UK Data Archive
Encyclopedia
The UK Data Archive is a national centre of expertise in data archiving in the United Kingdom
(UK). It houses the largest collection of digital
data in the social sciences
and humanities
in the UK.
Located in Colchester
, the UK Data Archive is a specialist centre of the University of Essex
. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC), the Joint Information Systems Committee
(JISC) and the University of Essex.
The UK Data Archive provides access to over 5,000 social science data set
s including both quantitative data and qualitative data from a wide range of disciplines. Access to the data catalogue, including online documentation such as questionnaires, does not require registration. However, only registered users can download data.
A large part of the UK Data Archive's data collection consists of publicly funded data, especially large-scale statistical survey
s such as the General Household Survey
and Labour Force Survey
. Another important source of data is the academic community, sponsored by the ESRC and other funding bodies. In this category belong studies such as the British Household Panel Survey
and the Millennium Cohort Study
. The UK Data Archive also provides access to important international macrodata series (aggregate data
) such as those held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and World Bank
via its partnership with Mimas
.
The UK Data Archive ensures that the data will be available not just to current researchers but also to future researchers through digital preservation
and migration to new storage media as technology evolves.
To promote the use and re-use of its data, the UK Data Archive provides technical support and advice to users on how to access and use the data, and on data management
issues. The UK Data Archive also works closely with national and international partners on data-related projects and initiatives.
(USA), and therefore 'lost' to British researchers.
In 1996, the Archive began to receive direct funding from JISC in recognition of the support provided by the Archive for teaching and learning, and dropped ESRC from its name to become The Data Archive. Finally, in 2000, in order to reflect both its UK-wide remit and the importance of its role within an international context, the Archive became the UK Data Archive.
In the 1980s, the Archive began to get involved with a number of large data-oriented projects. Notable amongst these were the BBC Domesday Project
and the Rural Areas Database. The trend to participate in projects increased through the 1990s up to the present, in particular with a string of projects funded by the European Commission
, most of which have been orientated toward research and development work and the advancement of technical solutions. They include Nesstar,FASTER
, and, most recently, the CESSDA-PPP project.
Over the last ten years, in addition to these projects, the UK Data Archive has developed a number of discrete, yet interlinked, services.
and other key government data providers. It also has close links with the National Centre for e-Social Science
and the National Centre for Research Methods. It has been designated a Place of Deposit for public records for The National Archives.
On an international level, the UK Data Archive is a member of Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) and of the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST). It collaborates with them on projects and initiatives to encourage the exchange of data and technology across national boundaries on issues such as data sharing
, metadata
and social science thesaurus
tools.
The UK Data Archive is also the UK national member institution of Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
(ICPSR) in the USA as well as the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO). It also contributes to the development of the Data Documentation Initiative
.
(ESDS) is a national data archiving and dissemination service that was founded in January 2003. It is funded jointly by the ESRC and JISC.
ESDS is a distributed across a number of institutions: the UK Data Archive, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), both based at the University of Essex; and Mimas and Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), both located at the University of Manchester
. The UK Data Archive is responsible for different services within the ESDS including its overall direction and management.
, the Leverhulme Trust
and eventually jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
(AHRC) and JISC. In 1996, the Arts and Humanities Data Service
(AHDS) was set up comprising a managing executive and five service providers. The History Data Service, still hosted by the UK Data Archive, became one of these service providers, and thus formally became part of the AHDS, changing its name in the process to the History Data Service. In October 2003 AHDS 'service providers' became 'subject centres' and all the subject centres of the AHDS were renamed, with History Data Service (HDS) becoming AHDS History. AHDS History ceased operation in 2008, but its successor, the History Data Service, continues to be hosted by the UK Data Archive, which retains a commitment to providing curation and preservation services for the historical community.
In addition to its data collection, the History Data Service supports online services that provide access to important census report material. These include the Online Historical Population Reports (Histpop) web site, the Enclosure Maps database and the Contemporary and Historical Census Collections (CHCC).
Relu-DSS offers an interdisciplinary data support service, co-ordinated between the UK Data Archive and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
(CEH) at Lancaster, with the lead being taken by the UK Data Archive. The UK Data Archive hosts the Relu-DSS information portal which provides advice on data management, data sharing and preservation to Relu grant holders and applicants, and links to third party data sources.
