Archival responsibility for research documentation
The Regional Archive recommends that an agreement is drawn up about archival responsibility and long-term storage before research begins, and preferably at the same time as an application is submitted for ethical screening for the project.
The application for ethical screening must designate the entity responsible for the research, and it is generally this party that has archival responsibility. If there is no application for ethical screening, the information about the entity responsible for the research should be provided in another type of document, e.g. a partnership agreement or data management plan.
Research that does not require ethical screening should also have an agreement on archival responsibility in place at the start of the study.
The principal researcher is responsible for informing the archiving officer and, as necessary, also the registrar how the information from the research activity is to be organised, whether there is confidential information that must be kept separate and where it is to be stored.
The documentation must be produced using durable materials, in terms of both the documentation itself and the method of production. For more information, see the section Creating, managing and storing information (Skapa, förvalta och förvara information).
Who is the entity responsible for the research?
Research can be undertaken at university clinics, but the region or the university can both be the entity responsible for the research. It depends on whether the researcher undertaking the study is employed by, or gets research funds from, the university or the region.
Information held by Region Stockholm often comes from research activity where there are several principals and stakeholders. Normally, an organisation is responsible for its own archive until it is closed down or reorganised, at which time the information is sent to an archive, for example the Regional Archive or the National Archives of Sweden.
The place where the research information is to be archived is determined by which of the stakeholders is the entity responsible for the project or investigation. If there no clearly identified entity responsible for the research, archival responsibility falls to the party managing the research funds. The entity responsible for the research is the party with ultimate responsibility for ensuring the information is archived and delivered to the correct archiving authority.
If the research involves several principals from the public sector, it is recommended that they resolve the issue of the long-term storage of the information by entering into an agreement at the outset. In the absence of an agreement, archival responsibility falls to the party responsible for managing the research funds. What is important is that one party should have responsibility for all archiving and responsibility is not shared between several parties. It is easiest for all involved to have a single archive rather than a shared one.
