The Data Repository for University of Minnesota (DRUM) has been awarded the Data Seal of Approval (DSA) from an international group of digital data repositories.

The DSA was established by a number of institutions committed to the long-term archiving of research data. By assigning the seal, the DSA group seeks to guarantee the durability of the data concerned, but also to promote the goal of durable archiving in general.

“The Data Seal of Approval is a recognition from our peers that DRUM is a trustworthy source of data,” said Lisa Johnston, Research Data Management/Curation Lead at the University of Minnesota Libraries, who has led the DRUM initiative.

DRUM is a public access repository for digital research data generated by University of Minnesota researchers, students, and staff. As part of the University Digital Conservancy (UDC), DRUM provides long-term digital preservation and open access to data. All data in the collection are curated to increase their potential for reuse.

The DSA assessed DRUM in 16 critical areas to ensure that data in DRUM are disseminated, archived, and preserved in a usable format, are reliable, and are identified in a unique and persistent way, Johnston said.

“This illustrates the trusted levels of technology, policy, and staffing that our university uses to support long-term access to our growing collection of datasets,” she said. “This is a significant achievement that only a handful of U.S. data repositories have obtained.”

About the DSA

In 2016 the DSA merged with the ICSU World Data System (WDS) and the accreditation process was updated to reflect this alignment. DRUM’s assessment fell under the new updated requirements and will last for three years from 2017-2019.

The Data Seal of Approval is awarded by an elected board of members of the DSA General Assembly, made up of past DSA awardees from around the world, including the UK Data Archive and the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.