Relu-DSS also provides the UK Data Archive and CEH with sufficient information to enable them to plan for the management, longer-term preservation and re-use of Relu datasets.
Users will have to provide information about their bona fides and their proposed research to become approved researchers. They will also be required to undergo training on how to use the system, and on the principles of statistical control, and on their legal rights and responsibilities. They will then be able to access the data remotely, perform analyses on the data, and work collaboratively with others, all within the confines of a secure server. All data will remain on the secure server, and final publications will only be able to be removed after careful vetting for statistical disclosure issues.
The system is built around Citrix technology.
, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), the Institute for Education.
The aim of the Network is to provide a coherent and integrated approach to developing skills and knowledge, disseminating research findings and research resources, and promoting best survey practice.
A key component of the Network is the Survey Question Bank (SQB), which aims to build on the services previously available from the ESRC Question Bank based at the University of Surrey
. The SQB is managed by the UK Data Archive.
This service produces statistics
(including frequency counts and cross tabulation
s using either single datasets or more complex timeseries) for customers who are not in a position to analyse the underlying data themselves. Customers may request statistics from particular surveys. Alternatively, UKDA Statserve can advise on the most appropriate surveys and variables to use from the UK Data Archive collection.
data from the social and behavioural sciences
. The initial phase of UKDA-store is aimed at ESRC award holders, who are required to offer data outputs for sharing through ESDS under the terms of their award contract. It is planned in the long term, however, to extend the system to other social scientists who create primary research data and related outputs.
UKDA-store can hold all kinds of digital objects from numeric and textual datasets to technical and research reports. It can also link to other kinds of outputs, such as academic publications. UKDA-store thus complements the ESRC's publications repository, ESRC Society Today which holds primary publications resulting from ESRC funding. UKDA-store will enable research data and publications to be linked although held in a distributed environment.
Researchers who submit digital outputs to UKDA-store will be able to set permissions for individual and group access, so that data can remain private (on embargo), although metadata continue to be searchable. Data that meet the UK Data Archive's acquisition criteria can be formally archived at the UK Data Archive as before.
Category:Online databases
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(UK). It houses the largest collection of digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
data in the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
in the UK.
Located in Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
, the UK Data Archive is a specialist centre of the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...
. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council is one of the seven Research Councils in the United Kingdom. It receives most of its funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and provides funding and support for research and training work in social and economic issues, such as...
(ESRC), the Joint Information Systems Committee
Joint Information Systems Committee
JISC is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body whose role is to support post-16 and higher education and research by providing leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration...
(JISC) and the University of Essex.
Scope and Purpose
The mission of the UK Data Archive is to support high quality research, teaching and learning in the social sciences and humanities by acquiring, developing and managing data and related digital resources, and by promoting and disseminating these resources as widely and effectively as possible.The UK Data Archive provides access to over 5,000 social science data set
Data set
A data set is a collection of data, usually presented in tabular form. Each column represents a particular variable. Each row corresponds to a given member of the data set in question. Its values for each of the variables, such as height and weight of an object or values of random numbers. Each...
s including both quantitative data and qualitative data from a wide range of disciplines. Access to the data catalogue, including online documentation such as questionnaires, does not require registration. However, only registered users can download data.
A large part of the UK Data Archive's data collection consists of publicly funded data, especially large-scale statistical survey
Statistical survey
Survey methodology is the field that studies surveys, that is, the sample of individuals from a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in democracies....
s such as the General Household Survey
General Household Survey
The General Household Survey is a survey conducted on an annual basis by the Office for National Statistics and collects data about private households in Great Britain...
and Labour Force Survey
Labour Force Survey
Labour Force Surveys are statistical surveys conducted in a number of countries designed to capture data about the labour market. All European Union member states are required to conduct a Labour Force Survey annually. Labour Force Surveys are also carried out in some non-EU countries. They are...
. Another important source of data is the academic community, sponsored by the ESRC and other funding bodies. In this category belong studies such as the British Household Panel Survey
British Household Panel Survey
The British Household Panel Survey , carried out at the Institute for Social and Economic Research of the University of Essex, is an instrument for social and economic research. A sample of British households was drawn and first interviewed in 1991. The members of these original households have...
and the Millennium Cohort Study
Millennium Cohort Study
The Millennium Cohort Study is a longitudinal survey conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the University of London, following the lives of a sample of about 19,000 babies born in the UK in the year 2000–2001.-History:...
