What should you consider when selecting an archive?
- We encourage you to use a discipline-specific archive when possible. A discipline-specific archive will make your data more visible to other researchers in the field.
- When there is no suitable discipline-specific archive, we recommend using a general archive.
- The archive should facilitate good retrieval, follow recommended metadata standards, use persistent identifiers and offer curation. Read more about this on our page about the FAIR principles.
- Some archives offer curation which means that metadata is assessed and quality checked by specialists in a relevant discipline. The basic curation process involves a dialogue with the researcher around how to enhance metadata quality before the dataset is archived.
- If you want 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 at your department and at UB, as well as see what is used by colleagues internationally. Alternatively, you can use one of the following search tools:
- re3data.org – an overview of data archives.
- FAIRsharing Databases – an overview of databases and data archives.
General archives
- DataverseNO – national archive for general research data from all disciplines. UiO has its own collection. Data is curated by the UiO Library. There are certain limitations on the size of the files that can be deposited (see deposit guide).
- Sikt – a national archive managed by Sikt (the Knowledge Sector's service provider). The focus is on preserving data from social science and humanities research, as well as some from medical and health research. NSD curates archived data.
- Zenodo – EU research data archive. Here you can archive data and other documents from all subject areas. 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 options for archiving
- Digitisation and Special Collections at the University Library aims at contributing to the preservation and dissemination of scientific sources and collections of historical value. The goal is to digitise and make available archives, collections, and single objects of values for the research communities at the University of Oslo and the public in general. The digitised material will be made available through the cultural heritage platform ALVIN, and books will also be indexed in Oria. The University Library contributes with skills within organising, registering, digitising and migrating. The webpages are currently in Norwegian only.
- Arkivverket and the National Archives of Norway will in some cases accept private archives from researchers. Information about assessment and criteria are available in Norwegian only.
- Nettarkivet (the Norwegian Web Archive) at the National Library of Norway aims to preserve websites under the .no domain according to the Legal Deposit Act (pliktavleveringslova). Websites under foreign domains can also be harvested if their content is related to Norway or is written in Norwegian. If you work with sources from the web which are covered by Legal Deposit Act, it might be of value to have a dialogue with the Web Archive about scarping and preserving the material.
Any questions?
Send an email to: research-data@uio.no