Introduction to ESDS International

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Introduction to ESDS International
Licensing International Macro Datasets The ESDS
Experience

• Celia Russell
• Economic and Social Data Service
• MIMAS
• April 14th 2004
• University of Manchester

Celia Russell Keith Cole Economic and Social
Data Service MIMAS, University of
Manchester IASSIST 2004 University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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Structure of Talk

• The ESDS International Data Service
• The international macro data portfolio
• Negotiating data licences keys to success
• Problems and challenges
• Key achievements

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ESDS International

• Led by MIMAS at the Manchester University in
  partnership with the UK Data Archive and is
  funded for five years.
• Provides the UK academic community with free
  web-based access to a range of key international
  macro databanks produced by organisations such as
  the United Nations, the IMF, the OECD and the
  World Bank
• Helps users to locate and acquire international
  micro level datasets
• Promotes the use of international datasets in
  research and teaching across a range of
  disciplines

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ESDS International Data Portfolio
IMF Direction of Trade Statistics Balance of Payments Statistics Government Finance Statistics International Financial Statistics OECD Main Economic Indicators International Development International Direct Investment International Migration Statistics Main Science and Technology Indicators Measuring Globalisation Statistics Statistics in International Trade in Services Statistics on Value Added and Employment Social Expenditure Statistics Quarterly Labour Force Statistics UN Common Database ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market World Bank World Development Indicators World Bank Global Development Finance Eurostat New Cronos UNIDO Industrial Statistics Databases Demand Supply Databases
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Agreements with international data providers

• During 2003, UK wide data redistribution
  agreements were put in place with the following
  organisations
• the International Monetary Fund
• the OECD
• the United Nations
• the World Bank
• Eurostat (being signed)
• the International Labour Organisation
• What were the keys to success?

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Keys to success I

• Establishing a data acquisition budget for
  international macro datasets
• UK falling behind relative to US in terms of
  access to international macro data
• Cost of institutional licences a major barrier to
  use
• Phase 1 Providing continuing access to existing
  portfolio of datasets available (January 2003)
• Phase 2 Enhancing portfolio to extend topic
  coverage (July 2003)
• Employing professional negotiation agent
  (Databeuro)
• Established network of contacts
• Experience of working with IGOs
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Increased credibility with IGOs
• Cost effective (paid by results!)
• Minimised travel (3 deals brokered in one day at
  2003 London Book Fair)

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Keys to success II

• Proven expertise in providing secure access to
  commercial datasets
• MIMAS a national data centre for UK HE FE (e.g.
  Web of Knowledge, JSTOR)
• Interfaces integrated with national access
  management system (ATHENS)
• Providing a clear definition of the scope and
  operation of the service
• Access restricted to UK Higher Further
  Education sectors (reflects funding)
• Data to be used for academic purposes only
• Commercial use explicitly excluded
• User required to complete an End User Licence
  agreement
• User registration database important for
  auditing purposes

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Keys to success III

• Development of a Model Licence
• Based on an existing model licence used for the
  licensing of commercial datasets for academic
  purposes
• Formed the basis of the agreement where an IGO
  did not have a existing licence model that could
  be used for a consortium purchase
• Sets out the key terms and conditions of use and
  obligations of the data provider
• Provided scope for insertion of IGO specific
  clauses
• Facilitated integration of service into ESDS
  registration system and national access
  management system
• But, required significant support of the
  University of Manchester Contracts Officers

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Keys to success IV

• Enthusiasm of the IGOs
• Desire to see data being used in academic
  research and teaching
• Desire for greater transparency and
  accountability
• Considerable interest in the vision of a common
  user interface
• Snowball effect with other IGOs after the
  signing of the agreement with the IMF

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Problems and challenges I

• Convincing IGOs that they were not going to loose
  out financially by agreeing to a consortium
  purchase.
• Getting IGOs to agreeing to a reduced periodicity
  of supply to reduce costs (e.g. twice a year
  instead of monthly)
• Where an IGO had a model licence (e.g. OECD) it
  was necessary to get it modified to put it in
  line with the other agreements
• Obtaining agreement on data supply formats. Not
  all IGOs (e.g. UN) had systems in place for bulk
  export

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Problems and challenges II

• Minimising the risk to the University of
  Manchester
• Aggregate liability limited to licence fee
• Not being liable for a breach caused by an user
  providing UoM has not caused the breach and takes
  action against the user
• Removal of legal jurisdiction clause (due scale
  of punitive damages in North America). Replaced
  with an arbitration procedure (UNICTRAL rules)
• Impact of IGO special conditions
• Restricting number of series in a single download
  (OECD) required interface modifications
• Required modification to ESDS registration
  system. Agreeing to special conditions an
  additional one off step
• The unexpected!
• Eurostat financial scandal
• Negotiations had to start again in Nov 2003

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Key achievements

• By the end of 2003 all agreements (except
  Eurostat) signed including phase 2 data
  acquisition
• For many IGOs it is the first time they have
  agreed to country wide level agreements for
  current releases of their databanks. Consortium
  approach now being extended to other countries
  (e.g. Brazil OECD)
• Consortium approach has delivered significant
  savings (90 discount) and provided access to
  data for a five year period. Free at the end
  point of use!
• Removing a key barrier to use has established a
  new user community and facilitated capacity
  building
• 1,465 users from 129 institutions in under 12
  months
• 60 of users postgraduate/undergraduate students
• Users from a wide range of social science
  disciplines