The Project Endings global online survey was conducted between 2017 and 2018. The
Call for Participation was sent out over DH-Listservs in English in 2017, and 127
respondents accessed the online form, and all participants were free to answer or
not answer
individual questions. Of the total group, respondents were given
the opportunity to self-identify as being interested in an hour-long interview with
more detailed questions. Of that group, 25 people from different DH projects were
interviewed.
The following anonymized results are from the online form only (original survey link). Any written answers have been omitted to preserve anonymity.
The total number of participants in the survey was 127; however, there were no "required"
answers, so
each question has a different number of respondents, and percentages are calculated
based on the number of actual respondents in each case.
General Information
1. Does your project contain born-digital material?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
78 |
73.58% |
| No (N) |
23 |
21.70% |
| No answer |
5 |
4.72% |
2. Does your project contain material that exists in another medium?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
71 |
75.53% |
| No (N) |
17 |
18.09% |
| No answer |
6 |
6.38% |
3. What year did your project begin? (If you have led more than one project, please
choose one.)
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| 1980-1990 |
3 |
3.37% |
| 1990-1995 |
2 |
2.25% |
| 1996-2000 |
7 |
7.87% |
| 2001-2005 |
9 |
10.11% |
| 2006-2010 |
23 |
25.84% |
| 2011-2016 |
43 |
48.31% |
| No answer |
2 |
2.25% |
4. What year did your project end?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| 1980-1990 |
0 |
0.00% |
| 1990-1995 |
0 |
0.00% |
| 1996-2000 |
0 |
0.00% |
| 2001-2005 |
0 |
0.00% |
| 2006-2010 |
9 |
10.11% |
| 2011-2015 |
12 |
13.48% |
| 2016-2017 |
13 |
14.61% |
| Still in progress |
52 |
58.43% |
| No answer |
3 |
3.37% |
5. What career stage were you at when you began your digital project?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Graduate student |
20 |
23.26% |
| Post-doctoral or research fellow/affiliate |
9 |
10.47% |
| Independent scholar |
2 |
2.33% |
| Unemployed or underemployed |
1 |
1.16% |
| Early career |
11 |
12.79% |
| Pre-tenure |
14 |
16.28% |
| Tenured |
17 |
19.77% |
| Retired and/or Emeritus |
1 |
1.16% |
| Research chair |
0 |
0.00% |
| Director or manager |
10 |
11.63% |
| Other |
2 |
2.33% |
6. What type of institution were you in (according to Maclean's categories) when
you began the project?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Primarily Undergraduate |
13 |
15.66% |
| Comprehensive |
48 |
57.83% |
| Medical Doctoral universities |
14 |
16.87% |
| Other |
7 |
8.43% |
| No answer |
1 |
1.20% |
7. What type of institution are you in now?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Primarily Undergraduate |
9 |
11.11% |
| Comprehensive |
49 |
60.49% |
| Medical Doctoral universities |
12 |
14.81% |
| Other |
9 |
11.11% |
| No answer |
2 |
2.47% |
8. Is your project data still available online?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
60 |
74.07% |
| No (N) |
19 |
23.46% |
| No answer |
2 |
2.47% |
| If yes, please provide a URL: [OMITTED TO PRESERVE ANONYMITY]
|
9. Is your project:
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Ongoing (A1) |
43 |
56.58% |
| Complete (A2) |
18 |
23.68% |
| Dormant (A3) |
10 |
13.16% |
| Abandoned (A4) |
4 |
5.26% |
| No answer |
1 |
1.32% |
Your Project
10. Did you have a precise timeline for accomplishing the project from the outset?
|
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
30 |
40.00% |
| No (N) |
44 |
58.67% |
| No answer |
1 |
1.33% |
11. Were you able to stick to it? [the timeline]
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
14 |
46.67% |
| No (N) |
16 |
53.33% |
| No answer |
0 |
0.00% |
12. Is your project complete?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
26 |
34.67% |
| No (N) |
47 |
62.67% |
| No answer |
2 |
2.67% |
12_1. Does your project have a projected endpoint?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
19 |
40.43% |
| No (N) |
28 |
59.57% |
| No answer |
0 |
0.00% |
13. As you were planning your project, which of the following did you consider?
(Check all that apply.)
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Research questions |
64 |
86.49% |
| Timelines |
47 |
63.51% |
| Endpoint |
32 |
43.24% |
| Capturing metadata |
44 |
59.46% |
| Documentation |
53 |
71.62% |
| Where and how it was going to be archived |
43 |
58.11% |
| Long-term formats |
41 |
55.41% |
| Benchmarks for assessing progress towards completion |
24 |
32.43% |
| Long-term users and use of your project |
48 |
64.86% |
| Intellectual property issues |
51 |
68.92% |
| Open access |
56 |
75.68% |
| Sustainability |
47 |
63.51% |
14. How much did the following factors help or hinder completion (or timely completion)
of your project? 1 = had a significant negative impact upon completion. 2 = had a
negative impact upon completion. 3 = had little or no impact upon completion. 4 =
had a positive impact upon completion. 5 = had a major positive impact upon completion.
