Repository Crisis Scorecards

Abstract:  The Repository Crisis Scorecards (RCS) are meant to measure how resilient a repository might be in its normal state and during certain crises. This includes a measure of how well a repository might weather an example crisis, how easy it might be to restore metadata, and how much societal impact a missing repository would have. The scorecards are based off of the model data preservation rubric developed by Schuster et al, 2023.

There are three parts to the Repository Crisis Scorecards, a fact finding pre-worksheet to set the scene and two scorecards. The Repository Resilience Scorecard (RRS) is organized around the idea of whether a repository can survive a crisis and fulfill its mission. The Data Impact and Recovery Scorecard (DIRS) covers the ideas of dataset completeness and third party impact, specifically whether another organization is able to make sense of deposits and continue the mission of the impacted repository.

An award was given by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to increase our understanding of the resilience of data repositories and to improve the tools used to assess that resilience. As part of this project, we are requesting responses of completed scorecards and have converted the original spreadsheets to an online form to make it easier to submit responses. The original upload form is available for responses using the original spreadsheets. We will also hold focus groups to talk about repository resilience and are accepting applications of interest to participate in them. All data collected will be governed by the Repository Crisis Scorecards Project Data Policy. Any questions can be directed to rcs@esipfed.org.