depositing data for archiving libby bishop esds qualidata, university of essex changing families,...

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