Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A retention period of 10 years recorded against an open dataset.
- Is an instance
A retention period of 'until consent withdrawn or 25 years, whichever is shorter' on a clinical dataset.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
No retention statement at all.
- Not an instance
A storage allocation note that does not specify duration.
Editorial commentary
A retention period is the minimum duration a specified dataset will be kept after project end, expressed as a calendar period and recorded as part of a Data Management Plan (DMP)‘s preservation commitments. What sets the period is rarely a single choice: funder policy (UKRI’s Common Principles on Data Policy typically expects “at least 10 years”), legal obligation (GDPR Article 5(1)(e)’s storage-limitation principle, or clinical-trial record-retention rules from bodies such as the MHRA or FDA), and disciplinary norms (a longitudinal cohort study may justify indefinite retention) can each independently set or extend the required period.
In a machine-actionable DMP (maDMP), retention is recorded against each individual dataset entity rather than once for the plan as a whole — a project can reasonably retain some datasets for 10 years and others (say, raw identifiable data superseded by an anonymised derivative) for a much shorter, legally mandated window. A research office reviewing a DMP should check that every dataset flagged as sensitive or personal-data-bearing has an explicit retention period rather than inheriting a single blanket figure from elsewhere in the plan.
How it differs from adjacent DMP concepts
- vs. Preservation commitment (in DMP) — retention period is one field within the broader preservation commitment (repository, duration, conditions).
- vs. Sharing commitment (in DMP) — retention answers “for how long”; sharing answers “to whom, on what licence.”
References
- UKRI Common Principles on Data Policy; GDPR Article 5(1)(e); MHRA/FDA clinical-trial record-retention requirements.
Also known as
DMP retention · data retention period
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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