Preserving your research

The file formats you choose determine whether your research can be opened, understood, and reused, now and in the future. The wrong format choice can limit access or result in lost and irretrievable content over time. Choosing wisely now reduces the risk of your research becoming inaccessible or unusable.

• Choose software that gives you flexibility. Check which formats your software can import and export, and prioritise those that are widely supported. Choosing formats that don’t rely on a specific program or license reduces the risk of your research becoming inaccessible. See Sustainable file formats for further guidance.
• Know how the formats that you choose affect quality. Some formats reduce file size by removing detail (eg, JPEG images or MP3 audio), while others retain all original information (eg, uncompressed TIFF images or WAV audio). Check your software’s save or export options for settings like “compression” or “quality,” and choose formats that don’t lose detail if quality matters for your work.
• Use multiple formats, where helpful. For more complex or dynamic content (such as websites, interactive work, or databases that rely on specific software), keeping more than one version can help cover your bases. If one format becomes difficult to access, another may still provide a usable version, even if it looks or works differently. For example, you might save a database as both a Microsoft Access file and separate CSV files.
• Check your files after exporting or converting. After exporting or converting your files to new formats, take a moment to check that nothing important has been lost and that the content still works as expected.
• Store supplementary materials separately. It can be helpful to embed items like images or charts in your thesis PDF for readability but keep core-content files (such as audio or video, for example) stored separately. This makes them easier to access, reuse, and preserve over time.
• Include a README file. If your research includes multiple files or complex content, add a short text file named README with your thesis supplementary material and with your research datasets to explain what’s included, how the files relate to your research, what software is needed, and how they were created—helping others understand and use your work. See Document and describe your data or further guidance and an example of a README.

The median lifespan of a web page is around 2.3 years, and around 25% of web pages from 2013–2023 are no longer accessible. This means links included in your research may stop working sooner than you expect. Thinking carefully about how you select, reference, and use links helps ensure your work remains understandable and accessible.

When using and citing links:

• Consider the source and its longevity. Think about where the content is hosted and how stable it is likely to be over time. Content from established organisations (such as government bodies, major institutions, or publishers) is often more stable, while short-term project websites, draft documents, or press releases, for example, may change or disappear. Be aware of how the source may affect long-term access and plan accordingly. Also be cautious about shortened links (for example, Bit.ly or TinyURL), as they can obscure the destination and are more likely to break.
• Describe important, linked content. For links that are central to your research, include a brief description of the content in your thesis or as an accompanying file. This could range from a short summary of what the resource contains and why it is relevant, to more detailed documentation where needed (for example, a transcript of audiovisual material). Providing this context helps ensure your work remains understandable, even if the link no longer works.
• Follow appropriate citation guidance. Use the citation style required by your discipline when referencing online content and include key details such as the full web address and the date you accessed the material. Recording when you accessed a page helps provide context if the content changes or becomes unavailable later. See Re:cite for further guidance.

When creating your own links:

• Use a platform that generates persistent identifiers (PIDs). Store and link to your research content on a platform that uses PIDs. Unlike a URL which can break, a PID is a long-lasting reference to a digital resource, providing your research a permanent identity or label, regardless of where it is stored. If you are unable to upload your research data to a platform due to restrictions or sensitivities, at a minimum, you can store information (metadata) about your research data on a platform that generates a PID.

Websites change in line with ongoing shifts in business, government, society and culture. This means web content may not remain the same—or remain available—over time, making it difficult to depend on as a record of your research. Even if it’s your content hosted on your website, it may not be realistic to keep the website accessible over the long term, making it difficult to rely on in the future.

• Design web content with archiving in mind. If you are creating web-based content, use simple, well-structured pages where possible. Avoid relying heavily on dynamic features (e.g. content that only loads through interaction), or platform-dependent features. Where more complex features are essential to your work (such as interactive elements or custom-built applications), be aware that these may not be fully captured by web archiving tools. Instead, you can explore screen recorders or interactive capture tools (such as Conifer) that are better equipped to record page structure, scripts, network traffic, and dynamically loaded content.
• Create an archived version of important web content. For web content (your own or third-party) that is central to your research, create an archived version so that it can still be accessed if the live site changes or disappears. See Preserving websites (forthcoming) for further guidance.
• Check what has been captured. After capturing a web archive version of a page, review it to make sure key content is present and works as expected. If something important is missing, document this and consider how best to represent it—for example, by briefly describing what is not available in the archived version or providing additional context where needed. The level of detail should reflect how important the missing content is to your work.
• Keep copies of critical web content where appropriate. For web content that is central to your research, consider keeping additional copies alongside your research (where copyright allows), rather than relying on a link or archived version alone. This might include saving screenshots of especially pertinent pages, downloading files, creating transcripts of audio or video, or exporting key content. Using more than one method helps ensure the material remains accessible and understandable, even if links break or archived versions are incomplete. Remember to apply the same considerations regarding file formats (see above) for these additional copies.
• Include links to archived content alongside original links. When citing web content from your thesis, include both the original URL and the archived version where possible. This preserves the original context of the source while also providing a stable, time-stamped copy that can still be accessed if the live page changes or disappears. For example,
  • Original: ArchitectureAu Editorial (2020, July 6). University of Melbourne’s $2b campus plan progresses. Architecture, Au. https://architectureau.com/articles/university-of-melbournes-2b-campus-plan-progresses/
  • Archived: ArchitectureAu Editorial (2020, July 6). University of Melbourne’s $2b campus plan progresses. Architecture, Au. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20200808030122/https://architectureau.com/articles/university-of-melbournes-2b-campus-plan-progresses/

Once a final pass has been recommended, you must submit a copy of your thesis to the Library in accordance with submission guidelines. It is also important to ensure your research data and digital materials are stored suitably if you want the data to be accessible and usable into the future.

See My thesis in the Library and Digital preservation storage for guidance.

For further guidance, seek advice from the Digital Preservation Program via email at  digital-stewardship@unimelb.edu.au