To realize measures for preservation so-called pre-ingest strategies are of great importance. The activities taken out in this phase should be as precise as possible to guarantee high data quality and long-term validity.
Documentation
UKDA: Introduction to ingest and best practice examples (including pre-ingest services)
ICPSR: Ingest & data curation steps
Archive types
Data archives can be distinguished for example by disciplines, the types of data they preserve, and regions they operate in, as well as different services they provide, e.g. self-depositoring.
Examples
- The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA)
- re3data, search-engine for data archives
Communication with depositor
Getting in contact includes the engagement of archives with data producers at an early stage of the research process.
As there are a number of aspects that may not be adjusted afterwards, it is important for archives to advice data producers, for example to increase the potential for secondary analyses or to check whether measures to ensure confidentiality have been taken into account in accordance with the law.
Furthermore, archives have the opportunity to inform data producers about their quality standards and submission policies.
During the pre-ingest phase a submission agreement is negotiated between the data producer and the archive. To negotiate an agreement, decisions on various issues must be made, for example whether the data should be preserved or also be made available for re-use.