All about the UK Data Service

Louise CortiUK Data ServiceUK Data ArchiveUniversity of Essex

UKSG 37th Annual Conference, Harrogate14-16 April 2014

What is the UK Data Service?

• a comprehensive resource funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

• a single point of access to a wide range of secondary social science data

• support, training and guidance throughout the data life cycle

• listen to our recorded webinars at

http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/news-and-events/videos.aspx

UK Data Service

ukdataservice.ac.uk

Integrates ESDS, Survey Question Bank and Census.ac.uk

What does the UK Data Service do?

• put together a collection of the most valuable data and enhance these over time

• preserve data in the long term for future research purposes

• make the data and documentation available for reuse

• provide data management advice for data creators

• provide support for users of the service

• information about how data are used

• easy access through website

Who is it for?

• academic researchers and students

• government analysts

• charities and foundations

• business consultants

• independent research centres

• think tanks

• citizen scientists, where skills enable analysis

Our data portfolio

UK Surveys InternationalLongitudinal

Large-scale government funded surveys

Census Business

Major UK surveys following individuals over time

Multi-nation aggregate databanks and survey data

Range of multimedia qualitative data sources

Census data 1971 – 2011

Microdata and administrative data

Qualitative

Key data

UK survey series

• high quality repeated cross-sectional surveys

• Individual or household level data

• cover many topics including health, work, crime, social attitudes, family expenditure, living costs, housing etc.

• Labour Force Survey• British Crime Survey• Health Survey for England• British Social Attitudes• Annual Population Survey

….

Cross-national surveys

• Eurobarometers

• European Social Survey

• European Values Survey

• International Social Survey Programme

Longitudinal studies

• British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society

• Understanding Society (2009-) • English Longitudinal Study of Ageing• Families and Children Study • Growing Up in Scotland• Longitudinal Study of Young People in England

International macrodata

• time series data aggregated to country/region

• International governmental organisations (IMF, OECD, IEA, World Bank)

• wide range of socio-economic topics• regularly updated• currently limited to UK HE/FE

institutions• World Bank data are open access

UK census data

• 1971-2011 census data• baseline for other statistics• detailed combinations of characteristics• small geographies• Census outputs

• aggregate data• boundary data• flow data• microdata

• aggregate data is open access • some restricted to UK HE/FE

Business data• Collected through a wide range of surveys, and

administrative sources:• productivity• innovation• workforce skills• earnings• international trade• foreign direct investment• research and development• business demography• industrial relations

• Largely collected using the sampling frame of the Inter-Departmental Business Register

Qualitative data

Qualitative data in a number of different formats: interview transcripts, visual data, focus groups, essays, diaries, online data, observation notes, documents, audio data, open-ended survey questions, case notes etc.

Examples of sociology data collections:

• Family Life and Work Experience before 1918, Middle and Upper Class Families in the Early 20th Century, 1870-1977 (SN 5404)

• Gender Difference, Anxiety and the Fear of Crime, 1995 (SN 4581)

• Mothers Alone: Poverty and the Fatherless Family, 1955-1966 (SN 5072)

• Affluent Worker in the Class Structure, 1961-1962 (SN 6512)

Where are the data from?

• official agencies - mainly central government

• international statistical time series

• individual academics - research grants

• market research agencies

• public records/historical sources

• access to international data via links with other data

archives worldwide

Links with other data archives worldwide

Some statistics about our Service

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

• 6,000 datasets in the collection

• 400 new datasets and new editions added

within last 12 months

• 25,000 registered users

• 60,000 downloads worldwide per annum

• 4000+ user support queries per annum

How to search for data?

discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Variable and question search

discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/variables

Data access

• web access to data and metadata

• data are freely available for use by all. Charges may apply for commercial use

• data available under 3 access levels: open, safeguarded and controlled

• • data supplied in a variety of formats

• statistical package formats (e.g. SPSS, Stata)• databases and spreadsheets• word processed documents, PDF documents etc.

