Digital Preservation (Fairdata-PAS): Guidelines for UH Evaluators

Background and UH Process for Digital Preservation (Fairdata-PAS) 

As we all know, research outputs in the form of scientific publications are very well restored and available, since there are tons of professional peer-reviewed journals for academics to publish their results. Further, more and more journals are adhering to open access policy and hence, research results are becoming publicly available. Nowadays there are also several repositories for research data. However, repositories vary in how long storing time they can guarantee for the data. Therefore, the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture has established Fairdata-PAS service for Finnish research organizations for long-time storing the nationally most significant research data (see more here: https://www.fairdata.fi/en/fairdata-pas/). 

Fairdata-PAS is meant for digital preservation of research data for several decades, or even centuries. Each research organization has a limited space for Fairdata-PAS preservation, and preservation also requires preparatory actions. Therefore it must be carefully considered which research data are worth long-time storing.  

At the University of Helsinki, the process begins when a researcher proposes a significant data for long-time, Fairdata-PAS preservation. Researchers are first instructed to be in contact with UH Data Support with an online form to evaluate the degree of data documentation. After this proposals go further to Scientific Committees of Faculties, and proposals coming e.g. from researchers of the Faculty of Arts are evaluated by the Scientific Committee of the Faculty of Arts etc. At the Committee meeting, the researcher introduces the data as well as the value of the data (10 min presentation), and a Senior Advisor from UH’s Research Administration acts as a representing officer. The Committee will make a decision on preservation (yes – no).