Storing and managing data

Legal and contractual obligations

Do you need to retain the data legally?
You should check if the relevant governments require certain commitments or action.

For example the Ethiopian Government requires that soil and agronomy data is maintained in a database system by the Ministry of Agriculture in order to ensure that data will be reliably accessible to the research community in the future. 

Do policies and mandates require you publish the data? Under what conditions? 
The BMGF open access policy requires that data underlying the published research results be immediately accessible and open. 

How long do you need to make the data available for?
Does it need to be removed after a certain period of time (for example for privacy reasons)?

Graphic showing symbols of legal scales, access and community