Data Guide: Disappearing Data

If you’re thinking about preserving access to your own research, for yourself or the public, you might consider backing up your datasets in an open access repository

• DRYAD - a repository for data to live and cross-disciplinary curation and preservation service; per a member agreement, Macalester authors do not pay submission fees through Dec 31, 2025.
• Open Science Framework - an open source cloud-based project management platform that that promotes open, centralized workflows.

If you’re worried about the effects of mass retractions, you may be able to publish a preprint of your work in a repository.

Ensure the government data you use in your research remains accessible to you and others

• This checklist from MIT outlines steps you can take

Submit a FOIA request

• MuckRock is using this FOIA request form to collect suggestions for submitting requests for federal data.

Support the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and libraries

• Sign the petition with EveryLibrary to stop Trump’s Executive Order seeking to gut the IMLS then share it with your networks.
• Learn about IMLS and contact your Senators and your Representative to express your support for libraries. Learn more about what to say.

Sign up for the Data Rescue Project

• Ways to support the Data Rescue Project include identifying data for download, downloading data from federal resources, uploading data into Data Lumos, data curation, metadata, and data documentation, and more. 
• You can read their community guidelines and sign up using this form.

Share your experiences

• The Data Rescue Project is collecting stories about public data users. Use this form to share your story.
• Get in touch with the library if you're encountering issues. 

These are resources for people who are looking to sign petitions, get involved in data archiving projects, or learn more about what goes into projects.