EXECUTABLE ARCHIVES: Software integrity for data readability and validation of archived studies

This paper presents practices and processes for managing software integrity to support data archiving for long term use in response to the regulatory requirements. Through a case study of a scientific software decommissioning, we revisit the issues of archived data readability. Established software lifecycle management processes are extended with archiving and data integrity requirements for retention of data and revalidation of data analyses. That includes the software transition from operational to archival use within the Executable Archive model that extends the traditional data archive with computing environments with software installations required to reproduce study results from the archived records. The content use requirements are an integral part of both data access and the software management considerations, assuring that data integrity is fully supported by the software integrity