Vaidas Morkevičius - Open Data for Enhancing the Quality of Research

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Data data data everywhere...

● Rising awareness of benefits of open science– Dates back to at least 60-70s

● Social science data archives

– ‘Boils down to’ secondary data analysis

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● Development of ICT made research data available to anyone (not only scientists)– Virtual social science data archives

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● Development of ICT made research data available to anyone (not only scientists)– Virtual social science data archives

● Does this availability allows for ‘more’ and ’better’ research?– Let’s look at an often discussed topic in the media...

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Do Lithuanians drink a lot of alcohol?The WHO

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Do Lithuanians drink a lot of alcohol?OECD

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Do Lithuanians drink a lot of alcohol?Special Eurobarometer 331

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Do Lithuanians drink a lot of alcohol?European Social Survey, Round 7

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How to do good research with open data?

● Even good (open) data in the hands of bad (“unaware”) analysts is at best useless

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● Three pillars of quality ensurance in secondary data analysis– Good data

– Good documentation

– Good analytics

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● Three pillars of quality ensurance in secondary data analysis– Good data

– Good documentation

– Good analytics

● European Social Survey (ESS) was developed not as “just another international attitudes survey” but with these pillars in mind– In 2005 has won the EC Descartes Prize for Research & Science

Communication

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● The ESS is an academically driven cross-national survey that has been conducted across Europe since 2001

● Every two years, face-to-face interviews are conducted with newly selected, cross-sectional samples

● The survey measures the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of diverse populations in more than thirty European countries

● The ESS data and documentation is available free of charge for non-commercial use and can be downloaded or analysed here www.europeansocialsurvey.org

● Free educational resources (for self-study)

http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/

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● The main aims of the ESS are:– To chart stability and change in social structure, conditions and

attitudes in Europe and to interpret how Europe’s social, political and moral fabric is changing

– To achieve and spread higher standards of rigour in cross-national research in the social sciences, including for example, questionnaire design and pre-testing, sampling, data collection, reduction of bias and the reliability of questions

– To introduce soundly-based indicators of national progress, based on citizens’ perceptions and judgements of key aspects of their societies

– To undertake and facilitate the training of European social researchers in comparative quantitative measurement and analysis

– To improve the visibility and outreach of data on social change among academics, policy makers and the wider public

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Thank you !

Data & Analytics

Vaidas Morkevičius - Open Data for Enhancing the Quality of Research