Add paper data

Researchers at SHU can deposit their non-digital research data here and link it to their publications in SHURA.

Non-digital primary research data are stored securely in the University's central archive. Where possible, third parties may access non-digital data under supervision in the Adsetts Learning Centre.

What is in the non-digital archive?

Answer: non-digital primary research data associated with published research and/or completed work.

The University's research data management policy encourages all researchers to retain, archive and publish when possible all primary research data that underpin a publication, which are of potential long-term value and/or support a patent application. This includes hard copy data. The policy states explicitly that hard copy data that supports publications should be retained in SHURDA. The policy applies to all publicly-funded research and is considered best-practice for all other research.

Where research councils or other funding bodies have their own archives, researchers are expected to use these. When data are archived elsewhere, these data assets must still be registered in SHURDA, even if access to the data is restricted. This is a stipulation of the University's research data management policy.

SHURDA holds primary research data. It is not intended for the long-term storage of documentation related to the research project such as consent forms and ethical approval. Researchers are encouraged to use the central archive provided by the Facilities Directorate for these forms of documentation.

What is appropriate to store will depend on the nature of the research. Researchers are expected to use judgment, bearing in mind that archived data should at the least provide evidence, in the event of the veracity of their findings being challenged, to demonstrate that the research actually occurred as claimed in the published outputs. The re-use value of the archived data should be another concern to bear in mind.

How long will data be stored?

The data will be retained as long as the relevant funders, sponsors or journal expect such material to be available. It is the responsibility of the researcher to ascertain this. In all other cases, the University's records retention schedule for primary research data will apply, which states that research data should be kept for a minimum of 10 years since deposit, or for a minimum of 10 years since the last time any third party has requested access to the data.

At the end of the retention period the material is automatically disposed of confidentially unless the researcher has made an alternative arrangement with the archive administrator when depositing the material.

Access to your data

The paper dataset can be made available to the public. In that case, third parties are able to put in requests to consult the non-digital dataset under supervision in the Adsetts Learning Centre.

Users are always able to view the metadata for any paper dataset in the Research Data Archive.

How to deposit

You can deposit non-digital data as follows:

1. Decide what needs to be archived and for how long
2. Login with your university user name and password to create a metadata record for your paper dataset. Repository staff will check your metadata record and may get back to you with further questions
3. Put your material into boxes. The Archive boxes are available now to order direct from The Print Shop. These are the only sized boxes that we accept due to the size of the shelves. To order login using your University Login and Password at the Print Shop page
4. Label the boxes with the title of your project and the name of the PI and address them to:

Research Data Archive
Library Services
Sheffield Hallam University
City Campus
Howard Street
Sheffield S1 1WB

Repository staff will then take care of the safe and secure archiving of your data.

More details

Contact the Library Research Support team for further details.