As a researcher, you should identify the likely retention period for your data as early as possible in the research and ensure that requirements for retention and disposal are met.You must also ensure that actions and decisions taken during the project facilitate long-term or permanent retention for data with enduring value to the research community or of wider public interest.

Minimum retention periods

Your research data needs to be kept for as long as required to:

• meet any statutory or regulatory obligations (records legislation, funding agency guidelines, contractual arrangements with research partners)
• meet the current needs of researchers
• meet the future needs of researchers where these can reasonably be anticipated
• satisfy expectations of the University in documenting research activity.

Disposal

The destruction of data must be irreversible with no chance of recovery later. Digital data should be destroyed by deleting or overwriting information, purging magnetic media through degaussing (exposure to a strong magnetic field), or destroying the physical media.

Paper can be shredded using secure shredding. Extra care should be taken with sensitive or confidential information where a secure paper destruction service must be used.

In all cases records relating to what was destroyed, when and how should be retained.

Planning for long-term and permanent retention

If you think that your data may be a candidate for long-term or permanent retention, you should be aware that decisions made at an early stage of the research project can limit your later ability to retain data in a usable form. For example:

• Human ethics requirements and the nature of the consents you seek from participants will determine whether data can be re-used for future projects and in what ways.
• Technology-based decisions relating to storage media, software, and digital file formats might impact upon the length of time that data can be easily retrieved and used.

Identifying issues like these around long-term and permanent retention is part of Data Management Plan.

Research data that is going to be retained permanently should be deposited in Repository@USM.

(Source: Monash University, 2018)