. The UK Data Archive also provides access to important international macrodata series (aggregate data
Aggregate data
In statistics, aggregate data describes data combined from several measurements.In economics, aggregate data or data aggregates describes high-level data that is composed of a multitude or combination of other more individual data....
) such as those held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
(OECD), International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
(IMF) and World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
via its partnership with Mimas
Mimas (data centre)
Mimas is a nationally designated academic data centre based at The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Its role is to support the advancement of knowledge, powering world-class research and teaching....
.
The UK Data Archive ensures that the data will be available not just to current researchers but also to future researchers through digital preservation
Digital preservation
Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...
and migration to new storage media as technology evolves.
To promote the use and re-use of its data, the UK Data Archive provides technical support and advice to users on how to access and use the data, and on data management
Data management
Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.- Overview :The official definition provided by DAMA International, the professional organization for those in the data management profession, is: "Data Resource Management is the development and execution...
issues. The UK Data Archive also works closely with national and international partners on data-related projects and initiatives.
History
The UK Data Archive was founded in 1967 as the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Data Bank. The SSRC was the original name of the ESRC. Four years prior to that, in 1963, the SSRC co-funded the Social and Economic Archive Committee (SEAC) which was set up to investigate and propose solutions to the problem of sharing information about social surveys and the data generated by them. SEAC was particularly concerned that poor communication between researchers was leading to survey work being replicated, thus wasting both time and money, and that data were being sold to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(USA), and therefore 'lost' to British researchers.
Change of name
Across the years, the UK Data Archive has changed its name several times, reflecting changes to both its role and funders. In 1972 it changed its name from SSRC Data Bank to the Survey Archive when the Government Statistical Service allowed government surveys to be archived with it. The Survey Archive, in its turn, became the SSRC Data Archive in 1982 when it began to archive data resources other than just survey data. When the SSRC changed its name to Economic and Social Research Council in 1984 the Archive changed its name again to the ESRC Data Archive.In 1996, the Archive began to receive direct funding from JISC in recognition of the support provided by the Archive for teaching and learning, and dropped ESRC from its name to become The Data Archive. Finally, in 2000, in order to reflect both its UK-wide remit and the importance of its role within an international context, the Archive became the UK Data Archive.
Expanding its scope
Over the decades, the UK Data Archive has evolved from an organisation hosting a single service and supported by a single grant from the SSRC, to one that offers a wide range of services and activities, funded by a variety of sources.In the 1980s, the Archive began to get involved with a number of large data-oriented projects. Notable amongst these were the BBC Domesday Project
BBC Domesday Project
The BBC Domesday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers Ltd, Philips, Logica and the BBC to mark the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book, an 11th century census of England...
and the Rural Areas Database. The trend to participate in projects increased through the 1990s up to the present, in particular with a string of projects funded by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, most of which have been orientated toward research and development work and the advancement of technical solutions. They include Nesstar,FASTER
Faster
Faster may refer to:*"Faster" , a song by George Harrison*Faster , a 2003 documentary film about MotoGP*Faster , a 2010 feature film*"Faster"/"P.C.P.", a double A-side single by Manic Street Preachers...
, and, most recently, the CESSDA-PPP project.
Over the last ten years, in addition to these projects, the UK Data Archive has developed a number of discrete, yet interlinked, services.
Directors
Directors of the UK Data Archive are as follows:- Allen Potter (1967-1970)
- Ken Macdonald (1972-1974)
- Ivor CreweIvor CreweSir Ivor Martin Crewe is the Master of University College, Oxford. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex and Professor in the Department of Government....
(1974-1982) - Howard NewbyHoward NewbySir Howard Joseph Newby CBE is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool.-Early life:He grew up in Derbyshire, going to school in Etwall, before attending Atlantic College as a scholarship student.-Career:...
(1983-1988) - Catherine HakimCatherine HakimCatherine Hakim is a British sociologist and former civil servant. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies. Her research is focused on labour market topics, women's issues and research methods. She is known for developing the preference theory and criticism of...
(1989-1990) - Denise LievesleyDenise LievesleyDenise Lievesley is a British social statistician and Professor of Statistics at King's College London as well as head of its School of Social Science & Public Policy...
