When you have finished a research project or once you have collected all the raw data, you should archive your data for scientific integrity. Proper archiving is part of Radboud University's research data management policy. Archiving ensures that the Data Acquisition Collection (DAC) or Research Documentation Collection (RDC) becomes read-only and is protected against changes. The collection manager can still update user access to archived collections and download the archived data, but they can no longer edit the collection's content.
Step 1: Prepare your collection
Please make sure that you properly prepare your collection:
The goal is to document a collection in such a way that it is self-sufficient, meaning that anyone (e.g. yourself ten years from now or other researchers) can understand the collection and its contents without further explanation. This step can save you a lot of work in the future! See the Radboud university website on documenting data for more information.
Make sure that all the metadata fields of your collection are correctly filled in. This makes your collection findable and is part of proper archiving. See our page on adjusting metadata for more detailed instructions.
When you archive your DAC or RDC, you can make your collection's metadata visible. If your metadata are not public, the collection's metadata will only be visible to collection managers, contributors, viewers, the research administrator(s) of your Organisational Unit (OU), and the system administrator(s) of the RDR. Anyone else who has the DOI will be directed to a page with a message stating that they are not authorised to see any information of this collection. If you choose to make your metadata visible to the public, anyone who follows the DOI of your collection can see your collection's metadata. This means the title, description, and all the fields that are visible under your collection's metadata tab. Additionally, this information will also be registered in RIS, meaning that these metadata are automatically added to your RIS account when the collection is archived.
Some Organisational Units make the metadata visible by default. To check if the metadata of your collection will become visible, click on the Edit metadata button and scroll down to see if the checkbox next to Make metadata public is checked or not. If you wish to change this setting, please contact your research administrator.
If you have used a WebDAV tool to upload data, check for missing or incomplete files as described on our helppage Check transferred data.
Step 2: Switch to internal review
In the internal review status, your collection is read-only so no changes can be made. It serves as a final checkpoint for you and your colleagues (other managers, contributors, and viewers) to inspect the collection before archiving it.
- Log in to the RDR and select the collection that you want to archive.
- Click the button Switch to Internal review near the top left of your screen.
- A message will appear asking you to confirm your choice to switch states. Click Confirm.
- Conditional extra step: Some metadata fields are obligatory. If you have not filled these out, you will be prompted with a pop-up message. Fill in the missing metadata fields and click Save updates. Next, repeat step 2.2 by clicking Switch to Internal review.
If you want to edit your collection after internal review, you can change the collection's status back to editable by clicking Switch to Editable. Next, make your changes and repeat Step 2.
Step 3: Switch to archived
Unlike Step 2, this step is not reversible. Also be aware that this transition can take more than a day, even for small collections.
If you and your collaborators decide that a collection is complete, you can archive it by clicking on Switch to Archived near the top left of your screen.
A message will appear asking you to confirm the state switch. Click Confirm. Your collection has now been archived and the following happens:
- The collection becomes read-only. Only a few metadata fields can still be changed, namely Managers, Contributors, Viewers, Audience, Associated publications, Associated data, Associated analysis tools, Associated pre-registrations, Keywords, and Preservation time.
- The assigned DOI becomes active.
- If you have chosen to make the metadata publicly available, this will happen now. This means the title, description, and all the fields that are visible under your collection's metadata tab.
- If you have chosen to make the metadata publicly available, the metadata will be registered in RIS.
- The collection receives a version number.