Depositing Data for Archiving

Libby BishopESDS Qualidata, University of Essex

Changing Families, Changing Food MeetingUniversity of Sheffield

15 March 2006

ESRC/JISC Economic and Social Data Service

Data for research and teaching purposes and used in all sectors and for many different disciplines

• official agencies - mainly government (e.g., Expenditure and Food Survey)

• individual academics - research grants

• market research agencies

• public records/historical sources

• links to UK census data

• qualitative and quantitative

• international statistical time series

• access to international data via

links with other data archives worldwide

• history data service in-house (AHDS)

• 4,000+ datasets in

the collection

• 200+ new datasets

are added each year

• 6,500+ orders for

data per year

• 18,000+ datasets

distributed

worldwide per year

Types of qualitative data

• diverse data types: in-depth interviews; semi-structured interviews; focus groups; oral histories; mixed methods data; open-ended survey questions; case notes/records of meetings; diaries/research diaries

• multimedia: audio, video, photos and text (most common is interview transcriptions)

• formats: digital, paper, analogue audio-visual

• data structures - differ across different ‘document types’

Benefits of archiving (for others)

• data centres /archives make (selected) data created available to other bona fide researchers

• preserve data using up-to-date curation systems and keep apace with technology and data trends

• provide support resource discovery and user support services

• provide access to ‘enhanced’ data, e.g., combined, exemplars etc.

Standardised description (metadata) fields taken from DDI specification for social science datasets

Benefits of archiving (to you…)

• safeguards protect the interests of the original collector who may retain Intellectual Property Rights

• preserve data using up-to-date curation systems and keep apace with technology and data trends

• a good backup procedure will protect against: – accidental changes to or deletion of data– problems with version control– virus infections and hackers– catastrophic events (with off-site copies)

• data cleaned and enhanced during processing

• issues resolved early for long-term use, reuse, publication and preservation of data

Many options for preserving confidentiality

• bespoke solution for every collection

• anonymisation• valuable tool, in its place• not the only way to assure confidentiality• preserve integrity of the data

• user registration, licence and undertakings

• options on deposit licence (e.g., embargo, teaching vs. research use)

Archive prep–easy when done up front

• issues of consent and confidentiality allowing archiving should be included in the project plan & addressed before data collection starts

• longer-term rights management in place and IPR issues considered

• researchers should not make commitments to informants which preclude archiving their data (only as a last resort)

Characteristics of a good “ready-to-archive” collection

• accurate data, well organised and labelled files

• supporting data/documentation prepared to a standard that enables them to be used by a third party– major stages of research recorded – research/measurement instruments documented

• data that can be stored in user-friendly “dissemination” formats, but can also be archived in a future-proof “preservation” format

• consent, confidentiality & copyright resolved

Good research practice=good archival preparation

Legal issues in data preparation

• ‘Duty of confidentiality’

• Law of Defamation

• Data Protection Act 1998 and EU Directive

• Copyright Act 1988

• Freedom of Information

More information

• http://www.esds.ac.uk/about/about.asp

• http://www.esds.ac.uk/aandp/create/ethical.asp