(1991-1997) - Kevin Schürer (2000-2010)
- Matthew Woollard (2010 to present)
Collaborations
On a national level, the UK Data Archive works closely with its funders, the ESRC and JISC, the Office for National StatisticsOffice for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Overview :...
and other key government data providers. It also has close links with the National Centre for e-Social Science
National Centre for e-Social Science
The National Centre for e-Social Science is a UK based centre which aims to promote e-Social Science. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to investigate how innovative and powerful computer-based infrastructure and tools developed over the past five years under the UK...
and the National Centre for Research Methods. It has been designated a Place of Deposit for public records for The National Archives.
On an international level, the UK Data Archive is a member of Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) and of the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST). It collaborates with them on projects and initiatives to encourage the exchange of data and technology across national boundaries on issues such as data sharing
Data sharing
Data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research available to other investigators. Replication has a long history in science...
, metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
and social science thesaurus
Thesaurus
A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...
tools.
The UK Data Archive is also the UK national member institution of Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
ICPSR, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, was established in 1962. An integral part of the infrastructure of social science research, ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction , and offers in...
(ICPSR) in the USA as well as the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO). It also contributes to the development of the Data Documentation Initiative
Data Documentation Initiative
The Data Documentation Initiative is an international project to create a standard for information describing statistical and social science data. Begun in 1995, the effort brings together data professionals from around the world to develop the standard. The DDI specification, written in XML,...
.
Economic and Social Data Service
Economic and Social Data ServiceEconomic and Social Data Service
The Economic and Social Data Service is a national data archiving and dissemination service that was founded in January 2003. It is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Joint Information Systems Committee ....
(ESDS) is a national data archiving and dissemination service that was founded in January 2003. It is funded jointly by the ESRC and JISC.
ESDS is a distributed across a number of institutions: the UK Data Archive, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), both based at the University of Essex; and Mimas and Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), both located at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
. The UK Data Archive is responsible for different services within the ESDS including its overall direction and management.
History Data Service
The History Data Service was founded in 1992 as the History Data Unit. It was funded initially by the British AcademyBritish Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
, the Leverhulme Trust
Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the will of the First Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, with the instruction that its resources should be used to support "scholarships for the purposes of research and education."...
and eventually jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Established in April 2005 as successor to the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Arts and Humanities Research Council is a British Research Council and non-departmental public body that provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the...
(AHRC) and JISC. In 1996, the Arts and Humanities Data Service
Arts and Humanities Data Service
The Arts and Humanities Data Service was a United Kingdom national service aiding the discovery, creation and preservation of digital resources in and for research, teaching and learning in the arts and humanities...
(AHDS) was set up comprising a managing executive and five service providers. The History Data Service, still hosted by the UK Data Archive, became one of these service providers, and thus formally became part of the AHDS, changing its name in the process to the History Data Service. In October 2003 AHDS 'service providers' became 'subject centres' and all the subject centres of the AHDS were renamed, with History Data Service (HDS) becoming AHDS History. AHDS History ceased operation in 2008, but its successor, the History Data Service, continues to be hosted by the UK Data Archive, which retains a commitment to providing curation and preservation services for the historical community.
In addition to its data collection, the History Data Service supports online services that provide access to important census report material. These include the Online Historical Population Reports (Histpop) web site, the Enclosure Maps database and the Contemporary and Historical Census Collections (CHCC).
Census.ac.uk
Launched in 2007, Census.ac.uk provides a one-stop gateway to data and support services for users and researchers from higher education and further education in the UK to access census data from the 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses. Census.ac.uk builds on the work of the Census Registration Service (CRS) project (2001-2006), also based at the UK Data Archive, which provided a one-stop access and registration service for the same range of users and data. Census.ac.uk offers additional services, including centralised searching across all census resources, help and support for users, census guides, workshops and online training materials.Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Data Support Service
The Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Data Support Service (Relu-DSS) provides data support for Relu projects. Relu projects investigate the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges faced by rural areas in the United Kingdom in an interdisciplinary manner, and involve the integration of social, economical, biological, agricultural and environmental science data.Relu-DSS offers an interdisciplinary data support service, co-ordinated between the UK Data Archive and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is the United Kingdom's Centre of Excellence for integrated research in hydrology, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and their interaction with the atmosphere...
(CEH) at Lancaster, with the lead being taken by the UK Data Archive. The UK Data Archive hosts the Relu-DSS information portal which provides advice on data management, data sharing and preservation to Relu grant holders and applicants, and links to third party data sources.
