Data preservation and disposal after the master’s thesis

At the beginning of the master’s thesis process, it is important to plan how long and where the research data will be preserved after the graduation. The research data should be retained for a period of time deemed necessary after completion of the thesis and then disposed of appropriately. The student is responsible for preserving and disposing of the collected research data.

In particular, when processing personal data, care must be taken in the preservation and disposal. As a general rule, research data containing personal data must be disposed of when they are no longer necessary for the purpose of use. Any further use for the same purpose should be considered before disposing of the research data. The data can be anonymised, i.e. all information leading to the identification of a study participant can be deleted, in which case the data can be opened for re-use or publishing. Study participants must be informed (before the thesis project starts) about possible re-use purposes of the data but also about what happens to the collected data and the personal data they contain during and after the thesis process. If you are working with in a research group, they can advice you on the preserving and disposal of the data after the graduation. More information on data protection on the webpage of Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman.

If the research data have value of re-use and there are no obstacles to its opening, the research data can be made openly available for further use by saving it for re-use in a data repository.  Together with your supervisor, you can choose a national or international data repository service that is best suited for opening the research data of your master’s thesis. However, notice that if you are using somebody else’s research data in your thesis, you are not allowed to make the decision about opening the data for re-use. More information on opening research data on the website of Open Research Data, University of Eastern Finland.