Report on Testing of Cost Models and Further Analysis of Cost Parameters

This report presents the results of the analysis of cost parameters, the testing of cost models, the relationship between costs and benefits and the links to an EU Co-ordination Action. An in-depth analysis of the mapping of cost parameters to the ISO 16363 Standard on audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories identifies and focusses on areas for furtherinvestigation and development. The results are presented following a gap analysis to provide indications of where future assessments and reviews could be undertaken. This is particularly valuable where cost models are still under development or where further projects are undertaken, for example, the Coordination Action, 4C (Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation). Three cost models were tested providing an insight into how effective cost data, from digital repositories or archives, is in providing the costs of digital preservation services or workflows when applied to different cost models. Recommendations are given on any future developments of the three cost models with advice on the creation of new models. A review of costs in relation to benefits is presented. Finally, the links to the 4C project are
presented where the outputs of this research will be further developed.