MetaDater

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MetaDater
Metadata Management and Production System for
Surveys in Empirical Socio-economic Research
A Project funded by EU under the 5th Framework
Programme Key Action Improving the
Socio-economic Knowledge Base - Data
Infrastructure

• Ekkehard Mochmann (co-ordinator)
• Uwe Jensen (manager)
• GESIS ZA (University of Cologne)

From Metadata Conversion to MetaDater Management
Presentation Meinhard Moschner,
Oliver Watteler (ZA)
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The old world legacy data

• System used for codebook production gt OSIRIS and
  self-developed routines on IBM Mainframe
• 30 years of experience development of
  documentation of comparative studies
• Serveral hundred codebooks finished
• Range from cross-section study to comparative and
  longditudinal studies
• One way into the new world gt XML
• Example

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Old world to new world
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The new world XML DDI

• Analysis and definition of needs concerning
  metadata
• Attempt to fit our information bits into the DDI
  structure
• Realization of two projects
• Project 1 gt development of routines for automatic
  codebook conversion to DDI (in 2001)
• Project 2 gt manual transfer of existing codebooks
  into DDI (since August 2002)
• Problems and outcome

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Dataand Metadata
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General Objectives

• Standards to describe large scale comparative
  surveys over space and time
• Toolsto create manage respective metadata

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Main Products

• Data Model for Comparative Surveys
• Applications based on the model
• MD-PRO MetaDater Provider
• MD-COLL MetaDater Collector

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Data Model for metadata from comparative surveys

• Describes the whole survey life cycle within the
  logic of metadata
• Including generic management and administration
  tasks
• Compatibility with the DDI standard
• Focus on the description of data from time series
  and (repeated) comparative surveys
• 
  
• The metadata model will be distributed
  independently of the two applications

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MD-PRO MetaDater Provider application

• Target Group 1 - Data provider
• data archives, large research institutes, data
  service centres
• Tools to provide high quality metadata
• e.g. facilities for processing, quality
  management, harmonisation preservation of
  comparative and time-series surveys
• Modular import- and export-routines for metadata
  in various formats
• Access open for existing or new front-ends such
  as NESSTAR or MADIERA

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MD-COLL MetaDater Collector application

• Target Group 2 - primary Data Collectors
• primary investigators, small and middle-sized
  research services
• Tools to set up metadata at its source
• Enter, edit manage survey information
  from the start of the survey project
• Including the survey design phase and
  the fieldwork phase
• Data Processing support
• Basic publishing and export routines to MD-PRO

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MetaDater

MADIERA
Field Questionnaires
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Benefits of MetaDater

• MetaDater will provide Data Infrastructure
  instruments
• to improve the processing, managing
  distribution of metadata by more efficient and
  economic procedures
• to contribute to best practice in preservation
  resource sharing of data and metadata
• to supply end-users with reliable, standardised,
  durable high quality information in view of the
  needs in comparative research

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MetaDater
Metadata Management and Production System for
Surveys in Empirical Socio-economic Research

• ZA Central Archive for Empirical Social Research
  (co-ordinator) Germany
• DDA Danish Data Archive Denmark
• EKKE National Centre for Social Research
  Greece
• NIWI Netherlands Institute for Scientific
  Information Services Netherlands
• SIDOS Swiss Information and Data Archive
  Service for the Social Sciences Switzerland
• UGOT Swedish Data Archive at Göteborg
  University Sweden
• NSD Norwegian Social Science Data Services
  Norway
• UKDA UK Data Archive Great Britain

EU 5th Framework Programme Key Action Improving
the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base Project period
January 2003 - December 2005
www.metadater.org