1. Karen Dennison Collections Development Manager
The UK Data Service
Karen Dennison
Collections Development Manager
Presentation to Statistics User Forum

2. What is the UK Data Service?
Funded by the ESRC
Single point of access to a wide range of secondary social science data
Made up of the former services ESDS, Census.ac.uk and the Secure Data Service
Delivered by staff based at universities across the UK (Essex, Manchester, Leeds, Southampton, Edinburgh, UCL)
UK Data Archive – manages the UK Data Service and curates the data

3. Key activities
Selecting data according to Collections Development Policy
Acquiring data
Long term preservation
Providing access
Data and documentation
Providing support
Data management
Data use – help desk, user guides
Training, workshops, user groups

4. Who is it for? Academic researchers and students Government analysts
Charities and foundations
Business consultants
Independent research centres
Think tanks

5. Main data types Aggregate Survey data Other data
International macrodata
1971, 1981, 1991, 2001, 2011 census data
Survey data
Government surveys
Census (1991, 2001 SARS)
Other important UK surveys
International comparative surveys
Other data
Mixed methods
Qualitative

6. Benefits of depositing
Long-term safekeeping
Data have high visibility/are searchable
Records include rich and structured content
Administer access and queries on your behalf
Increased use and acknowledgement of data in publications and collaborations
Foster dialogue e.g. feedback, user groups
Usage reports and impact

7. Preparing your data for sharing
Identify suitable place of deposit
Consent
Copyright
Anonymisation
Access control
Documentation
Technical reports, user guides, questionnaires
Variable and value labels
Formats

8. Offer your data
If your data are ESRC-funded, upload them to our data repository ReShare
Otherwise, to offer any data you think might fit into our collection
Describe your data and documentation
Our Data Appraisal Group will assess your data according to our Collections Development Policy criteria
We will either accept the data into our core collection or advise you to use our/an institutional repository

9. Collections Development Policy criteria
These criteria are driven by the UK Data Service’s governing board, the ESRC’s Research Data Policy and the National Data Strategy.
The data should be suitable for:
re-use for research purposes
teaching and learning use
replication and validation of research
Should the data fulfil one or more of the above, we consider additional criteria such as whether the data:
fill a gap in the collection and / or have been requested by users
complement or enhance existing data
are of high quality
have international, scientific or historical value
have been recommended for acquisition by e.g. the governing board or the National Data Strategy

10. How to deposit with us Complete Send
Data deposit form – feeds into online data catalogue record
Licence Agreement – authorises us to preserve and distribute your data under the terms and conditions specified (or consider a ‘Concordat’ to cover any data)
Send
Data and documentation

11. Data access spectrum Open Safeguarded
End User Licence
Special Conditions
Online agreement
Depositor permission
Special Licence
Controlled – secure remote access
Possibility for multiple versions
UK Data Archive - certified for its secure data handling procedures under the international ISO standard for information security

12. Data and documentation processing
Pre-processing check
Data and documentation materials complete and usable
Identifies any obvious problems early in the process
Confidentiality issues
Quantitative data
Variables and values checked, metadata added where necessary
Alternative formats created: SPSS, STATA, tab-delimited ASCII
Qualitative data
Usually interview transcripts, occasionally audio/video
RTF format, occasionally PDF

13. Data and documentation processing
PDF documentation files created where possible
Most PDF documentation attached to the catalogue record, provides good information for users
When processing complete, materials archived, catalogue record created and download packages created (one for each data format).
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) allocated.
Some studies added to online browsing tool – Nesstar
Secure Access studies – processing techniques similar, work carried out within specialised environment

14. Prepare and manage data http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data.aspx
Deposit data
Karen Dennison