Data Preservation and Long Term Analysis in High Energy Physics

TL;DR

This paper discusses the importance of preserving high-energy physics data from past experiments, reviews the progress of a dedicated study group, and provides recommendations for long-term data management and organizational strategies.

Contribution

It presents an expanded status report with new recommendations for data preservation and organizational models in high-energy physics.

Findings

Development of a comprehensive data preservation strategy

Recommendations for organizational and technical implementation

Increased international collaboration on data reuse

Abstract

Several important and unique experimental high-energy physics programmes at a variety of facilities are coming to an end, including those at HERA, the B-factories and the Tevatron. The wealth of physics data from these experiments is the result of a significant financial and human effort, and yet until recently no coherent strategy existed for data preservation and re-use. To address this issue, an inter-experimental study group on data preservation and long-term analysis in high-energy physics was convened at the end of 2008, publishing an interim report in 2009. The membership of the study group has since expanded, including the addition of the LHC experiments, and a full status report has now been released. This report greatly expands on the ideas contained in the original publication and provides a more solid set of recommendations, not only concerning data preservation and its implementation in high-energy physics, but also the future direction and organisational model of the study group. The main messages of the status report were presented for the first time at the 2012 International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics and are summarised in these proceedings.