[LINK] Preservation of Data

[Glen Turner]

Tom Worthington wrote:
> At 02:53 PM 5/04/2007, Markus Buchhorn wrote:
>> At 10:49 AM 5/04/2007, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>> ... Researchers at government organisations need to keep in mind that
>>> unauthorized deletion of data is not just unfortunate: it is a crime.
>>
>> If you actually get into those laws (state, territory and federal,
>> depending on the organisation) you'll quickly find that it's not at
>> all clear that research data is a record in the legal sense. ...
> 
> A court would need to decide if specific data was a "record". But it
> would seem reasonable that if it is worth paying a government employee
> to research something, then their data is worth keeping. At the very
> least, their research data is evidence they actually did some work.

The funding contract for most research funded by the federal
government requires research data to be archived. The ARC
have their funding deeds online if you need details.

As an aside, the ARC archiving requirements conflict with those
in the Telecommunications Act, which is why AARNet has difficulty
giving traffic data to Australian researchers, even under strict
conditions of confidentiality. I've had queries outstanding with
the ARC for over a year but there has been no response beyond
"we'll get back to you".

-- 
 Glen Turner         Tel: (08) 8303 3936 or +61 8 8303 3936
 Australia's Academic & Research Network  www.aarnet.edu.au