EUDAT Services for Data Preservation

Since its inception, EUDAT has been working with various European research communities to identify the types of services that researchers commonly need for handling research data and then developing the most relevant of those services. EUDAT is currently offering a range of services for:

• Implementing data management policies: B2SAFE (connects the CDI nodes)

At the moment, B2SAFE supports policies for data replication, PID registration and data integrity checks. The B2SAFE Data Policy Manager (DPM), which is currently under development, will enable data managers to manage policies centrally within B2SAFE. The B2SAFE service also allows partners to implement site-specific policies, which are managed locally and not via the DPM portal. In the future more policies will be supported via the B2SAFE service and the DPM portal.

• Providing persistent identifiers (PIDs) for data: B2HANDLE

Note that for each digital object and digital collection stored in the EUDAT CDI, a persistent identifier is registered - this PID can then be used for citing the item in publications and/or to find it. If a digital object consists of separate digital entities (for content and metadata), each of those digital entities is assigned a PID and the relationship between the entities is maintained within the PIDs.

• Data curation and provenance: EUDAT is working with the research communities on defining and automating clear policies for data curation and provenance to ensure that the EUDAT CDI meets the needs of the users.