Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A DMP committing to deposit final processed datasets in Zenodo for a minimum of 10 years.
- Is an instance
A clinical-research DMP committing to indefinite preservation of consented anonymised data in a domain repository.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A vague statement 'data will be kept safely'.
- Not an instance
A storage plan covering only the active project period.
Editorial commentary
A preservation commitment is the part of a Data Management Plan (DMP) that specifies which datasets will be preserved beyond the end of the project, in which repository, for how long, and under what conditions. It is usually made dataset by dataset rather than for the project as a whole, and in a machine-actionable DMP (maDMP) each commitment is typically tied to a specific repository identifier (a re3data ID) plus a retention period and any access conditions on that dataset. Preservation commitments are the mechanism by which a DMP turns a funder’s or institution’s general FAIR-data policy into something concrete and checkable for one particular project.
A research office should treat a vague preservation statement (“data will be kept safely”) as effectively unusable — it names no repository, no duration, and no conditions, so there is nothing to check at closeout. A specific commitment (“final processed datasets deposited in Zenodo, minimum 10 years”) is auditable and is what most funder templates and repository-selection guidance (Digital Curation Centre, CoreTrustSeal’s Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements) expect to see.
How it differs from adjacent DMP concepts
- vs. Sharing commitment (in DMP) — preservation is about long-term survival of the data; sharing is about who can access it and how. The two commitments are usually written together but answer different questions.
- vs. Retention period (in DMP) — the retention period is one property of a preservation commitment (how long), not the whole commitment.
References
- Digital Curation Centre, “How to Develop a Data Management and Sharing Plan”; CoreTrustSeal Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements.
Also known as
DMP preservation statement
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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