Social Science Data Archives: Case Studies in Data Sustainability

There has been a sizeable investment in the development of large-scale data and appropriate infrastructures in the physical and biological sciences and increasingly in the social sciences and humanities. Concerns about data sustainability have attracted a great deal of attention as research project data collection represents a significant investment, and loss of subsequent use of that data represents a loss of potential value. In this poster, we focus on of the most long-lived examples of data archives: Social Science Data Archives (SSDAs). In this study, we report on preliminary research on the historical, institutional, and operational dimensions over SSDAs over time. Drawing upon analyses of institutional and policy documents and interviews with staff, depositors, and administrators, this poster briefly discusses current challenges to SSDA longevity and implications for next steps in expanding the study both theoretically and methodologically. Initial themes discussed in this poster include data archives making a market for themselves, configuring their products and their user base and ongoing tensions between the need to generate revenue and pressure for open access data.