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Overview of core UKDA activities and virtual tour of the UKDA web
site
ASLIB visit to the UK Data ArchiveWednesday 24 November 2004
Louise Corti, Associate Director
University of Essex has:
• 17 academic departments
• 9,100 students
• 25% in Graduate school
• 110 different countries
• 20 specialist centres, many inter-disciplinary
University of Essex
• ranked among top 12 universities in research
• home of 3 major ESRC-funded institutes and numerous smaller projects
• host of major EU-funded projects in the social sciences
• home of Europe’s leading social science Summer School
University of Essex is:
• established at the University of Essex in 1967 by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• specialises in data acquisitions, providing advice to data creators, preservation, dissemination and promotion of and support for using social science and historical data
• core funded by the ESRC and the University of Essex and JISC, as part of ESDS
• has other sources of project based income via projects
• formal place of deposit as recognised by TNA since summer 2004
UKDA Background
What is the ESDS?
• national data archiving and dissemination service, running from 1 Jan 2003
• jointly supported by: • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
• initial five year funding commitment
• partners:• UK Data Archive (UKDA), Essex • Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), Manchester• Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR),
Manchester • Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Essex
ESDS Overview
• provides access and support for key economic and social data
• distributed service, bringing together centres of expertise in data creation, dissemination, preservation and use
• provides seamless and easier access to a range of disparate resources for UK Higher and Further Education sectors
• core archiving services plus four specialist data services
Sources of data
• official agencies - mainly central government
• international statistical time series
• individual academics - research grants
• market research agencies
• public records/historical sources
• links to UK census data
• qualitative and quantitative
• access to international data via links with other data archives worldwide
Data for research and teaching purposes,used in all sectors and for many different disciplines
Collection held at UKDA
• 5,000+ 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
• history data service in-house (AHDS History)
• Census Registration Service in-house
ESDS core services
• ESDS Management – central 'first stop' help desk service – coherent and flexible collections development policy – central registration service operating across the ESDS
– universal data portal
• ESDS Access and Preservation – collections development strategy – ingest activities - including data and documentation
processing– metadata creation – data dissemination services– long-term preservation
ESDS specialist data services
• ESDS Government• ESDS International• ESDS Longitudinal • ESDS Qualidata
provide: dedicated web sites data and documentation enhancements user support training
ESDS: Online access to data and user guides
• web pages – easy to navigate format– web catalogue with variable level searching– subject browsing and major series – free web access to online doc - pdf user guides and forms
• registration– one-off registration with userid/password– online account management and ‘Shopping Basket’ ordering– data are freely available for the majority of users– Athens authentication
• data download and online browsing – web download in various software formats - SPSS, STATA, tab-
delimited, word – Nesstar – online data analysis and visualisation– ESDS International online system– ESDS Qualidata online browsing system
The large-scale government surveys• General Household Survey• Labour Force Survey• Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland • Family Expenditure Survey• British Crime Survey• Family Resources Survey • National Food Survey/Expenditure and Food
Survey • ONS Omnibus Survey • Survey of English Housing • British Social Attitudes• National Travel Survey• Time Use Survey
Benefits of the large-scale government datasets
• good quality data
– produced by experienced research organisations– usually nationally representative with large
samples– good response rates– very well documented
• continuous data
– allows comparison over time– data is largely cross-sectional
• hierarchical data
– individual and household– intra-household differences– household effects on individuals
Percentage of women aged 18-49 cohabiting
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1979 1985 1989 1991 1993 1995 1998 2000
General Household Survey
What are longitudinal data?• longitudinal surveys involve repeated surveys of the same
individuals at different points in time
• they have become increasingly important in the social sciences because they allow researchers to analyse change at the individual level
• there are various different types of longitudinal studies including panel and cohort studies
• users of longitudinal data will normally want to combine data collected at different times - data are more complex to use than other types of survey data
• ESDS Longitudinal provides additional value-added services to minimise these complexities
Longitudinal Data
• four main studies, that are primarily UK Research Council:
– British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)– British birth cohort studies:
