Selection and retention

What to consider in your DMP

Selection and retention involve identifying which research data should be preserved beyond the end of a project and which data can be securely disposed of. In your Data Management Plan, you should explain how these decisions will be made and consider:

• what value your data might hold
• how your data might be reused
• any obligations you may have to preserve data
• the resources required to prepare your data for sharing and preservation.

It's not always practical or advisable to keep all the research data that you collect or generate during your project. There are economic and environmental costs to long-term data storage, as well as staff resources required for ongoing stewardship of the data.

What data should be retained?

Researchers are responsible for selecting which research data to retain, and potentially share. When deciding what to retain, consider: 

• any ethical, legal or funder requirements to retain or destroy data
• whether the data underpins published findings or a thesis
• the potential long-term value of the data for future research
• whether the data is especially difficult or costly to reproduce
• the costs and resources required to preserve the data.

Retention requirements

Selected research data should normally be retained for a minimum of ten years following publication unless alternative retention requirements apply.

Many funders, publishers, legal frameworks, and professional bodies impose requirements relating to the retention, preservation, or sharing of research data. Be aware of any obligations that apply to your research and ensure that sufficient data are retained to demonstrate compliance.

More information is available from the funder requirements page.

Data underpinning research findings

Research data that underpins a research publication or postgraduate thesis should be kept so that others can reproduce or verify your findings, and potentially reuse or build upon your research. You should also retain any software, scripts, workflows, or code used to generate, process, or analyse the data, where these are necessary to validate or reproduce the research findings.

Data with long-term value

Research data with acknowledged long-term value should be preserved and remain accessible for future research. Data may have particular long-term value where it is unique, irreplaceable, expensive to collect, or cannot reasonably be recreated.

Long-term value depends not only on the data itself, but also on whether future users can understand and reuse it. Consider whether sufficient documentation, metadata, codebooks, software, and supporting files exist to support interpretation and reuse.

What data can be disposed of?

Not all research data needs to be retained indefinitely. Data that has no ongoing research, legal, regulatory, contractual, or operational value may be identified for disposal.

Any research data selected for deletion must be disposed of securely, with particular consideration given to sensitive or confidential information. For example, where data has been anonymised, the identifiable data may need to be destroyed.

Disposal of research data should be carried out in accordance with legal, contractual, regulatory, or ethical requirements and the University’s Information Security Policy.

Further information

Researchers who require a more structured approach to appraisal may find the DCC’s ‘Five steps to decide what data to keep’ particularly useful.