issda

1. issda Irish Social Science Data Archive http://issda.ucd.ie James McBride Director

2. issda • Founded in 2000 as a joint initiative of UCD and the ESRI, with the support of the CSO • Part of UCD Geary Institute • Makes quantitative data available to academic and non-profit research sectors • Qualitative data – IQDA, NUI Maynooth • Aims: • To ensure wider access to datasets • To encourage secondary analysis • To facilitate the wider acquisition of data analysis skills

3. Funding for issda • Funding for the data archive is provided by a grant from Cycle 4 of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) • This comes from Ireland’s EU Structural Funds Programmes 2007-2013 co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Union

4. Why use secondary data? • Attitudes to migration • Run your own detailed survey • European Social Survey • c. 1,200 respondents • €300,000, give or take • Use pre-existing survey • ESS Round 1 (http://ess.nsd.uib.no/) • Data (in SPSS, SAS, Stata, ASCII formats) • Bibliography of research using the data

5. Data archives • Assist users in locating and accessing data • Acquire datasets from producers • Preserve it for future use • Main ISSDA sources of data • CSO • ESRI • Major research projects

6. Advantages • Efficient use of resources • Ready availability of high-quality data and documentation, adhering to professional standards • Makes data collected for one purpose available for reanalysis across a range of other subject areas • Offers opportunity to study trends over time

7. Limitations • The data are not always available • Need for researchers to know exactly what they are analysing • Danger of errors slipping in unnoticed during data collection and processing • Datasets may occasionally be reissued to correct for errors • Data may lead to “wrong” conclusions • Help from researchers in spotting errors

8. How it works DATA SUPPLIERS (CSO, ESRI, etc) issda DATA USERS (Students, Researchers, Policymakers … )

9. ISSDA has…. A wide range of high quality datasets for secondary analysis Supplied data to: Government departments Researchers working on academic, non-profit, and consultancy projects Students: At 2nd and 3rd levels At Universities and Institutes of Technology At undergraduate, Masters’ and PhD levels Across a wide range of subject disciplines Dissemination

10. CSO data: Census data Household Budget Survey Quarterly National Household Survey/Labour Force Survey EU-SILC ESRI data: School Leavers Living In Ireland Time Use Housing Quality Forestry NCPP Survey of Employee Attitudes Irish National Election Study Irish Social and Political Attitudes Survey Survey on Lifestyle And Nutrition Irish Survey of Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy  Attitudes to disability Opinion poll data Eurobarometer ISSP European Values Survey European Social Survey CESSDA member catalogues ICPSR Soon: Growing Up in Ireland Datasets

11. Selection of recent projects • Quantitative research of demographic and socio-economic change in south west Donegal over the past two decades • Tenant and property profiles of new immigrant communities in Ireland • Changes in Dublin population and housing stock in the last 20 years • ‘Middling’ migration in a globalising city: A study of Polish migrants in Dublin • Study of changes in the distribution of household employment at the start of the recession • Analysis of the evolution of the black economy in Ireland over the last 20 years using consumer demands approaches • Test whether causal relationships exist between socio-economic characteristics and the type, if any, of internet access in the household, using econometric methodology

12. Accessing datasets • Datasets shipped on CD-ROM require signed request form (http://issda.ucd.ie/) • Some data now available via NESSTAR (http://nesstar.ucd.ie/webview) • Other ISSDA-based data and documentation: • Most non-CSO data available in SPSS Portable format for download from the ISSDA server – email for details on access • Documentation available in Acrobat format via the web • ICPSR: go to https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ticketlogin from a campus PC to set up an account and download data

13. Wider availability of data • Data archives • ISSDA (http://issda.ucd.ie/) • ICPSR (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/) • CESSDA (http://www.cessda.org/) • Data producers • CSO (2006 Census) (http://www.cso.ie) • WHO (http://www.who.int/en/) • Data project websites • ESS (http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/) • SHARE (http://geary.ucd.ie/share/index.php)

14. ICPSR Summer Program • Two bursaries for PhD students to attend a four week session at the University of Michigan • World-class forum for training in the methodologies and technologies of social science research • Best suited for those in the second year or later of their PhD studies • Will be advertised on the ISSDA website in February 2010 • Funded from PRTLI grant • http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog

15. Contact details • http://issda.ucd.ie/ • issda@ucd.ie • 01 716 4612 / 4617