• National Child Development Survey (NCDS)• British Cohort Study 1970 (BCS70)• Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
– also possible forthcoming Medical Research Council population study datasets – 1946 Birth Cohort
National Child Development Study (NCDS)
• cohort born in a single week in 1958
• data collected at birth & ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42
• a unique resource for investigating social mobility and the impact on later life of childhood conditions
• coverage includes a wide range of social, economic, health and psychological issues
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’
Qualitative Data Collections• data from National Research Council (ESRC) individual
research grant awards
• data from ESRC Programme research grant awards
• data from ‘classic’ social science studies
• Peter Townsend – poverty, old age and Katherine Buildings• Paul Thompson – oral history and Edwardians• Ray Pahl – Hertfordshire Villages studies
National Social Policy and Social Change Archive
• other funders/sources
• focus on DIGITAL collections, but also facilitate paper-based archiving
Qualidata Online
Creation of digital multimedia resources that integrate a wealth of existing primary and secondary materials:
• catalogues of interview summaries • full electronic interview transcripts • thematic browsing of interview transcripts • collections of digital sound clips • a set of contextual images • background information and press reviews on the original study • details of publications based upon secondary studies of the
collection • an account of the digitisation methodology
International data themes
Databanks cover:• economic performance and development• trade, industry and markets• employment• demography, migration and health• governance• human development • social expenditure• education• science and technology • land use and the environment
International data providers• databanks originate from:
– International Monetary Fund – OECD – United Nations– World Bank – Eurostat– International Labour Organisation– UK Office for National Statistics
• freely available to UK academics – data licensing costs are paid by ESRC
• datasets delivered over the web via Beyond 20/20• access using Athens username and password
International Survey Data
ESDS International at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) can help users to locate and acquire data from other archives within Europe and worldwide, using a series of reciprocal agreements with the individual institutions. Datasets include:
• Eurobarometer• International Social Survey Programme • World Values Survey
Census Registration Service
The Census Registration Service provides one-stop registration for:
• Census Dissemination Unit from MIMAS (University of Manchester)
• Census Geography Data Unit (UKBORDERS) from EDINA (University of Edinburgh)
• Census Interaction Data Service (Universities of Leeds and St Andrews)
• Samples of Anonymised Records from the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (University of Manchester)
AHDS History
• AHDS History is one of the five Subject Centres of the Arts and Humanities Data Service. ahds.ac.uk
• AHDS History collects, preserves, and promotes the use of digital resources, which result from or support historical research, learning and teaching.
Secondary analysis potential
• description
• comparative research, restudy or follow-up study• augment data you collect e.g. expand sample
size
• re-analysis or secondary analysis
• research design and methodological
advancement
• verification
• teaching and learning
ESDS: Facilitating greater usage
• encourage:– researchers to consult existing data sources– use of real data in teaching and learning
• make obtaining data more straightforward
• promotion… exploit existing and new networks
• provide online resources
• provide support and training
Supporting the user
• courses and training
• specialist support, including help desk, mailing list, discussion lists and newsletters
• web-based user guides to the datasets
• teaching datasets, online samplers
• online workbooks, exemplars and FAQs
• web-based visualisation interface
Workshops and training programme
• service specific and joint workshops
• awareness days for new users
• thematic data resources events
• data confrontation: specific datasets; data handling skills; methodological issues; analytic skills - introductory and advanced level
• ‘train the trainers’ workshops
• online training materials
Teaching materials
• tailor-made datasets
• guides to using data in teaching
• guides to using software and exemplars
X4L project: Survey Data in Teaching: enhancing critical thinking and data numeracy
• increase the use of real data sources held within the JISC portfolio of HE/FE research, teaching and learning resources in the classroom
• improve the data literacy of GCE A level and university students to: – enable a better understanding of the use of social science data as applied to real-
life problems – enhance skills in manipulating numerical data in textbooks, newspapers or reports– become critical consumers of this data
• uses the study of crime in society to show how existing data sources can be utilised, and as such, this project is relevant to a range of social science disciplines:
– sociology, politics, psychology and media studies & citizenship studies
• resources can be used for A level syllabi but are also highly applicable for undergraduate and postgraduate learning
