Archiving research data facilitates reuse and contributes to making research more transparent and verifiable. It is important to follow the current recommendations for archiving research data, and the archives should adhere to the FAIR principles, ensuring that the data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
There are national and international, general, and more discipline-specific archives that meet standards for archiving research data. Researchers at UiO can choose archiving solutions that are best suited, and we encourage depositing data in a discipline-specific archive. UiO is a partner in the general data archive DataverseNO, and the University Library is responsible for curation in UiO's collection there.
What should you consider when choosing an archive?
- We encourage using discipline-specific archives where possible. A discipline-specific archive will make your data more visible to other researchers in the field.
- When there are no suitable discipline-specific archives, we recommend using a general archive.
- The archive should facilitate good findability, follow recommended metadata standards, use persistent identifiers, and offer curation. Read more about this on our page on FAIR principles.
- If the archive offers curation, data will be maintained by specialists in the relevant field and data archiving. Curation involves a dialogue with the researcher aimed at increasing the quality of the metadata before the dataset is archived.
- If you wish to read more about choosing an archive, we recommend OpenAIRE's guide.
Discipline-specific archives
- To find a discipline-specific archive, it may be best to talk to colleagues in your department and at the University Library, as well as see what is used by peers internationally.
- re3data.org – an overview of data archives. If you are unsure which archives are used in your field, you can search for discipline-specific archives here.
- FAIRsharing Databases – an overview of databases and data archives. Here, you can also search for discipline-specific archives.
General archives
- DataverseNO – a national archive for general research data from all disciplines. UiO has its own collection. Data are curated by the University Library. Before uploading, it is important read the archiving guide.
- Sikt – a national archive managed by Sikt (the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research). The focus is on preserving data from social sciences and humanities research, as well as some from medical and health research. NSD curates archived data.
- NIRD – a national archive for general research data. Archived data are maintained and accessible for a minimum of 10 years.
- Zenodo – the EU's archive for research data. Here, you can archive data and other documents from all disciplines. Zenodo does not curate archived data.
- Open Science Framework (OSF) – an international platform for open research. Here, you can deposit data from all research areas. OSF does not curate archived data.
Other archival solutions
- Digitization and Special Collections at the University Library aim to contribute to the preservation and availability of scientific historical sources and collections. The goal is to digitize and make available archives, collections, and individual objects that are of value to the university's academic environments and the public. The digitized material is made available through the heritage platform Alvin, and book material also through Oria. The University Library contributes expertise in organizing, registering, digitizing, and migrating.
- The National Archives sometimes accepts private archives from researchers. This is done after closer assessment and agreement. In addition, the National Archives is responsible for the national coordination of work with private archives and can provide advice on other preservation options that may be relevant. On the National Archives' website, there is guidance on various preservation institutions, and on the transfer of archives.
- The Web Archive from the National Library aims to preserve all websites that are registered under the top-level domain .no, in accordance with the Legal Deposit Act. Websites under foreign domains will also be harvested if the content is considered to be subject to the legal deposit law. If you use sources from the web that are subject to the legal deposit law, it may be useful to have a dialogue with the web archive about collection and preservation.