Access to Data via the ESDS/UKDA

Jack Kneeshaw

ESDS/UKDA

ESDS overview

• New national data archiving and dissemination service, running from 1 Jan. 2003 – 2008

• Provides access and specialist support for key economic and social data

• UK Data Archive is a service provider of ESDS and preserves and supplies most of the data

• Other partners include MIMAS and the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR) and the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)

Specialist data services

• ESDS Government• ESDS International• ESDS Longitudinal • ESDS Qualidata

Provide - dedicated web sites - data and documentation enhancements - user support - training

ESDS Government

• 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– intra-household differences– household effects on individuals

ESDS Longitudinal

• Longitudinal surveys involve repeated surveys of the same individuals at different points in time

• Allow researchers to analyse change at the individual level

• More complex to analyse

British Household Panel Survey

• Collected and deposited by the ULSC at Essex

• Follows the members of 5500 households first sampled in 1991 - interviews conducted annually

• Major resource for understanding the dynamics of British households

• Coverage includes:– income, labour market behaviour, social and political

values, health, education, housing and household organisation

• Recently large new samples were introduced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

British Birth Cohort Studies

• Impact of childhood conditions on later life and understanding children and families in the UK

• National Child Development Study follows a cohort born in a single week in 1958 - data collected at birth & ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42

• 1970 British Cohort Study follows a cohort born in a single week in 1970 - data collected around birth & ages 5, 10, 16, 26 and most recently at age 30

• Millennium Cohort Study focuses on children born in 2000 / 2001 - first sweep at 9 months, second sweep at 3 years

• Wide range of social, economic, health, medical and psychological measures

ESDS International• Regularly updated macro-economic time series datasets

from selected major international statistical databanks that collectively chart over 50 years of global economic, industrial and political change:

• the International Monetary Fund • the OECD • the United Nations• the World Bank • Eurostat• the International Labour Organisation• the UK Office for National Statistics

• Access to microdata surveys• Eurobarometers• International Social Survey Programme• Other social data via other national data archives

ESDS Qualidata

• Data from ESRC individual research grant awards

• Data from ESRC Programme research grant awards

• Data from ‘classic’ social science studies

• Other funders/sources

• Focus on DIGITAL Collections, but also facilitate paper-based archiving

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

• Multi-media: audio, video, photos and text (typically transcriptions)

• Formats: digital, paper, analogue audio-visual

• Data structures - differ across different ‘document types’

• Scope for re-use across different disciplines

The UK Data Archive

– a service provider of the ESDS

UK Data Archive background

• established at the University of Essex in 1967 by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

• core funded by the ESRC and the University of Essex and JISC

‘Core’ collection

In addition to data covered by the specialist ESDS services, the UKDA holds a substantial number of smaller-scale studies, which include:

• surveys

• censuses

• registers

• aggregate statistics

• text (digital) and images

Sources of ‘core’ data

• official agencies - mainly central government

• individual academics - research grants

• market research agencies

• public records/historical sources

• access to international data via links with other data archives worldwide

Complete UKDA collection

• 4,500+ studies in the collection

• 250+ new studies are added each

year

• 2000+ orders for data per year

• 6500+ datasets distributed

worldwide p.a.

Finding and accessing data

Psychology data at the UKDA – a taster

• Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys• Ethnic Minority Psychiatric Illness Rates in the

Community (EMPIRIC), 2000• Relation between Visual Properties and Action :

Experimental Data, 1999-2000 • Shyness and Children's Vocabulary Scores, 2000 • An Investigation of Visual-Field Effects in Infant

Response to Colour, 1998-2000 • Development of Perceptual Causality, 1996-2000• Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in

Great Britain, 1999

Secondary analysis potential

• Descriptive/background population information

• Comparative research potential

• Undertaking a follow-up study

• Secondary analysis

• Research design and methodology

• Verification

• Teaching and learning

Retrieval and access

• Web access, via UKDA site, to data and metadata

• Documentation (codebooks, questionnaires) freely available to any UKDA user (registered or unregistered)

• Data can be browsed and frequencies run by any user (registered or unregistered) using Nesstar

• Full datasets are freely available for download for the majority of our registered users

• Data supplied in a variety of formats• SPSS • STATA• tab-delimited text

Finding data

• UKDA web pages - easy to navigate format– ‘Search catalogue’ facility– subject browsing - e.g. major series – HASSET thesaurus– access to online doc - pdf user guides and

questionnaires

• Nesstar– browse data and metadata for a selection

of data– run frequencies

Accessing data

• Registered users can:

• download full datasets• order data via online order system• browse/analyse/download data in Nesstar

• To register:

• complete online form• sign and return data access agreement (legal

undertaking)• (to access data) register a project

Demo

ESDS specialist data services: www.esds.ac.uk

UK Data Archive:www.data-archive.ac.uk

help@esds.ac.uk