Benefits of Archiving

Publishing research in a journal usually archives minimal qualitative and quantitative amounts of an experimental record. Yan Sun emphasized the importance of keeping research data for future personal discoveries.¹ These behaviors limit access to research data. The following experiences illustrate the societal needs for permanent institutional archiving.

A report² of ultraviolet (UV)-A protection of 18 UV-A light sensitive patients² and a review of its unpublished study records revealed an unrecognized sunburn (Ultra-B) protection for this relatively large group of patients over a 7-month clinical trial with repeated, nightly, separate use on their skin of dihydroxyacetone, followed by lawsone, to maintain their storage stability to chemically produce keratin-fixed melanoidins. A 1969 report³ showed minimal UV-B protection with the same drugs but with a chemically unstable mixture used in a US Army restricted study⁴ of a small group of four subjects in a 3-day test trial. A...