Summary

The data resulting from NASA’s projects are a valuable resource that needs to be preserved for the benefit of future generations. In the near-term, as long as the projects’ data are being used actively for scientific research, it continues to be important to provide easy access to data and services commensurate with current information technology. For the longer term, when the research community focus shifts toward new projects and observations, it is essential to preserve the previous project data and associated information. This will enable a new user in the future to understand how the data were used for deriving information, knowledge, and policy recommendations and to “repeat the experiment” to ascertain the validity and possible limitations of conclusions reached in the past, and to provide confidence in long-term trends that depended on data from multiple projects. 

It is essential for NASA to preserve all the data and associated content beyond the lives of NASA's projects to meet NASA's near-term objective of providing access to data and services for active scientific research, as well as for long-term use, such as reprocessing with revised algorithms to support long-term continuity with new measurements and measurement techniques. Also, NASA has to ensure that the data and associated content are preserved and available at a time in the future when permanent archive agencies will assume responsibility. To fulfill this responsibility, identification of the specific content items that need to be preserved from each of NASA’s projects is essential.

This document defines the contents of data, metadata, and associated documentation to be preserved beyond the life of projects funded by NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD).

The Preservation Content Implementation Guidance (PCIG) provides best practices and policies, organization roles, and functional responsibilities for implementing the content specifications listed in the Data Preservation Content Specification (PCS).

To request further guidance on collection Preservation Documentation, send us an email.