Research Data Archive

Research data holds immense value for the scientific community and society. To promote reproducibility and further reuse, funders, policymakers, and research institutions are supporting Open Science and Open Access policies. 


Archiving is crucial for data re-usability. Unlike data storage, archived data must be persistent, remaining unchanged with proper Persistent Identifiers for tracking. Additionally, archived data should be discoverable through metadata, following the FAIR principles.
Allow us to introduce you to our Research Data Archive service, designed for easy human or machine access, facilitating future research and discoveries.

The mission of the NIRD Research Data Archive is to support Open Science at scale by offering a solution to publish data of any size under Open-Access licence. The goal is to maintain research data from Norwegian institutions discoverable, accessible, and reusable for at least 10 years.

Who

Academically funded researchers with approved projects can deposit published data into the archive.

Data from the archive can be downloaded anonymously by anyone.

How

The archive is easily accessed through a web-interface.

More information below.

Price

The service is free of charge.

What is the research Data Archive?

The Research Data Archive is a long-term storage service for research data. It follows the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model.

The archive is designed to support all types of datasets regardless of size or scientific domain and includes data annotation and base curation.

It is free to use and aligns with the FAIR principles for research data handling. Archived datasets remain accessible for up to 10 years after publication.

The archive makes the metadata (information about the stored data) publicly accessible, and some metadata is also distributed and harvested by other services.

Data in the Research Data Archive is self-uploaded and self-curated.

The NIRD Research Data Archive Preservation Plan

Open Science and Open Access

Open Science and Open Access
The Research Data Archive promotes Open Science and Open Access, strongly recommending public access to archived datasets.

However, restricted access is possible in specific cases, subject to yearly review. Downloading open-access datasets is anonymous, and the default access license applied to publicly accessible data is CC By 4.0.

Persistency

Published datasets receive persistent identifiers (PIDs) using the DataCite DOI service. You can obtain a DOI for your dataset before your article is published by selecting the "paper in preparation" option. We ensure data persistence for up to 10 years after the publishing date.

Metadata

For searching and discovery, metadata uses the Dublin Core metadata standard.

How to get access

It is easy to download data as you use the search web interface and the process remains anonymous.

Terms and condition for use

To deposit data, you submit a request for access via the web user interface.

User guide for the Archive

Terms and agreement for deposits

Depositor agreement

When depositing data, you must adhere to the conditions outlined in the Depositor agreement. The agreement consists of two parts

Research Data Archive Responsibilities

  • Ensuring the dataset i managed according to the license agreement.
  • Ensuring users of the dataset are aware of the access license. The archive encourages data to be as freely accessible as possible and recommends following the CC By 4.0 license.
  • Ensuring approved users can access the dataset for the agreement`s duration (10 years for the data of submission)

Depositor Responsibilities

  • Ensuring the dataset does not contain illegal content and that data collection complies with privacy and data protection laws.
  • Ensuring the dataset abides by copyright and publication restrictions.
  • Obtaining permission from all stakeholders to deposit the dataset.
  • Providing sufficient metadata with the dataset to enable its discovery and reuse.
  • Reading and signing the depositor agreement.

Next-generation Research Data Archive

We are currently designing and developing the next-generation Research Data Archive.

The new version will support data with varying access and security requirements, enhance metadata support, include DOI minting, improve scalability, optimise downloading/uploading workflows, and incorporate FAIR features for enhanced usability.

To the new Research Archive project page

Is this not the archive service you were seeking?

Our parent company, Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, offers a national archiving service for archiving and sharing data from the social sciences, humanities, environmental and development research, and some data from medical and health research.

This archive accepts both quantitative and qualitative data, can archive personal data, and can set access restrictions. Survey data of high interest for researchers and the general public will receive extensive curation. These data will be included and made easily available through Surveybanken and archived for long-term preservation (at least 50 years). All data archived with Sikt will be available in the Sikt Data Catalogue by the FAIR principles. Data in the catalogue are available either by open download or through online ordering systems for data with access restrictions.

You might also need

We offer many services that you may need in addition to the Research Data Archive. In the National Infrastructure for Research Data (NIRD) ecosystem we offer a range of storage services designed to support scientific research in every step of the research data lifecycle. Below, you can see a few selected ones, and if you visit our services overview, you will find all we have on offer.

The Research Data Archive going forward

The next-generation Research Data Archive is underway. It will promote Open Science while securing data privacy and business confidentiality. It will be designed to be flexible, user-friendly, and interoperable, reducing redundancy and enhancing collaboration with other data services.

Take a look at the roadmap for the development of the Research Data Archive service to follow the progress of the service:

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