospect of the indefinite retention of an uncontrolled expansion of uncurated digital content associated with their research activities (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10202367).   

To better understand this gap, an Institutional Underpinnings Extension Project of the Australian Research Data Commons (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10076891) identified operational opportunities for data retention and disposal decisions and mapped these to an unravelled research data "lifecycle". See the ARDC's "Research data management framework for institutions" for the original diagram. 

These operational opportunities were then related to a graph of the theorised retained data volume expected to result from the execution of decisions at those operational opportunities. The associated studies reveal that these decisions are not activated in our institutions, so the downward steps in the graph are not realised in practice, resulting in the retention of large volumes of uncurated content.

The institutional underpinnings extension project was supported by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). ARDC is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The project was principally carried out by project partners: UNSW Sydney (Chief Investigator), The University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, and The University of Melbourne, with support from the broader community in the Steering Committee, Working Group, Workshops, and Birds of a Feather session at the eResearch conference Australasia 2023.