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The article "Editors' notes: Assessing needs and developing solutions" is from the IASSIST Quarterly journal. It discusses various topics related to assessing needs and developing solutions in the field of data management. The article highlights papers that introduce tools developed by different institutions to address operational challenges. These tools include a self-assessment checklist for data repositories, a method to identify needs and challenges faced by members of the World Data System and Canadian CoreTrustSeal Pilot, national surveys to gauge institutions' readiness for developing research data management strategies, and a controlled vocabulary for mapping social sciences survey variables. Additionally, the article describes a project that digitized a collection of old Yoruba newspapers in Nigeria to preserve their historical value. [Extracted from the article]

From July 2022 to December 2022, the World Data System (WDS) International Technology (ITO) and International Program (IPO) Offices conducted a review of strategic plans and technical roadmaps of all current WDS members and the set of Canadian repositories that participated in the Digital Research Alliance of Canada's CoreTrustSeal Certification Support and Funding Pilotv (Digital Research Alliance of Canada, 2022). In this paper, we describe how a new organizational assessment method was designed and utilized to identify the needs and challenges faced by the WDS and Canadian CTS Pilot members. Our method relied on reviewing public-facing documentation provided by the repositories, with a priority on strategic plans and technical road maps. In total, we reviewed 95 sources of information, including 33 strategic plans and 3 technical roadmaps describing a total of 95 out of the original 147 target organizations. In this paper, we also describe our assessment tool and the overarching challenges and goals we identified through the usage of this tool. Finally, we will describe the limitations of our methodology and provide recommendations from the World Data System on how best to assist the WDS members and the cohort of Canadian data repositories based on our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Editors' notes: Developing systems to encourage FAIR and secure research data" is the first issue of Volume 48 of the IASSIST Quarterly journal. It features three papers that discuss different aspects of researchers' use of data archives. The first paper analyzes the search strategies of users of a social science data archive and suggests ways to improve their experience. The second paper describes the development of a web interface to make archival materials findable and accessible. The third paper discusses the development of training materials for researchers accessing restricted data through a virtual desktop environment. The article also mentions the ability for authors to link their ORCID iDs to their publications in the journal. [Extracted from the article]

Geospatial data includes many formats, varying from historical paper maps, to digital information collected by various sensors. Many libraries have started the efforts to build a geospatial data portal to connect users with the various information. For example, GeoBlacklight and OpenGeoportal are two open-source projects that initiated from academic institutions which have been adopted by many universities and libraries for geospatial data discovery. While several recent studies have focused on the metadata, usability and data collection perspectives of geospatial data portals, not many have explored the backend stories about data management to support the data discovery platform. The objective of this paper is to provide a summary about geospatial data management strategies involved in the geospatial data portal development by reviewing related projects. These data management strategies include managing the historical paper maps, scanned maps, aerial photos, research generated geospatial information, and web map services. This paper focuses on the data organization, storage, cyberinfrastructure configuration, preservation and sharing perspectives of these efforts with the goal to provide a range of options or best management practices for information managers when curating geospatial data in their own institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mzuzu University lost its Library as a result of a fire that took place on December 18, 2015. In response, the university established two processes to ensure the library services were not interrupted. The first process was to restore information services within six months by creating an interim Library. The second was to design a new library in collaboration with Virginia Tech's School of Architecture and Design in the United States. A total of three conceptual designs were developed, from which Mzuzu University selected a final design. One key aspect of each conceptual design was a dedicated space for a data centre. The initial concept was that the data centre would support research activities at the University, within Malawi, and with international partners outside Malawi, such as Virginia Tech. This paper captures the anticipations and aspirations of the key stakeholders involved with the library design project at Mzuzu University in Malawi and Virginia Tech in the USA. Data were captured by a survey that was shared via email with 29 stakeholders. A total of 10 responded at Mzuzu University, and 12 responded at Virginia Tech. A key finding from the survey was the need to create clear plans for each aspect of the project to ensure the effective implementation of the data centre. Critical aspects to the project include staffing, equipment procurement, the management of the data centre, data literacy programming, and the long-term sustainability of the data centre. Developing a policy/process to guide the operations of the data centre was also found to be critical. The library construction began in February 2021 and is expected to end in February 2023. Having a clear plan for how the data centre could be operationalized will be essential to ensuring the centre is successful. The data centre will be a new facility for the university and this paper is a first step towards shaping the requirements of, and potential for, this new facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the creation of the social science data bank in Estonia, wikis and the importance of data archives.

