The UK Data Archive acquires, curates, and provides access to the UK's largest collection of social and economic data. It has the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. The data lifecycle involves creating, processing, and analyzing data, as well as preserving, giving access to, and reusing data with the goal of advancing scientific inquiry.

1. Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=STYCM63oG88
The UK. Data Archive acquire, curate and provide access to the UK’s largest collection of Social and Economic
Data. They also have the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the United
Kingdom. With several thousand datasets relating to society, both historical and contemporary, our Archive is
a vital resource for researchers, teachers and learners.

2. Creating
Data Data often have a longer lifespan than the
research project that creates them. Researchers
may continue to work on data after funding has
Reusing Processing
Data Data ceased, follow-up projects may analyse or add to
the data, and data may be re-used by other
researchers.
Well organised, well documented, preserved
and shared data are invaluable to advance
scientific inquiry and to increase opportunities
for learning and innovation.
Giving
Analysing
Access to
Data
Data
Source: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/life-cycle
Preserving
Data

3. This phase of the lifecycle talks about:
• Design Research
• Plan Data Management (formats, storage etc.)
• Plan Consent for Sharing
• Locate existing Data
• Collect Data (Experiment, Observe, Measure and
Simulate)
• Capture and Create Metadata
Good data management is fundamental for high quality
research data and research excellence. Data management
covers all aspects of handling, organising, documenting and
enhancing research data, and enabling their sustainability
and sharing.
Many research funders require data management and sharing
plans at the start of research projects. Many research funders
and publishers are committed to a long-term strategy for data
resource provision and encourage researchers to share data.
Video Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F6rEAULLenY

4. The Processing Phase of the lifecycle talks about:
• Enter Data, Digitise, Transcribe and Translate
• Check, Validate, Clean Data
• Anonymise Data where necessary
• Describe Data
• Manage Data
• Store Data
A data storage strategy is important because digital storage
media are inherently unreliable and all file formats and
physical storage media will ultimately become obsolete.
Media currently available for storing data files are optical
media - CDs and DVDs - and magnetic media - hard drives
and tapes.
At the Archive, where our business is the long-term
preservation of digital data, we recommend our own
principles on storage to researchers. Storage of data - both
digital and non-digital - from research projects should be
taken seriously from the start of research.

5. This phase of the lifecycle talks about:
• Interpret Data
• Derive Data
• Produce Research Outputs
• Author Publications
• Prepare Data for Preservation
Data management is not just the responsibility of the
researcher who creates the data.
Many people are involved in the research process and have
roles in ensuring the integrity and quality of research data
and increasing the potential for data sharing.
A crucial part of making data user-friendly, shareable and
with long-lasting usability is to ensure they can be
understood and interpreted by any user. This requires clear
data description, annotation, contextual information and
documentation.

6. This phase of the lifecycle talks about:
• Migrate Data to best format
• Migrate Data to suitable medium
• Back-up and store Data
• Create Metadata and Documentation
• Archive Data
Making back-ups of files is an essential element of data
management. Regular back-ups protect against accidental or
malicious data loss and can be used to restore originals if
there is loss of data.
Accidental or malicious loss of data can be due to:
• hardware faults or failure
• software or media faults
• virus infection or malicious hacking
• power failure
• human errors by changing or deleting files

7. This phase of the lifecycle talks about:
• Distribute Data
• Share Data
• Control Access
• Establish Copyright
• Promote Data
There is more than one avenue through which you can share
your data. As you start your research consider how your data
can be shared.
The digital revolution has caused a strong drive towards open
access of information, with the internet making information
sharing fast, easy, powerful and empowering.
Scholarly publishing has seen a strong move towards open
access to increase the impact of research, with e-journals,
open access journals and copyright policies enabling the
deposit of outputs in open access repositories.

8. This phase of the lifecycle talks about:
• Follow-Up Research
• New Research
• Undertake Research Reviews
• Scrutinise Findings
• Teach and Learn
Copyright is an intellectual property right assigned
automatically to the creator, that prevents unauthorised
copying and publishing of an original work. Copyright
applies to research data and plays a role when creating,
sharing and re-using data.
The categorisation of copyright as a 'property' demonstrates
that copyright is something which belongs to someone,
cannot be taken away without consent and cannot be abused
without the possibility of legal action ensuing.