Att arkivera forskning : forskares inställning till arkivering och återanvändning av forskningsdokumentation

Sammanfattning: As authorities, the universities are subject to the principle of access to official documents. Records generated during the research process are thus to be regarded as official documents, even though there are disputes over exactly when they are to be considered as such. Scientists are, to various degrees, dependent of access to earlier research data, which may have been collected during research performed by other scientists as well as by individuals or organizations not connected to the universities. A related issue is the Swedish legislation concerning the status of documents produced in research as public records which gives other researchers as well as the general public right to access these documents, albeit with the possible exception of documents and information protected by privacy and security laws. This master’s thesis addresses these issues and rests on two theoretical foundations: the legislation concerning research and its documents and the traditions and habits of the research community, with archival science and practice as a common link. The thesis attempts to answer questions concerning how researchers manage their documents and records, what their opinions and experiences are, concerning the archiving of their research and about the reuse of their and other researchers’ work. Other issues that are addressed are the possibilities of and need for long-term preservation and how and if researchers are affected by legislation and in particular the effect of the principle of access to public records which allows for a high degree of openness. Two different surveys where carried out: a questionnaire study and a study based on semi-structured interviews with researchers active in various fields in the humanities, sciences and social sciences. One noteworthy result was that the university archives is perceived as being relatively invisible and that the researchers who had been in contact with the archives in most cases had initiated the contact themselves. The researchers who were interviewed and who had extensive experience of the university archives had administrative responsibilities. Some answers indicate that few researchers show much interest in having their own research documentation preserved. This is true also for researchers that have experience in visiting archives in their own research and those who have experience in how documents that once were considered less useful can be important in future research. Another important result shows that differences exist between researchers and scholarly fields when it comes to the issue of preservation: while some researchers consider ten years to be a long time to preserve certain research materials, others, like researchers in the humanities, wish to preserve research documentation indefinitely.