As researchers consider making their data available to others, they are concerned with the responsible use of data. As a result, they often seek to place restrictions on secondary use. The Research Connections archive at ICPSR makes available the datasets of dozens of studies related to childcare and early education. Of the 103 studies archived to date, 20 have some restrictions on access. While ICPSR's data access systems were designed primarily to accommodate public use data (i.e. data without disclosure concerns) and potentially disclosive data, our interactions with depositors reveal a more nuanced range of the needs for restricting use. Some data present a relatively low risk of threatening participants' confidentiality, yet the data producers still want to monitor who is accessing the data and how they plan to use them. Other studies contain data with such a high risk of disclosure that their use must be restricted to a virtual data enclave. Still other studies rest on agreements with participants that require continuing oversight of secondary use by data producers, funders, and participants. This paper describes data producers' range of needs to restrict data access and discusses how systems can better accommodate these needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses two iterations of an effort to create a quantitative research module for a Master's in Nursing research methods course at the University of Windsor. The first version involved a single three-hour class incorporating both lecture and hands-on practice, followed by an assignment to independently locate and analyze a dataset. The second version was both more extensive and more structured, with a three-hour lecture, an assigned reading, a three-hour practice session, and an analysis assignment using a preselected data set. This paper compares feedback from the two iterations of the module and explains what worked and what did not work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue about data archives.

Over the past two decades significant developments have occurred in the archiving of qualitative data in the UK. The first national archive for qualitative resources, Qualidata, was established in 1994. Since that time further scientific reviews have supported the expansion of data resources for qualitative and qualitative longitudinal (QL) research in the UK and fuelled the development of a new ethos of data sharing and re-use among qualitative researchers. These have included the Timescapes Study and Archive, an initiative funded from 2007 to scale up QL research and create a specialist resource of QL data for sharing and re-use. These trends are part of a wider movement to enhance the status of research data in all their diverse forms, inculcate an ethos of data sharing, and develop infrastructure to facilitate data discovery and re-use. In this paper we trace the history of these developments and provide an overview of data policy initiatives that have set out to advance data sharing in the UK. The paper reveals a mixed infrastructure for qualitative and QL data resources in the UK, and explores the value of this, along with the implications for managing and co-ordinating resources across a complex network. The paper concludes with some suggestions for developing this mixed infrastructure to further support data sharing and re-use in the UK and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008, Qatar University's Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), has been collecting nationally representative survey data on social and economic issues. In 2017, SESRI leadership established an Archiving Unit tasked with data preservation and dissemination both for internal purposes and with the intent of disseminating select data to the public for secondary analysis. This paper reviews the lessons learned from creating a data archive in an emerging economy where both cultural and political sensitivities exist amid diverse groups of stakeholders. Challenges have included recruiting trained personnel, developing policies for data selection and workflow objectives, processing restricted and non-restricted datasets and metadata, data security issues, and promoting usage. Additionally, there is hope that the presence of the Archiving Unit adds value for other SESRI research staff involved in the design, collection, documentation, and processing of studies. After successfully addressing these challenges over the past year, the Archive met its objective to launch a data center at the Institute's website (http://sesri.qu.edu.qa) and to make multiple datasets available for public download from it. Also, to be discussed are the tools, processes and leveraging of resources that are being implemented as the archiving process continues to evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aligning data and research infrastructure is, as our daily work often reminds us, a difficult process. While data professionals often focus on research lifecycles, incentives, storage and transmission technologies, metadata and data sharing we tend to overlook the epistemological incongruences of diverse research and data practices. All data creation processes, even if unknowingly, make assumptions about the world and what exists as a unique unit that can be analyzed. In attempting to make data meaningful to different audiences, especially across disciplines, we must pay attention to these epistemological assumptions. Failure to do so will inevitably frustrate our attempts to develop meaningful infrastructure for research data and even potentially undermine effective research through misunderstandings of data. Looking at census and zip code data as examples, this paper explores the issue of unit of analysis as an example of such disciplinary epistemological assumptions. The complexities that arise even in these simple examples suggest the importance of addressing the theoretical complexities of dealing with data collections, management and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this paper the situation of qualitative longitudinal (QL) research and archiving systems in Lithuania is presented along with an overview of existing research cultural issues and trends. It is highly important to stress that qualitative longitudinal