Storage OverviewThe data lifecycle stages for Evaluate & Archive and Store & Manage include Data Security, Data Retention, Archives and Records Management, Data Destruction, Storage Options, and Data Safety.

Every stage of the Biomedical Data Lifecycle centers around the management of data storage. Proper storage maintenance throughout the lifecycle is imperative to ensure data remains secure and adheres to recommended safety protocols.

Research requires increasingly complex arrangements for the storage and transmission of research data. Robust data privacy and security planning is needed to protect the privacy of research subjects and to secure sensitive, personally identifiable information.

  • In the Plan & Design stage, you may be asked to produce a Data Management Plan, highlighting specific details related to data storage throughout the project, including your preferred Storage Options.
  • When beginning to Collect & Analyze datasets, either with the ingestion of data from outside sources or with the generation of new datasets, further storage considerations may be addressed, such as Data Security and Data Safety.
  • Project completion requires additional contemplation strategies when getting ready to Share & Publish data, to determine where and for how long data should be stored long-term (Data Retention), what should be preserved (Archives and Records Management), or to what degree the data should be shared to encourage data reproducibility. Many publishers and granting agencies now require research data be shared in collaborative spaces such as Data Repositories.

Institutions across the Longwood Medical Area maintain various storage solutions, so it is important to compare and select the best storage offering for your intended research.

The storage options listed on subsequent pages focus on HMS resources, so eligibility requirements may apply.