The long-term preservation of digital documents containing scientifically relevant data from measurements remains challenging. We focus on two critical aspects: first, the use of highly specialized--- sometimes proprietary and obsolete---formats; and second, the limited usefulness of raw data without contextual information. In the context of a field study on the preservation of gamma-spectroscopic food radioactivity measurements collected after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, we examine these aspects and describe the problems encountered in an archival environment. We emphasize the implementation of the FAIR guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship, 1 in particular the principle that "data are described with rich metadata" including "descriptive information about the context." We use the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) reference model as a methodological framework.      «

The long-term preservation of digital documents containing scientifically relevant data from measurements remains challenging. We focus on two critical aspects: first, the use of highly specialized--- sometimes proprietary and obsolete---formats; and second, the limited usefulness of raw data without contextual information. In the context of a field study on the preservation of gamma-spectroscopic food radioactivity measurements collected after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, we examine these a...     »