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The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) Karen Dennison UK Data Archive Improving access to government datasets 18 January 2007. What is the ESDS?. national data archiving and dissemination service jointly supported by: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
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The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)Karen DennisonUK Data ArchiveImproving access to government datasets 18 January 2007
What is the ESDS? • national data archiving and dissemination service • jointly supported by: • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) • Joint Information Systems Committee(JISC)
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
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 data for research and teaching purposes within the UK Higher and Further Education sectors and beyond
Sources of data • central government • international/intergovernmental organisations • individual academics with research grants • market research agencies • historical sources • other data archives worldwide
Types of data • quantitative • micro data are the coded numerical responses to surveys with a separate record for each individual respondent • macro data are aggregate figures, for example country-level economic indicators • data formats include SPSS, Stata and tab delimited formats • qualitative • in-depth interviews, diaries, anthropological field notes and the complete answers to survey questions • data formats include Excel, Word and RTF
Data collection • 4,000+ datasets in the collection • 200+ new datasets are added each year • 40,000+ datasets distributed worldwide per year • Government data include: • the large-scale government surveys • Census data (for UK HE/FE via CRS)
Access to data • Data Catalogue and Major studies • online registration using Athens • agreement to End User Licence • anyone with an Athens id can register • some data are restricted to certain user types and/or purposes • instant download service • order data on CD • order data from another national archive • online data analysis tools - Nesstar
ESDS Nesstar Catalogue • nesstar.esds.ac.uk/webview.index.asp • online data exploration and analysis • large-scale government data, teaching datasets • frequencies • simple data analysis • graphs, pie-charts, scatterplots, maps • compute and recode • export tables to Excel and PDF • subset by case and/or variable • download in various formats
Help for users • Central help desk - accessing and using data and using the most popular data handling and analysis software • Four specialist dataservices • ESDS Government • ESDS International • ESDS Longitudinal • ESDS Qualidata
Help for users Each specialist service provides – • help desk and web site • dedicated survey pages • JISCmail news list • web-based FAQs • 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
Special Licence data • more detailed versions of Annual Population Survey, Labour Force Survey, 2001 Census (HSAR) • justification for access to more detailed data/description intended use • clauses on • standards and methods for disclosure control for any outputs • right of depositor to screen outputs • data and site security • data destruction • Sanctions
Possible future developments • Bespoke data analysis service based on cost recovery • Nesstar • time series • widening access to commercial users
Contact www.esds.ac.uk help@esds.ac.uk ESDS FAQ: www.esds.ac.uk/about/faq.asp