Study Version Control

January 02, 2015

Current Practice:

The Roper Center has implemented a version control protocol for all digital files within the archive. All files upon arrival at the Roper Center are assigned a baseline-level version designation (version 1) and moved into a temporary holding storage area. A new incremental version number will be assigned to an existing file whenever it has been modified and/or a new file is created for that study during a process event. These processing events may include file format migration, digitization of analog materials, minor or major corrections, and/or any value-added file modifications. Post-processing, each version of the file is stored in archival storage for long-term preservation. The Roper Center provides web access only to the most recent version of the files in a study. The version number for each study is equal to the highest version number of its primary dataset and is available in the generated citation. 

For example:  

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Pew Research Center Poll: January 2014 Political Survey, 2014 [Dataset]. Roper #31096247, Version 2. Princeton Survey Research Associates International [producer]. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [distributor]. doi:10.25940/ROPER-31096247