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Archiving & Preservation

The University’s Open Research Policy Information Guide provides a basic overview of open research and covers the practicalities of having an open research policy at the University of Utah. The principles of openness in research encourages a commitment sharing intellectual research and scholarship as widely as possible and lowering barriers to access.

Depositing your data in a repository will facilitate its discover and preservation. The University of Utah provides an archive (USpace) and associated services for the deposit of publicly accessible material and asks faculty to:

  • provide a copy of their final, peer-reviewed manuscript to an open research repository (such as the USpace Institutional Repository) and grant the University permission to distribute this work in a publicly accessible manner.

NIH & NSF Public Access Policies

In order to promote open access to research data, many funding agencies require that research data produced as part of a funded project be made publicly available and/or have instituted requirements for formal data management plans.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires all investigators to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds (over $100,000) to the digital archive PubMed Centralupon acceptance for publication.  To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.

The Policy applies to any manuscript that:

  • Is peer-reviewed;
  • And, is accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008;
  • And, arises from:
    • Any direct funding1 from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 or beyond, or;
    • Any direct funding from an NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008, or;
    • Any direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program, or;
    • An NIH employee

National Science Foundation (NSF)

According to the NSF website regarding public access "Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants. Grantees are expected to encourage and facilitate such sharing." See Award & Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter VI.D.4.

Other Resources 

Whether you choose to publish in open access or traditional journals, talk with your colleagues and choose the highest quality publication outlets for your work. Read more in Kolata, Gina "Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too." New York Times 7 April 2013.

National Institute of Justice

The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) has posted videos to help all NIJ award recipients with this process.

  • NIJ-OJJDP New Grantee Orientation
    We encourage you to watch a self-guided orientation for NIJ-funded and OJJDP-funded research recipients on submitting data and documentation to NACJD.
  • NIJ Grantees Archiving at Other Data Repositories
    Much data in the natural sciences and engineering are out of scope for NACJD. We require award recipients to archive such data at a repository appropriate to the field of study. Also, be aware that, regardless of the primary data repository used, all NIJ research projects must provide study-level information to NACJD

Watch a short orientation for NIJ grantees who will be archiving their data and documentation at data repositories other than NACJD.

  • ICPSR Data Deposit System Overview (NACJD)
    Watch a detailed overview of ICPSR's online deposit system and the process for depositing data with NACJD. The live demo was recorded in 2018 as part of a NACJD-OJJDP new grantee orientation webinar. The system and process are the same for other NACJD and ICPSR deposits, except that the appropriate archive should be selected when the project page for the deposit is created.
Last Updated: 3/15/23