research in this country is experiencing a new prominence as for many years the quantitative tradition was predominant in the scientific community. Finally a few statements will be made on possible constructive ways to develop further existing resources and infrastructure for qualitative archiving and for QL research and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Secure Data Service is a secure environment funded by the ESRC to provide researcher access to disclosive micro data either from their offices, safe rooms in their institutions or on site at the UK Data Archive. Operation is legally framed by the 2007 statistics Act which makes possible access to the confidential data for statistical purposes. This short paper introduces this new UK Data Archive service and proposed specifications, as well as challenges facing data service providers. We envision that the proposed SDS infrastructure will meet the requirements of the data security model. The paper also aims to be an exemplar for a secure remote access practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers need to be able to find, access, and use data to participate in open science. To understand how users search for research data, we analyzed textual queries issued at a large social science data archive, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). We collected unique user queries from 988,475 user search sessions over four years (2012-16). Overall, we found that only 30% of site visitors entered search terms into the ICPSR website. We analyzed search strategies within these sessions by extending existing dataset search taxonomies to classify a subset of the 1,554 most popular queries. We identified five categories of commonly-issued queries: keyword-based (e.g., date, place, topic); name (e.g., study, series); identifier (e.g., study, series); author (e.g., institutional, individual); and type (e.g., file, format). While the dominant search strategy used short keywords to explore topics, directed searches for known items using study and series names were also common. We further distinguished exploratory browsing from directed search queries based on their page views, refinements, search depth, duration, and length. Directed queries were longer (i.e., they had more words), while sessions with exploratory queries had more refinements and associated page views. By comparing search interactions at ICPSR to other natural language interactions in similar web search contexts, we conclude that dataset search at ICPSR is underutilized. We envision how alternative search paradigms, such as those enabled by recommender systems, can enhance dataset search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings on existing potentials for the establishment of social sciences digital data archives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. Findings are based on a standardized survey that was conducted in all three countries on representative sample of social sciences researchers, with a 63% average rate of completed questionnaires. Results of the survey show that the potential for establishment of digital data archives in all considered countries are large, regarding the scope of data produced, as well as positive attitude of researchers toward data sharing and benefits of data archives. Also, results point to lack of knowledge in dealing with metadata as the main obstacle for data sharing, which further implies that existence of national data archives, with staff trained to underpin researchers' efforts in process of data documentation and preservation, should be very beneficial for the future development of social sciences in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without controlled index terms, data retrieval within a data catalogue becomes at best hit and miss. The UK Data Archive manages two thesauri: the multilingual ELSST thesaurus, and the monolingual HASSET thesaurus, from which ELSST is derived. Over the last year, through funding from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Archive has developed both of these thesauri, plus their management applications, and created linkages between them. Extending ISO 25964, the Archive has developed a way of mapping its social science thesauri to facilitate cross-national data retrieval. It has also created SKOS formats and is developing a new and innovative application for thesaurus management which combines term visualisation with tree structures. The two thesauri now share a clearly defined, common set of core concepts, but have room for divergence. The new application will allow terms to be promoted to the core set, where they exhibit partial or exact equivalence, or be demoted to 'non-core'. The application allows authorised language equivalents to be added to ELSST terms. Bundled suggestions will also be made for changes to the thesaurus terms or structure, linked to the tree structure. This paper describes the new application and the processes used within the Archive for thesaurus management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Survey Research Data Archive (SRDA) is the largest data archive in Taiwan and in Asia. It collects not only survey data in social sciences but also raw data of major government statistics. These archived data have made significant contributions to research. Data and remote access service are provided without charge. In addition, an English website along with the English version of the data and their metadata will be available by mid-2013. To improve the search efficiency and promote itself among domestic researchers, SRDA began to launch a series of projects around June of 2011. These include the revision of abstracts, the construction of new search functions, and the compiling and circulating of a power point concerning the use of SRDA. This paper documents the endeavors, reports the current progress, and reflects on the experiences learned from the developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do researchers need from archives? What do archives need from researchers? These questions cover two types of researchers that encounter data archives: those who create the data (data creators) and those who re-use it (data re-users). These groups have different needs and archives mediate between them. The