Data Curation in the World Data System: Proposed Framework

The value of data in society is increasing rapidly. Organisations that work with data should have standard practices in place to ensure successful curation of data. The World Data System (WDS) consists of a number of data centres responsible for curating research data sets for the scientific community. The WDS has no formal data curation framework or model in place to act as a guideline for member data centres. The objective of this research was to develop a framework for the curation of data in the WDS. A multiple-case case study was conducted. Interviews were used to gather qualitative data and analysis of the data, which led to the development of this framework. The proposed framework is largely based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) functional model and caters for the curation of both analogue and digital data.