Types of data to be archived at Sikt

Sikt do not offer temporary data storage. That means that we do not accept data that is still being processed or collected.  

We accept data about “people and society". This means that the data should relate to individuals, organizations, or administrative, political, or geographic units.

Data on individuals is information about people, either in the form of participation in surveys, interviews, etc., or through registry data.

Data on organizations or administrative, political, or geographic units is data that describes organizations or units such as municipalities, counties, places, countries, or institutions within politics and administration.

Mainly, we archive data from the social sciences, humanities, and parts of medical and health research.

Data must be accessible for others 

• That is, researchers must be able to share data with others outside the research group. 

Data that is to be archived with us must meet the following central purposes: 

• Secondary use in research 
• Teaching purposes 
• Replication and validation 

Data must be made available as openly as possible, and as closed as necessary. 

• Data should not have more limited access conditions than what is necessary based on security and privacy considerations, or other legal, commercial, economic, or practical factors - in accordance with the National strategy on access to and sharing of research data.

We can archive all types of machine-readable research data, including data that requires special handling or permission, such as personal data. 

We do not archive biological data or other types of non-digital data (such as rocks or blood samples). However, such types of data can often be documented and recorded in machine-readable files that may be useful for secondary analysis and thus appropriate to archive with us. 

We only accept data in Norwegian or English. The reason for not accepting data in other languages is that it makes it difficult to quality control the data and to check for anonymity. 

Data must be archived and made available within legal and ethical frameworks, for example, regarding privacy, information security, or copyright.

Quantitative data (matrix data/datasets): 

We accept both anonymized and directly/indirectly person identifiable quantitative data. We can provide advice on anonymization for quantitative data. 

Qualitative data (interview transcripts/text data): 

We do not accept anonymized qualitative data. This is because we can not archive data that we have not checked for anonymity. In addition, further anonymisation might potentially reduce the reusability of the data. 

For qualitative data that is to be archived with us, the data owner needs to document permission to archive and share data with indirect or direct personal information. 

If the data or parts of the data are obtained from other sources, that is, the data has not been collected by the researcher (secondary data), the researcher must document that they have permission to archive the data.

Data cannot have an embargo/time limit for access that is longer than necessary (up to three years after data collection/one year after data deposit).