Data access & conditions

European Cooperation in Social Science Data Dissemination

4. Facilitating Access to Available Data Resources

While the archives concentrated their efforts to date on developing their national resources and agreeing on routines for data exchange, they now are working towards integrating the European database. Beyond acquiring and archiving data, they have to verify, document and publicise the data. Accessibility and use of data will be increased by providing a set of integrated instruments and procedures tying together the process of search for and the statistical analysis of the data desired. Prototype versions of these tools have been developed for mainframe and PC applications. The integrated data catalogue on the Internet already supports the worldwide search in the holdings off all participating archives.
 

The CESSDA Integrated Data Catalogue

The user will be provided with study descriptions for all data sets that might be relevant for his query. In a next step, he then could download or order the desired datasets from the respective archive.

Building on these experiences, now even more comfortable support facilities are being constructed. The ILSES project aims to develop an integrated service to access and retrieve documentary information and empirical data related to large-scale surveys, such as the EUROBAROMETERS. ILSES is designed to serve both, end users and content providers of socio-economic information. Direct access to the data for selected variables, mounting in statistical analysis and references to related literature, which has been based on former analysis of this data, will be supported⁵. The NESSTAR project is designed to provide an enhanced version of the Integrated Data Catalogue, search tools for thematic retrieval of variables from data sets, a data browsing and visualisation system and an authentication system to facilitate access to more sensitive data sets⁶. Both projects are supported by the Telematics Applications Programme of the European Commission.

Due to the lack of standardisation in social research, the database has to be harmonised to enrich research on Europe. This is a conceptually, technologically and methodologically demanding task. Since contemporary structures of social research still are geared to national needs, these additional challenges can hardly be tackled with given resources. Also, while focusing on Europe, there is a growing demand for global perspectives. As lessons from integrating the datasets from the 30 countries of the International Social Survey (ISSP) tell, European diversity sometimes tends to resemble complete harmony, when compared to e.g. Japan, Philippines or some of the emerging democracies. But the strive for harmonisation on the data and metadata level should consider from the beginning provisions for compatibility with developments outside Europe. The exchange of experiences in organisational networks is an essential prerequisite to take full advantage of the scientific communities expertise for achievements beyond technological progress in computer networks. Wherever they exist, experiences from data users and user associations should be included in these perspectives.