Relu-DSS also provides the UK Data Archive and CEH with sufficient information to enable them to plan for the management, longer-term preservation and re-use of Relu datasets.
Secure Data Service
The Secure Data Service (SDS) is funded by the ESRC and was set up in 2009 to permit approved members of the research community to access data that were previously considered too sensitive, detailed, confidential or potentially disclosive to be made available under standard licensing and dissemination arrangements. SDS is still in its pilot phase, and will become fully operational in 2010.Users will have to provide information about their bona fides and their proposed research to become approved researchers. They will also be required to undergo training on how to use the system, and on the principles of statistical control, and on their legal rights and responsibilities. They will then be able to access the data remotely, perform analyses on the data, and work collaboratively with others, all within the confines of a secure server. All data will remain on the secure server, and final publications will only be able to be removed after careful vetting for statistical disclosure issues.
The system is built around Citrix technology.
Survey Resources Network
The Survey Resources Network (SRN) is a service funded by the ESRC that was launched in 2009 to co-ordinate and develop ESRC activities related to survey research methods. The service is managed and co-ordinated from the University of Essex. Network partners include the UK Data Archive, the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), both of the University of Essex, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM), at the University of SouthamptonUniversity of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), the Institute for Education.
The aim of the Network is to provide a coherent and integrated approach to developing skills and knowledge, disseminating research findings and research resources, and promoting best survey practice.
A key component of the Network is the Survey Question Bank (SQB), which aims to build on the services previously available from the ESRC Question Bank based at the University of Surrey
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey in the South East of England. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology...
. The SQB is managed by the UK Data Archive.
UKDA StatServe
UKDA StatServe is a service provided by the UK Data Archive for creating tailor-made figures and tables from the data from the UK Data Archive’s catalogue.This service produces statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
(including frequency counts and cross tabulation
Cross tabulation
Cross tabulation is the process of creating a contingency table from the multivariate frequency distribution of statistical variables. Heavily used in survey research, cross tabulations can be produced by a range of statistical packages, including some that are specialised for the task. Survey...
s using either single datasets or more complex timeseries) for customers who are not in a position to analyse the underlying data themselves. Customers may request statistics from particular surveys. Alternatively, UKDA Statserve can advise on the most appropriate surveys and variables to use from the UK Data Archive collection.
UKDA-store
Launched in 2008, UKDA-store is a self-archiving system hosted by the UK Data Archive for the storage and sharing of primary researchPrimary research
Primary research consists in research to collect original primary data. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by collecting secondary data...
data from the social and behavioural sciences
Behavioural sciences
The term behavioural sciences encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and interactions among organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic observation, and disciplined...
. The initial phase of UKDA-store is aimed at ESRC award holders, who are required to offer data outputs for sharing through ESDS under the terms of their award contract. It is planned in the long term, however, to extend the system to other social scientists who create primary research data and related outputs.
UKDA-store can hold all kinds of digital objects from numeric and textual datasets to technical and research reports. It can also link to other kinds of outputs, such as academic publications. UKDA-store thus complements the ESRC's publications repository, ESRC Society Today which holds primary publications resulting from ESRC funding. UKDA-store will enable research data and publications to be linked although held in a distributed environment.
Researchers who submit digital outputs to UKDA-store will be able to set permissions for individual and group access, so that data can remain private (on embargo), although metadata continue to be searchable. Data that meet the UK Data Archive's acquisition criteria can be formally archived at the UK Data Archive as before.
UK Data Archive, allied organisations
- UK Data Archive is an associated member of the Digital Preservation CoalitionDigital Preservation CoalitionThe Digital Preservation Coalition is a UK-based non-profit limited company which seeks to secure the preservation of digital resources in the UK and internationally to secure the global digital memory and knowledge base.-History:...
- National Centre for Research Methods
- The National Archives
- Office for National StatisticsOffice for National StatisticsThe Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Overview :...
External links
- UK Data Archive web site
- Across the Decades – 40 years of data archiving
- Economic and Social Data Service web site
- History Data Service web site
- Census.ac.uk web site
- Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Data Support Service web site
- Survey Resources Network web site
- Survey Question Bank web site
- UKDA StatServe web site
- UKDA-store web site
Category:Online databases