Checklist: Concluding your research

Good to know

• Research material that are official documents must either be deleted after a certain period or archived at the department to be preserved for the future. Learn about the basis and responsibility for archiving.
• The head of department decides whether research material is to be disposed of according to specific retention periods for different types of material. Retention periods are described in Umeå University’s retention and deletion plan.

To conclude your project

• Use the project’s data management plan and the University’s retention and deletion plan for help in understanding how to manage your research material. Contact the archive coordinator at your department for support.
• If you have not already registered your project and datasets in the University’s research data registry, this is a good time to do so. Once all material is registered, mark it for archiving with write protection. After this, it will not be possible to make any additions or changes.
• Save all your material in one place that is accessible by others even when you can no longer be involved in retrieving it. Ask for assistance from the archive coordinator at your department.
• Clean the premises used for the project and delete digital material that must not be retained. Delete documents that have not been used in your research project if they are no longer needed to understand your selection criteria. Check this against the University’s retention and deletion plan.
• Submit any necessary reports to funding bodies.