Research and digital curation and preservation: collaborative model between CHAM - Centre for the Humanities and the Digital Development of Research Services

ABSTRACT

Objective:

This article intends to describe an intra-organizational experience of strategic cooperation, reflecting on the critical success factors in the development of digital preservation and curation policies involving higher education institutions and research centers.

Methods:

Two qualitative perspectives are considered in the case study: the practice turn and the perspective of the study of behavior and informational practices to study the strategy and informational interactions of the collaboration model developed between a research center with more than 200 integrated researchers (CHAM - Center for the Humanities) and the specialized Digital Development of Research Services (DDRS) team from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Methods such as document analysis, observation and analysis of informational practices were used.

Results:

The collaboration model is analyzed in its main strategic characteristics and informational practices: active and continuous dialogue between the research community, supported by DDRS coaching activities, focused on obtaining a generalized but flexible consensus around the research, digital curation, and preservation. Its implementation results from a double Top-down strategy, guaranteeing organizational support and information governance, and Bottom-up, constituting a community-led process, developing two interrelated actions: a pilot data management test experience and the evaluation collection of research project sites with recommendations for their sustainability, interoperability, digital preservation, and curation.

Conclusions:

The construction of the strategy centered on shared critical reflection perspective of joint solutions and synergies for the construction of participatory digital preservation policies.

KEYWORDS:
Research; Digital Object Preservation; Digital Curation; Research Data; Collaboration