Old Dominion University

Old Dominion University will lead a team investigating how to preserve endangered Open Access Datasets and Software (OADS). OADS are publicly and freely available digital datasets and software packages used for reproducing research results reported in scholarly publications. Research has shown that a significant portion of OADS are not properly archived, with the disappearance of these OADS threatening scientific reproducibility across disciplines. This project aims to develop, report on, and solve the foundational problems related to the value, status, trends, and preservability of OADS in scholarly papers and electronic theses and dissertations. The team will characterize OADS in terms of availability, observability, and accessibility. The project team will study the status of OADS preservation, develop predictive models for endangered OADS, and explore the technical challenges of preserving OADS. Investigating these foundational problems related to OADS will benefit educators, students, researchers, digital archivists, and librarians across the country.