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