• some data also available via online data browsing

Accessing data – step by step

• register with us via UK Federation using local credentials (we also issue Federation accounts)

• agree to an End User Licence (EUL)• appropriate data usage• full citation of data and informing us of re-use

• select data from the Discover Data Catalogue using ‘Download/Order’ button

• where data are safeguarded - specify a project for which the data is to be used

• download data to local machine in preferred format

Open data collections

Census - Open Government Licence• InFUSE - 2011 and 2001 Census aggregate statistics

Survey data - Open Government Licence• Nesstar - cutdown teaching datasets

Qualitative datasets – CC4 BY NC• QualiBank - life story interviews, essays, WWII reports

Aggregate global indicators – bespoke open data license• .STAT - World Bank Millennium Development goals

Online instant data browsing

Nesstar social surveys

.stat aggregate global indicators

InFUSE aggregate census data

QualiBank qualitative data

Online analysis using Nesstar

• browse detailed information (metadata) and data online

• do simple data analysis and visualisation on microdata

• bookmark analysis

• download the appropriate subset of data in one of a number of formats (e.g. SPSS, Excel)

Nesstar: British Social Attitudes - Pay gap

Nesstar: GHS - Age started smoking

Nesstar: BCS – Main cause of crime

Nesstar: GHS - time series

Nesstar: mapping OLS 2013

.stat: UN COMTRADE, 2008

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InFuse

QualiBank

What do users do with the data ?

• Comparative research, restudy or follow-up study

• Re-analysis/secondary analysis

• Research design and methodological advancement

• Replication of published statistics

• Teaching and learning

Evidence of access and re-use

User access information• collect user information and ‘projects’ upon registration

• collate data and documentation download statistics

• users can share project information for others to see

• report data access stats on demand

Usage information • email all users every 6 months after registration about activity

• manually add all research outputs references to the data record

• reporting rate of publications is poor!

• prior to DOIs, scanned citation literature for dataset

mentions – very manual and unreliable, and poorly cited

Impactful case studies of use

• Identify and seek out case studies of re-use: research or teaching.

• Very successful!

• 140 case studies in our database• can help provide impact stories for data owners/producers

and users• and can inspire others!• some are harvested by ESRC for their website• often include ongoing work – no need to wait for

publications

Making our data citable

• Use APA citation style for data• DateCite DOIs for our collections (over 6000)

• Robust version control methodology using jump page

Fine-grained citation

• Use APA citation style for paragraph level citation in

QualiBank

Citation: raising awareness in the social sciences

• ESRC funding for short-term project on citation

• Advocacy for best practice

• Audiences • professional organisations

• academic publishers and journal editors

• researchers and postgraduates

• Key activities

• data citation principles for social sciences

• outreach and personal communications

• Some way to go!

Making

Expert advice on managing and sharing

• Supporting the ESRC Data Policy since 1995

• Advise and support ESRC grant applicants and award holders

• Write guidance for applicants and Data Management Planning (DMP) reviewers

• Provide detailed training

• Provide self-deposit repository environment

Data sharing – a shared responsibility

• Funders: provide policies, mandates and some infrastructure funding

• Researchers: create, manage and use data

• Departments/centres: provide local support and some infrastructure

• Institutions: provide a supporting framework– grant-application and funding support– research integrity framework– IT and data storage facilities– Data management guidance and training

• Clarify roles and responsibilities early on

Our managing and sharing data resources

• Online best practice guidance: ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data• Managing and Sharing Research Data – a Guide to Good Practice:

www.uk.sagepub.com/books/9781446267264 (SAGE Publications)• Helpdesk for all queries: ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/get-in-touch.aspx• Training programme

UK Data Archive - digital data preservation experts

• certified to ISO27001 for Information Security

• Data Seal of Approval (DSA) accredited

• undertake long-term data curation and preservation

• deeply involved in international preservation planning and accreditation activities

www.data-archive.ac.uk/curate

EPrints self-deposit repository

User support and resources

• help desk, individual user support

• promotional events/ workshops

• webinars

• case studies

• teaching data and resources

• user guides/ thematic guides

• online data analysis

• advice on creating and managing data

Keep connected

• Subscribe to UK Data Service list: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=UKDATASERVICE

• Follow UK Data Service on Twitter: @UKDataService

• Facebook

• Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/UKDATASERVICE

Help

Contact

Louise Corti

UK Data Service

corti@essex.ac.uk

01206 872145