ArchiveData

ArchiveData is a term used in data management to describe data sets and records designated for long-term preservation and storage. It encompasses both the content of the data and the accompanying metadata that documents provenance, context, and rights. The goal of ArchiveData is to maintain accessibility and integrity of records over extended periods, including across technology changes and organizational shifts.

Implementations of ArchiveData emphasize durability, reproducibility, and auditability. Key features include immutability of preserved copies, versioning, replication across multiple locations, and integrity checks such as checksums or digital signatures. Data is stored in stable formats and supported by preservation plans that plan for format normalization and regular migration to newer media as needed.

Standards and practices associated with ArchiveData draw on the OAIS reference model and preservation metadata schemes such as PREMIS, with descriptive metadata following METS or Dublin Core. Access policies, licensing, and provenance tracking support long-term stewardship, while retention schedules guide when data can be moved, archived, or purged in response to policy and cost considerations.

Common use cases include institutional repositories for scholarly outputs and datasets, national archives, government agencies, and digital libraries. ArchiveData enables researchers and the public to retrieve historical records, reproduce analyses, and verify results, while supporting compliance with archival standards and transparency in data governance.