The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and the Data Seal of Approval: Accreditation Experiences, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a domain repository with a 50-year track record of archiving social and behavioural science data, applied for—and acquired—the Data Seal of Approval (DSA) in 2010. DSA is a non-intrusive, straightforward approach to assessing organizational, technical, and operational infrastructure, and signifies a basic level of accreditation. DSA assessment helped ICPSR become more transparent, monitor and improve archival processes and procedures, and raise awareness within the organization and beyond about best practices for repositories. We relate our experiences with the DSA process, and describe challenges and opportunities associated with DSA assessment.