The Economic and Social Data Service ESDS Karen Dennison Economic and Social Data Service UK Data Ar

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The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)
Karen DennisonEconomic and Social Data
ServiceUK Data ArchiveIntute Internet for
Social Research 20 September 2006
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What is the ESDS?

• national data archiving and dissemination service
• jointly supported by
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

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Partners

• UK Data Archive, Essex
• Manchester Information and Associated Services
  (MIMAS), Manchester
• Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey
  Research (CCSR), Manchester
• Institute for Social and Economic Research
  (ISER), Essex

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ESDS Overview

• provides access and support for key economic and
  social data
• distributed service, bringing together centres of
  expertise in data creation, dissemination,
  preservation and use
• provides seamless and easier access to a range of
  disparate resources for UK Higher and Further
  Education sectors and beyond

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ESDS overview

• Core archiving service (UKDA) plus four
  specialist data services
• ESDS Government (CCSR/UKDA)
• ESDS International (MIMAS/UKDA)
• ESDS Longitudinal (ISER/UKDA)
• ESDS Qualidata (UKDA)
• Provide
• value-added data and documentation
• service-specific web pages and help
• support and training
• teaching datasets/online samplers
• discussion lists/newsletters
• publicity and promotion

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Sources / type of data

• Data for research and teaching purposes and used
  in all sectors and for many different disciplines
• official agencies - mainly central government
• international statistical time series
• individual academics - research grants
• market research agencies
• public records/historical sources
• qualitative and quantitative
• links to UK census data
• access to international data via links with other
  data archives worldwide

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Collection held at UKDA

• 4,000 datasets in the collection
• 200 new datasets are added each year
• 18,000 datasets distributed worldwide per year
• History data service in-house (AHDS)
• Census Registration Service in-house (CRS)
• specialist units for supporting qualitative and
  longitudinal data in-house

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Access to data

• registration using Athens including agreement to
  an End User Licence, fine-grained access control
• download service (SPSS, STATA, ASCII, RTF etc)
• request data on CD
• online data analysis, including
• Simple data analysis, visualisation, downloading
  and subsetting via Nesstar
• Qualidata online interview transcripts
• ESDS Government Vital Statistics online
• International macro data via Beyond 20/20 and
  visualisation interface
• Census data

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Access to data

• End User Licence
• Data can only be used by registered users (some
  exceptions relating to teaching)
• to preserve the confidentiality of, and not
  attempt to identify, individuals, households or
  organisations in the data
• to use the correct methods of citation and
  acknowledgement in publications
• to supply the bibliographic details of any
  published work based on the data collections
• to offer for deposit any new data collections
  which have been derived from the materials
  supplied

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ESDS Government data

• General Household Survey/Continuous Household
  Survey (NI)
• Labour Force Survey/NI LFS
• Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland
• Family Expenditure Survey/NI FES
• British/Scottish Crime Survey
• Family Resources Survey
• National Food Survey/Expenditure and Food Survey
• ONS Omnibus Survey
• Survey of English Housing
• British Social Attitudes/Scottish Social
  Attitudes/Young Peoples Social Attitudes/NI Life
  Times
• National Travel Survey
• Time Use Survey
• Vital Statistics for England and Wales

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Benefits of the large-scale government datasets

• Good quality data
• Produced by experienced research organisations
• UK/GB - usually nationally representative with
  large samples. Interviewers all over country
• Good response rates
• Well documented, NISRA, ONS, UKDA, QB etc
• Continuous data
• E.g Continuous Household Survey 1983, allows
  comparison over time
• Data is largely cross-sectional
• Hierarchical data
• Individual and household
• intra-household differences
• household effects on individuals

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ESDS Longitudinal Data

• Five main studies
• British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)
• British Birth Cohort studies
• National Child Development Survey (NCDS)
• British Cohort Study 1970 (BCS70)
• Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
• Also possible forthcoming Medical Research
  Council population study datasets 1946 Birth
  Cohort

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Longitudinal data

• 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

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International data portfolio

• 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 for UK HE/FE only
• Access to microdata surveys
• Eurobarometers
• International Social Survey Programme
• Other social data via other national data archives

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International data themes

• Databanks cover
• Economic performance and development
• Trade, industry and markets
• Employment
• Demography, migration and health
• Governance
• Human development
• Social expenditure
• Education
• Science and technology
• Land use and the environment

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ESDS Qualidata

• access and support for a range of qualitative
  datasets, hosted by the UK Data Archive
• Data from National Research Council (ESRC)
  individual and programme research grant awards
• Data from classic social science studies
• Other funders/sources
• Focus on DIGITAL Collections, but also facilitate
  paper-based archiving

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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 (most
  common is interview transcriptions)
• Formats digital, paper, analogue audio-visual
• Data structures - differ across different
  document types

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Classic datasets

• Peter Townsend Poverty, old ageand Katherine
  Buildings
• Paul Thompson oral history and Edwardians
• Ray Pahl Hertfordshire Villages studies
• National Social Policy and Social Change Archive

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Help for users

• Each specialist service provides
• help desk and web site
• dedicated survey pages
• JISCmail list
• regularly updated web-based FAQs
• programme of training courses and publicity
  events
• news bulletins and articles
• resources (links to other sites)
• teaching datasets and/or exemplars
• enhanced documentation e.g.
• dataset and software guides
• statistical guides (SPSS, Stata, weighting)
• variables consistent over time on specific
  surveys (ESDS Government)
• thematic guides

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The Census Registration Service

• The Census Registration Service provides one-stop
  registration and support for access to
• Census Dissemination Unit from MIMAS aggregate
  tables/Casweb
• Census Geography Data Unit (UKBORDERS) from EDINA
  boundaries data
• Census Interaction Data Service (Universities of
  Leeds and St Andrews) - flow data
• Samples of Anonymised Records from CCSR micro
  data
• CHCC - Historical Census Collection from AHDS
  History

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AHDS History

• AHDS History is one of the five Subject Centres
  of the Arts and Humanities Data Service.
  http//ahds.ac.uk
• AHDS History collects, preserves, and promotes
  the use of digital resources, which result from
  or support historical research, learning and
  teaching.

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The AHDS History collection

• Particularly strong in 19th and 20th century
  economic and social history
• Census data (1881 100 sample 1851 2 sample
  lots of local census returns)
• Great Britain Historical Database online
• Taxation materials
• Large scale datasets of Welsh and Irish
  historical statistics
• Electoral data (poll books for local areas)
• Criminal court records (e.g. a collection of
  datasets on violent crimes 1600-1900)
• Agricultural statistics (prices, output)
• Surveys of Scottish witchcraft
• State finance data
• Economic indicators/industrial production data

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Secondary analysis potential

• descriptive material
• comparative research, restudy or follow-up study
• re-analysis / secondary analysis
• research design and methodological advancement
• replication of published statistics
• teaching and learning

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• Contact
• www.esds.ac.uk
• help_at_esds.ac.uk
• ESDS FAQ http//www.esds.ac.uk/about/faq.asp