ICPSR Deaccession Policy

ICPSR permanently archives deposited files. On an ongoing basis, ICPSR evaluates its data holdings with regard to maintaining access and reserves the right to discontinue the distribution of a data collection when deemed appropriate.

Evaluation Criteria

When reviewing deaccession requests, ICPSR considers:

  • How often are the data used?
  • What is the potential research value?
  • Are there duplicate copies in a repository elsewhere?
  • Are there significant errors in the data or documentation that cannot be corrected?
  • Are there disclosure issues that cannot be resolved?
  • Are there proprietary or custodial claims to the data that cannot be resolved?

Sponsored Archives

In some cases, a sponsor may request the removal of a study. When this occurs, ICPSR may transfer stewardship of the study to the ICPSR Member Archive, ensuring that the study continues to be preserved and citable.

Preservation and Access

When materials are deaccessioned:

  • The data are no longer publicly accessible at ICPSR, although they remain preserved in ICPSR’s archival storage.
  • Because digital files are assigned a persistent digital object identifier (DOI), the study description continues to be available to view, but is not searchable through ICPSR’s search index.
  • Web crawlers are instructed to ignore the descriptions (via the robots exclusion protocol).

For more information about ICPSR’s Deaccession Policy, please contact ICPSR User Support: icpsr-help@umich.edu.