Karen Dennison

Accessing international survey data collections via ESDS

British Academy, Tuesday 14 March 2006

ESDS International

ESDS International• access and support for a range of

international datasets - both micro and macro sources

• aims to promote and facilitate use of international data across a range of disciplines in research, learning and teaching

• run jointly by UK Data Archive (UKDA) and Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS)

International data exchange

UKDA is a member of:

• Council of European Social Science Data Archives

• International Association for Social Science

Information Service and Technology

• International Federation of Data Archives

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social

Research

Through international data exchange agreements, ESDS

International is able to acquire and disseminate key

cross-national survey datasets

Key micro data series• Eurobarometer Survey Series

• International Social Survey Programme

• European Social Survey

• European Values Study

• World Values Survey

• E-Living: Life in a Digital Europe

• Eurofound data

Other ESDS International micro data

• Employment and the Family: Great Britain, Czech

Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Norway and

Portugal, 2002

• Women's Employment and Family Life in the United

Kingdom, Norway, France, Czech Republic and

Russia, 1996-1997

• New Europe Barometer

• Polish National Election Study

• Regional Economic Performance, Governance and

Cohesion in an Enlarged Europe, 1999-2001

Other ESDS data with international theme

How to request international micro data

Via Download/order links in ESDS online catalogue:

How to request data from other archives worldwide

Locate/search other national archive

How to request data from other archives worldwide

Request data via UKDA online account

International micro data supply

• most of the international micro data are held at other national archives

• UKDA acquires data from other archives e.g.– German archive (ZA) FTP server– ICPSR (Michigan, USA) web site

• non-UK users have to request data direct or via their national archive

International micro data usage• Over 320 UK users of international micro data• Eurobarometers most popular, followed by European

Values and World Values Surveys

Usage examples

• ..role of referendums in the process of European integration

• ..determinants of fertility in modern societies using a sociological and longitudinal perspective

• ..public knowledge of, and attitude towards various aspects of science

• ..why the British are so Euro-sceptic

Other international dataESDS International maintains links to other

data resources

Nesstar – European Social Survey

Nesstar – E-Living: Life in a Digital Europe

Multilingual Access to Data Infrastructures of the European Research Area

www.madiera.net

Linking European data resources

The Madiera Portal

The MADIERA portal– a semantic webLocating data

Data can be retrieved by browsing the catalogs of different data archives, or perform searches across all the archives inn the system.

Browsing metadata

Datasets in MADIERA will be documented according to the DDI standard. The metadata will be integrated with the data.

Online statistical analysis

When a dataset or a variable is located on a MADIERA server, the user can instantly run simple statistical analyses like cross/tabulation, descriptive statistics and regression.

VisualisationSeveral options for displaying statistics are available. This includes bar-charts, time series charts, and geographic maps

Multilingual support

Based on thesaurus technology, the user may search in any language, and be able to locate data stored in another language.

Comparative data

A built in logic for identifying comparative data – including variables or datasets stored on other servers throughout Europe.

A Geo-referencing system

Datasets will be stored with geographic coordinates for the geographic coverage of the dataset. A map interface will enable users to locate datasets.

Standardised identification

Work will be initiated to establish a standard for naming of social science data resources.

Downloading data

Data can be downloaded in any of a number of standard file formats

Knowledge base

User supplied comments, links to online publications etc.

Multilingual Access to Data Infrastructures of the European Research Area

www.madiera.net

Future developments

• Direct download of ICPSR data

• International data passport

• Dedicated post for ESDS International micro data development and support

ESDS International

• Web site www.esds.ac.uk/international

• Help desk emailinternational@esds.ac.uk