Funding Opportunities
Research Data Archiving Policy
SSHRC is committed to the principle that the various forms of research data
collected with public funds belong in the public domain. Accordingly, SSHRC
has adopted a policy to facilitate making data that has been collected with
the help of SSHRC funds available to other researchers.
The purpose of this policy is to facilitate the advancement of knowledge in
the social sciences and humanities by encouraging researchers to share research
data. Sharing data strengthens our collective capacity to meet academic standards
of openness by providing opportunities to further analyze, replicate, verify
and refine research findings. Such opportunities enhance progress within fields
of research as well as support the expansion of inter-disciplinary research.
In addition, greater availability of research data will contribute to improved
training for graduate and undergraduate students, and, through the secondary
analysis of existing data, make possible significant economies of scale. Finally,
researchers whose work is publicly funded have a special obligation to openness
and accountability.
All research data collected with the use of SSHRC funds must be preserved and
made available for use by others within a reasonable period of time. SSHRC considers
"a reasonable period" to be within two years of the completion of
the research project for which the data was collected. Costs associated with
preparing research data for deposit are considered eligible expenses in SSHRC
research grant programs. Research data includes quantitative social, political
and economic data sets; qualitative information in digital format; experimental
research data; still and moving image and sound data bases; and other digital
objects used for analytical purposes.
A wide range of projects involving collection of research data are supported
by public funds. Accordingly, given the many complexities that may arise, SSHRC
recognizes that unusual circumstances may require modifications of or exemptions
from this policy.
For example, the protection of confidentiality requires removing identifiers
from data sets, which may be prohibitively expensive or which may render the
data meaningless. In such cases, researchers and/or research administrators
should consult university ethics review boards for advice on appropriate action.
While SSHRC intends this policy to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate a
wide variety of circumstances, it is the principle of public ownership of data
that should guide all decisions.
Once you have completed a research project that involves the creation of data
sets, ask your postseconday institution's library or data service if it can archive the data.
If it cannot, contact one of the following institutions for assistance:
A. Postsecondary Institutions
- University of Alberta Data Library
- The University of British Columbia Data Library
- Carleton University Social Science Data Archive
- University of Guelph Data Resource Centre
- Queen's University Social Science Data Centre
- Simon Fraser University Research Data Library
- University of Toronto Data Library
- University of Waterloo Leisure Study Bank
- University of Waterloo Data Resource Centre
- The University of Western Ontario Data Resource Library
- York University Institute for Social Research
B. Archives
As members of the Canadian Association of Public Data Users (CAPDU), these
institutions work together to facilitate access to existing data bases and data
sets, to promote the exchange of data, ensure the integrity and confidentiality
of data, and to preserve data of scholarly, scientific and historical value.
Each CAPDU member organization has its own mandate and guidelines. You may wish
to consult the Directory of Canadian University Data Libraries and Archives,
available from the:
Data Library
University Computing Systems
352 General Services Bldg.
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2H1