The World on a Plate: Building and supporting a new community of international data users Keith Cole, Susan Noble, Celia Russell & Nicholas Syrotiuk Economic and Social Data Service MIMAS, University of Manchester IASSIST May, Edinburgh, Scotland

Structure of the Talk  Economic and Social Data Service  ESDS International − Background − New user community − Supporting the users − Data use in teaching & research − International data use increasing globally?

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)  National data archiving and dissemination service for social science data  ESDS provides free access to, and support for a huge range of social and economic datasets for the HE and FE sectors  Jointly supported by JISC and the ESRC  Made up of four specialist data services; ESDS International, ESDS Government, ESDS Qualidata, ESDS Longitudinal

ESDS International  Led by MIMAS at the University of Manchester with support from the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex  Consortium approach – successful negotiation of UK wide data redistribution agreements with data providers  Provides the UK academic community with free web-based access to 29 key international macro databanks produced by organisations such as the United Nations, IMF, OECD and World Bank  Helps users to locate and acquire international micro level datasets

Barriers to use of international data Prohibitive data license costs Lack of awareness of available data Multiple non web-based interfaces Different service providers Multiple registration systems Absence of coordinated data acquisition strategy Size and complexity of datasets Problems in obtaining up-to-date data Lack of integrated user support service Lack of appropriate data handling skills

International data user community exceeds 4,000

International data themes Topics covered in the databanks include:  Economic performance and development  Trade, industry and markets  Employment  Demography, migration and health  Human development  Social expenditure  Education  Science and technology  Land use and the environment  Energy

The Data Portfolio The data portfolio is made up of 29 key socio-economic databases including: IMF Direction of Trade Statistics IMF International Finance Statistics World Bank World Development Indicators Eurostat New Cronos International Labour Organisation Key Indicators of the Labour Market United Nations Common Database OECD Main Economic Indicators UNIDO Industrial Statistics IEA Energy Statistics

Usage by database

An example we use in teaching:

Example from the World Development Indicators

Visualisation

Cross classified maps

Increasing intensity of use

Institutions using the data Number of unique users from top five institutions using the service, June 2003 – May 2005: London School of Economics and Political Science (436) University of Warwick (434) University of Manchester (287) University of Leicester (262) University of Portsmouth (250) Users from the top 20 institutions make up 69% of ESDS International user base

Data used in teaching High usage of the World Bank data and Eurostat data can largely be attributed to two sites using the data in teaching: –World Bank WDS site accessed 3163 times by 435 unique users from University of Warwick –Eurostat WDS site accessed 2096 times by 250 unique users from University of Portsmouth

International Data Users: Status

International Data Users: Discipline Very diverse range of users, though over 80% is made up of users from these disciplines: –52% Economics and Econometrics –12% Business and Management Studies –6.5% Library or Data/Information Centre –5.2% Accounting and Finance –4.8% Politics and International Studies –2.1% Geography –2.1% Sociology

Supporting the user Training Dedicated helpdesk Website including FAQs Mailing list Comprehensive supporting documentation for each dataset Software guides CommonGIS visualisation interface Data wishes

User queries - classification

Fishy user queries? The service attracts users from wide range of disciplines so queries can vary in subject and complexity, for example: ‘I am doing an econometrics project on the endogenous and exogenous effects of money supply and demand. I was wondering if you had any US historical data on "time deposit rates" from 1970 until today.’ ‘I have been trying to get information on Tilapia imports into the European Union from your website but I only seem to be able to get aggregated data on imports for all the species. Is there any way I could get data for only imports of tilapia into the European Union?.’ The Answer: Tilapia is a type of fish. Data on Tilapia imports into the EU is included in the ‘Other Freshwater Species’ data series in the EU trade in fishery products data table. There are 669 data tables in the Eurostat New Cronos database containing the word ‘Fish’ and 53 data tables containing ‘Other Freshwater Species’.

Some User Problems Missing data Locating data –Need for standardised metadata for subject, country, periodicity, time range, definitions Comparability –Some databanks better than others for comparing countries Understanding discrepancies between databanks –Theoretically identical data points different in different databases

Example of a data discrepancy

Why the service is so popular Up to date data – the databanks are updated with the latest releases Data free at point of use (licence costs paid centrally) Single web interface to all the databanks – users only have to learn it once Single portal for wide range of international databanks, links to other resources eg freely available data Consistent and comprehensive documentation Training, user support, responsive helpdesk

Growth of international data use globally? Increasing importance of international data due to accelerating globalisation Definite growth in UK academic use of the data Queries sent to IASSIST list Is this trend seen elsewhere?

IGO online interfaces SourceOECD: The OECD's Online Library of Statistical Databases, Books and Periodicals 180% increase in subscribers from 2002 – 2004 (169 and 479 respectively) Most subscribers in OECD countries but also includes 100 universities in Brazil Subscribers vary in size (huge universities or tiny ‘think- tanks’) From 2002 to ,600 Beyond 20/20 WDS files have been opened via SourceOECD User base is made up of 60% academic institutions, 25% government institutions, 10% other non-for-profit research institutions and the rest private sector.

IGO online interfaces World Bank website (page requests?) YearWorld Development Indicators Global Development Finance 20034,843,161496, ,328,326881, (Jan – Apr) 3,300,944563,530

ESDS International website Website is free to all and provides: –Comprehensive user guides for each dataset –Consistent, comparative documentation –Gateway to other sources of free international data and resources –Publications database –Visualisation interface –Searching across micro and macro international datasets will be available soon

ESDS International website

Geographical use of ESDS International website

Non UK requests to access the data

ESDS International: further work Continue delivery of portfolio with additional International Energy Agency databases coming online in the next couple of months Monitor demand for data and enhance portfolio in line with research council’s strategic policy Discover how data used – a major challenge! Continue promotional activities Develop enhanced on-line support materials (e.g. linking international macro and micro data)

Conclusions ESDS International has greatly improved usage of the international databanks in the UK. Now used by over 4.5 thousand people, with hundreds of new users each month. Before the existence of the service, the data was used by only a handful of institutions. It is now used by nearly 150 universities and colleges across the UK. Latest usage figure: 4982 on 23 May 2005

International data trends Astonishing growth of service in UK Possible latent demand for data around the world No reason this international data service model cannot be duplicated elsewhere

iGoStats is: an international online service providing access to, and support for, a wide range of statistics from intergovernmental organisations intended for the non UK international academic and corporate community via an annual subscription charge a joint venture launched by Databeuro and MIMAS, the national data centre based at University of Manchester Your single-source for international statistics

ESDS International