15. Where is it archived?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| At a stable and currently accessible URL |
10 |
76.92% |
| In an institutional repository |
5 |
38.46% |
| On GitHub |
3 |
23.08% |
| In a discipline-specific repository (e.g., NINES, OLAC, etc.) |
1 |
7.69% |
| Other |
2 |
15.38% |
16. Did your project have a long-term preservation plan from the beginning of the
funding cycle?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
31 |
43.66% |
| No (N) |
38 |
53.52% |
| No answer |
2 |
2.82% |
17. Did a campus partner offer support for long term project preservation?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| University Libraries |
19 |
26.76% |
| University Systems |
10 |
14.08% |
| Humanities Computing |
6 |
8.45% |
| I didn't ask any campus partners for help |
16 |
22.54% |
| I asked, but there were no campus departments that could help |
8 |
11.27% |
| Other |
14 |
19.72% |
18. Which major technologies did your project use? (Check all that apply.)
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| SQL database |
22 |
30.99% |
| PHP |
14 |
19.72% |
| XML / XSLT / XQuery |
27 |
38.03% |
| Javascript |
21 |
29.58% |
| Drupal |
11 |
15.49% |
| Wordpress |
13 |
18.31% |
| Fedora (e.g., Islandora) |
3 |
4.23% |
| Other |
29 |
40.85% |
19. Which file formats were part of your final project output? (Check all that apply.)
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| HTML |
48 |
67.61% |
| PDF |
32 |
45.07% |
| JPGs |
46 |
64.79% |
| TIFFs |
22 |
30.99% |
| MP4s |
16 |
22.54% |
| MP3s |
16 |
22.54% |
| TXT |
13 |
18.31% |
| JSON |
10 |
14.08% |
| word processor files |
13 |
18.31% |
| spreadsheets or CSV |
26 |
36.62% |
| XML |
27 |
38.03% |
| Other |
14 |
19.72% |
20. What were the significant obstacles to long term preservation? Please rank them
in order.
21. Which of the following standardized data models did you use in your project?
(Check all that apply.)
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Dublin Core |
19 |
27.14% |
| MODS |
5 |
7.14% |
| TEI |
17 |
24.29% |
| RAD |
1 |
1.43% |
| EAD |
0 |
0.00% |
| DocBook |
0 |
0.00% |
| DDI |
0 |
0.00% |
| I created my own data model |
18 |
25.71% |
| Other |
14 |
20.00% |
22. Did your project clearly document your data model?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Documentation of relational database and table structure |
15 |
21.74% |
| Documentation of field names and definitions |
28 |
40.58% |
| Documentation of controlled vocabularies and valid field values |
26 |
37.68% |
| Other |
20 |
28.99% |
23. Did you have clear licensing and rights statements for all of the material in
your project?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes, documented publicly (A2) |
26 |
37.68% |
| Yes, documented privately (A3) |
12 |
17.39% |
| For most material but not all (A4) |
9 |
13.04% |
| For some material (A5) |
9 |
13.04% |
| Other |
7 |
10.14% |
| No answer |
6 |
8.70% |
24. Is your project data archived somewhere offline?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
44 |
63.77% |
| No (N) |
22 |
31.88% |
| No answer |
3 |
4.35% |
24_1. If Yes, Where?
Answers omitted to preserve anonymity
25. If your project is still online, who is responsible for ongoing maintenance
(software updates, security patches, hardware replacement)?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| University Systems |
13 |
18.84% |
| Library |
9 |
13.04% |
| Humanities Computing |
7 |
10.14% |
| PI |
18 |
26.09% |
| Project is not being actively maintained |
13 |
18.84% |
| Not applicable |
7 |
10.14% |
| Other |
14 |
20.29% |
26. Are the tools and libraries used in the project:
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| All free and open-source (A2) |
36 |
53.73% |
| All proprietary and closed-source (A3) |
1 |
1.49% |
| A mixture of open and closed (A4) |
27 |
40.30% |
| No answer |
3 |
4.48% |
27. Have any parts of the project output stopped working due to software obsolescence?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (Y) |
15 |
22.39% |
| No (N) |
49 |
73.13% |
| No answer |
3 |
4.48% |
27_1. If yes, please provide some details:
Answers omitted to preserve anonymity
28. If a new developer had to pick up this project five years from now and extend
it, how do you think they would describe the technical documentation?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Extensive, complete and detailed (inline comments, external overviews, UML diagrams
etc.) (A2) |
5 |
7.46% |
| Partial (some areas are well-documented, others not) (A3) |
42 |
62.69% |
| Fragmentary and inadequate (A4) |
18 |
26.87% |
| No answer |
2 |
2.99% |
29. Do you wish to receive a digest of the survey results?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (A1) |
42 |
63.64% |
| No (A2) |
22 |
33.33% |
| No answer |
2 |
3.03% |
30. Are you willing to participate in a 30-45 minute interview about your project?
| Answer |
Count |
Percentage |
| Yes (A1) |
34 |
51.52% |
| No (A2) |
30 |
45.45% |
| No answer |
2 |
3.03% |