Archiving of research documents

Public records are documents that are produced or received by an authority. This means that even those documents that arise within research are public records and are covered by legislation such as the Archives Act. This page contains information on what the laws say about which documents are to be archived, which can be disposed of, and which are to be entered into the document registration system.

On this page you can read more about:

• Definition: Research documentation and research data
• Who owns research documentation?
• Who is responsible for managing research documentation?
• Disclosure of research documentation and research data 
• Publication and archiving of data
• Preservation and disposal of research documents 
• Metadata 
• Checklist for archiving research documents

Definition: Research documentation and research data

A research project or study generates what archivists call research documentation. In our day-to-day work, research documentation is also referred to as research material. The term research documentation includes both administrative documents and the research data itself.

Research data or data refers specifically to the data you have based your research on, i.e. the data studied. Research documentation refers to all the documents generated by a project or study.

Who owns research documentation?

Research undertaken at a university is a public authority activity. The documents produced within research are to be dealt with in accordance with Swedish legislation. This applies even if you receive external funding.

The researcher owns the intellectual property rights and copyright to their results and conclusions. As a researcher, however, you may not take your research documents (originals) with you when you change jobs or retire, because these are the public authority’s public records.

Who is responsible for managing research documentation?

Ongoing dialogue between managers, administrators and researchers is important in order to establish procedures for the management of research documents. Formal responsibility for archiving in general lies with the head of department or equivalent manager. In practice, it is usually the researcher who is responsible for the correct management of documents at the department or equivalent. If the manager and researcher discuss document management, the risk of documents being misplaced or lost is reduced.

As a researcher, you are the one who best understands your material, and therefore it is also important that you describe, sort, label and name your documents in a way that is understandable even to an outsider. Bear in mind that a future researcher, administrator or archivist should be able to understand your descriptions. 

Read more about the naming of files and metadata on the page Electronic archiving.

Disclosure of research documentation and research data

Legal requirements stipulate that research documentation and research data are to be disclosed speedily upon request. Those with access to the documentation are also responsible for disclosing it. For research documentation and research data, this is usually the head of research. It may also be a research colleague, supervisor, administrator or head of department. When a request is received, the disclosure is to be processed without delay. It is therefore important that someone always has access to the material. Please note that a decision on the disclosure of a public document should normally be made within 24 hours.

If your research material contains details that may be covered by confidentiality, a request for disclosure can be denied. Contact the University’s lawyers if you are unsure whether your research material can be disclosed or not.

You can read more about the disclosure of public documents on the Legal Division’s pages. 

Disclosure of public documents and confidentiality.

Publication and archiving of data

There are many similarities between the publication and archiving of research data. When you openly share your data, you enable the reuse of your data and the verification of your results. You also comply with the applicable legal requirements (the Open Data Directive). Archiving is also subject to legal requirements (the Archives Act). The purpose of this is to ensure that information can be verified and reused over time. However, archiving, unlike publication, means that something is preserved forever. Archiving ensures that the documentation is cared for and remains legible over time.

Publication of all or parts of the data in a repository, a data journal or similar does not mean that your research data is archived. It is often only part of the total documentation produced during a research project that is shared openly. In general, more documents are to be archived than shared.

If you need help on how to prepare the material for archiving, you can talk to research support or the archivist in your faculty. You can also contact the University Archives directly at universitetsarkivet [at] legal [dot] lu [dot] se.

Read more about preservation and disposal.

When the research project or study is to be concluded, you should contact Record management and archive unit for the transfer of documents. The exception is if you store your data in the University's research data folders or if your department is responsible for contacting the University Archives when a large amount of research data has been accumulated.

The archive works according to a queue system for e-archiving and it may take some time before your documents are archived. Make sure to have access to secure storage where you can store your documents in the meantime and register the documents that are to be entered into the document registration system without delay. 

Preservation and disposal of research documents

Preservation in an archive context entails a public document being preserved and kept readable forever. Disposal means the opposite, that a public document is disposed of or removed forever.

As with other public documents at Lund University, the preservation and disposal of research documents is regulated by the Records Management Plan. The Records Management Plan summarises the laws and regulations that apply to all known document types at the University. 

Records Management Plan, in Swedish (PDF, 4,4 MB, new tab).

There is also a specific disposal and preservation plan for research documentation. There are specific plans for the disposal and preservation of documents for the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Social Sciences. You are to follow the applicable plan for your faculty. If your faculty does not have its own plan, you should follow the general disposal and preservation plan.

• Lund University regulations regarding the destruction and preservation of research material (PDF 223 kB, new tab).
• Regulations for the destruction and preservation of research material within the Faculties of Humanities and Theology (PDF 223 kB, new tab).
• Regulations for the destruction and preservation of research material within the Faculty of Medicine (PDF 361 kB, new tab).
• Regulations for the destruction and preservation of research material within the Faculty of Social Sciences (PDF 315 kB, new tab).

Research funders or collaboration partners may also have requirements on the preservation of research data. The basic rule is that if Lund University has higher requirements for the preservation of research data than the other stakeholder/collaboration partner, our requirements take precedence. Other stakeholders have no legal entitlement to demand the disposal of the public authority’s public documents. Find out what is applicable for your particular study.

If the study is undertaken in collaboration with another higher education institution, one accountable authority is to be appointed. Archiving the research data is the responsibility of the responsible authority. Guidelines at other higher education institutions may differ from those at Lund University. It is important to inform the research participants which institution is the accountable authority for the research project so that they know how their information will be managed. If the accountable authority has lower requirements for preservation than Lund University, there is always the option of signing an agreement under which our University assumes responsibility for archiving. 

Metadata

Metadata describing the research project/study is important for a number of reasons. The information can help you to find things among your documents, help your colleagues to understand the material and make it easier to share/publish the data. Metadata is also necessary to make registration and archiving of your documents possible.

There are numerous ways of adding metadata to your research. For example, you can fill in a README file, register the research project in LUCRIS or organise and name the files so that an outsider is able to understand their content.

When the time comes for archiving, there is a special metadata form containing general information about your research that you will need to fill in. Email universitetsarkivet [at] legal [dot] lu [dot] se to gain access to the form.

Read more about the naming of files and metadata on the page Electronic archiving.

Checklist for archiving research documents

1. Keep your documents in order and make sure there is always someone who can disclose them if requested to do so. The documents you produce become public documents on an ongoing basis and can be requested.

   Disclosure of public documents and confidentiality.

2. Add metadata describing your documents on an ongoing basis. You can do this in a README file or in the name of the file, for example.

    

3. When the research project or study is finished, you are to make an assessment of which documents are to be preserved and which are to be disposed of. Information about legal requirements and when documents may be disposed of can be found in the Records Management Plan and in the specific disposal and preservation plans. Enlist the help of research support or and archivist where necessary. 

   Read more about preservation and disposal.

4. Convert the documents for preservation into a format approved by the archive once you no longer need to work in the file. You should convert your files to a suitable format no later than at the completion of your research project/study. The approved preservation formats are listed on the following page:

   Read more about approved preservation formats on the page Electronic archiving.

5. Register the documents in your project/study that are to be entered into the registration system on an ongoing basis. Information about which records are to be entered in the documentation registration system can be found in the Records Management Plan. 

    

6. Store your public records on a stable storage platform with restricted access while you wait for e-archiving.

   Read more about stable storage on the IT web, in swedish.