FAQs

ATSIDA works specifically with digital research datasets. While this overlaps at times with AIATSIS collection development, our work compliments the work being done at AIATSIS. Our location within a university puts us in the ideal position to locate relevant research datasets and work closely with researchers developing appropriate data management plans for their projects.

We also have a Memorandum of Understanding with AIATSIS and this cooperation ensures the provision of quality services to researchers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. AIATSIS also has representation on the ATSIDA Reference Group that provides strategic advice to the operational group and assists in identifying and prioritising datasets to add to the archive as well as relationships with Indigenous communities, researchers and curatorial institutions.  

ATSIDA offers a mechanism to actively present Indigenous data to communities, researchers and the broader population while managing it appropriately and securely. It permits communities to identify what is held that relates to their concerns and helps reduce the demands placed on them by researchers. With proper safeguards, it enables access to information which informs reconciliation, helping to dispel ignorance and fear.

ATSIDA was established to assist researchers and the institutions in which they work. ATSIDA works with researchers to collect research data and provide a long term archiving solution for the data and the management of its reuse. ATSIDA does not compete with other organisations to obtain data – if there is a more relevant or logical home for the long-term preservation of research data for a particular study, we encourage you to use it.

ATSIDA also works closely with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to which datasets relate. Repatriation of research data relating to the community from which it came is a particular commitment for ATSIDA. 

We aim to assist with management of digital research data that often sits outside of the collections held in traditional institutions such as libraries, archives and museums. We collaborate closely with organisations such as AIATSIS to ensure coordination of protocols and resources across communities.

We recognise the importance of dealing with research data respectfully. There is often highly confidential information revealed to the researcher that the respondent may not want openly shared. There are however, many ways to protect sensitive information or the identity of vulnerable informants. We work with you to ensure the way that your data is managed fits with ethical and moral obligations. This includes the management of ongoing access for data reuse. Embargoes are also conditions that can be considered to protect informants.

Another consideration for researchers working with qualitative datasets is the value of contextual material. We will work with you to ensure that we collect enough information to ensure the ongoing viability of reuse of the data. 

Of course from time to time there are research studies that involve such sensitive material or so clearly identify vulnerable people that they cannot be made available to other researchers and we would not want to archive something that cannot ever be used.
The ATSIDA Protocols guide the work of the data archive to ensure that we operate in ways that are respectful to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

ATSIDA is only interested in providing you with the tools and resources that ensure these fears vanish. We are not here to enforce any compliance or quality assurance for research data management and will not mention any specific cases without your permission. We may from time to time use unidentified case studies to help other people in the future, but, rest assured, there will be no naming and shaming!

The vast majority of researchers are facing the same conditions, so don’t feel like you are the only person struggling to maintain good data management practices.