RDA supports 'Data Rescue Project' to safeguard US federal research data at risk

The Data Rescue Project serves as a clearinghouse for data rescue-related efforts and data access points for public US federal data that are currently at risk. The project, a coalition of data organisations including IASSIST, RDAP and the Data Curation Network, among others, and individuals has focussed on collating, collecting, curating, and providing sustained public access and distribution of data. 

Starting from an open Google Doc, the Data Rescue Project has evolved into a comprehensive, crowd-sourced list of current efforts and resources that document and assist with data rescue. 

To ensure long-term discoverability and preservation of the data captured, members of the project team created a workflow to ensure that data, plus necessary documentation and metadata, are deposited in ICPSR’s DataLumos (a repository for government data) and dataset links are nominated for the End of Term Archive. 

In addition, project members built the Data Rescue Tracker, a collaborative tool to catalogue and coordinate across data rescue efforts. The tool can be used to see where data has been rescued, search for specific datasets, learn about ongoing data rescue initiatives, and submit downloaded data and where it has been archived for continuing findability and access. 

The RDA recognises and commends the importance of the Data Rescue Project as a grass-roots initiative that helps to save and preserve the US public data heritage. The loss of US federal data has a significant global impact, affecting people and professions around the world. 

In line with RDA’s mission and vision, the Data Rescue Project is a shining example that demonstrates the power of community uniting to address a societal challenge.