Advancing Data Stewardship: Developing a Research Data Retention Policy at the Texas Data Repository

This presentation reviews the process that an ad hoc working group of the Texas Data Repository (TDR) Steering Committee (SC) completed to draft a data repository retention policy and strategy. After providing context on the TDR and the TDR SC, the presentation will highlight the group's multi-phased approach, designed to understand the current data retention landscape, to connect potential retention criteria to data repository functionality, and ultimately to develop retention policy and guidelines recommendations. Next, presenters will share details on their recommendations, including the TDR data retention criteria, workflows, roles and responsibilities, and annual timeline. It will conclude the presentation by updating the audience on the current status of the recommendations and provide next steps towards implementing the retention process. While there has been some examination of data retention challenges among the scholarly literature, the ad hoc working group's recommendations provides a case study in data retention policy and guidelines development, filling gaps in the academic literature on open science and data repositories.