role of an archive for creators and re-users is to support them in producing quality data, metadata and documentation and to facilitate wide and multipurpose data dissemination. By supporting multipurpose reuse, to the fullest extent possible, archives help realize the value of public investment in academic research. This paper discusses the optimization of research data management training and support for research data creators, and data dissemination and long-term preservation for social science data archives. It outlines the GESIS plan to create a research data management and archive training centre for the European research area, to cater to both data supply and data demand. The training centre will look to ensure excellence in the creation and long-term preservation of reusable data in the European Research area, contribute to promoting and to the adoption of standards in research data management, and promote data availability and reuse. Finally, the centre will provide and coordinate training on technologies and tools used by data professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a brief overview on practices of archiving and re-using social scientific data in Poland. We start from drafting our diagnosis of the field, then move to some concrete examples of relevant initiatives. Most of them are of non academic character and are focused on oral history documentation and research project (which we count among qualitative research); some examples of longitudinal studies are also mentioned. Finally we are trying to formulate key problems impeding development of the field - without loosing conviction, they will be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors briefly describe the current situation in the field of quantitative research in Belarus and analyse the existing qualitative resources in this country. The major finding of the paper is that sociologists in Belarus have not yet adopted a professional culture of sharing research information. Therefore, the resources of most surveys are not available for observation and use for anyone else except for the "owner" of this information. The authors conclude that a specially elaborated strategy for involving Belarus in European-wide research activities and the inclusion of Belarusian scholars in all-European professional associations is needed: it may help to bring the professional culture of sharing data into professional practice in Belarus, and make qualitative research more transparent to all scholars and the public in Belarus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the work of the Wiener Institute for Social Science Data Documentation and Methods (WISDOM). Since 2008 WISDOM, the national quantitative data archive, has endeavoured to set up an archive for qualitative data. A feasibility study was conducted to evaluate the number and condition of available datasets. Moreover, researchers were surveyed about their willingness to deposit and use archived data. This study as well as a following project, aimed at transferring data from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna to the archive, show that researchers have serious concerns about sharing and archiving data. Ethical and methodological questions were raised. In addition, obstacles such as time-consuming data preparation and the agreement of funding agencies were mentioned. Since there exists neither an archiving policy in Austria that obliges researchers to deposit their data in a repository nor a culture of data sharing, we are confronted with many obstacles that have to be overcome. Our successes and challenges in starting a qualitative archive shall be described here in greater detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Irish Qualitative Data Archive (IQDA) was established in 2008 with initial funding for three years under the fourth cycle of the Irish Government's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI4). IQDA aims to become the central access point for Irish qualitative social science data, including interviews, pictures and other non-numerical material. We have established protocols to ensure that newly generated qualitative data are documented and stored in ways that facilitate sharing and re-use through online access. Currently we are developing our digital infrastructure, piloting a number of initial collections and building a catalogue of Irish qualitative research. The catalogue has already begun the process of mapping potentially available data, and on the basis of that survey we provide an overview of the kinds of qualitative data that could be archived in Ireland. This paper also reports on: the funding situation for social science research and policies in relation to archiving, IQDA's role in national social science research, our progress to date and the potential obstacles to and benefits of qualitative archiving in Ireland. Information about the archive can be found at www.iqda.ie [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia is responsible for providing accurate and timely statistical information for development planning and monitoring purposes. To fulfill its responsibility CSA has been engaged in utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to facilitate its data processing, archiving and dissemination system so that the required statistical information can be generated and reaches the users. CSA is considered to be one of the leading institutions in Ethiopia in utilizing ICT to accomplish its basic tasks. The CSA started its computerized statistical data production by utilizing the IBM System/3 with 12k CPU.Currently the agency is handling its statistical data archiving and dissemination through high capacity servers and a reliable network infrastructure. The paper based dissemination and restricted access to the CSA data has undergone significant improvements. The DDI application has improved the metadata documentation as the CSA metadata is now archived and disseminated to an internationally accepted standard. Utilization of GIS in providing easy access to geographic data for decision makers has shown a significant improvement as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The LibGuides platform is a ubiquitous tool in academic libraries and is commonly used by librarians to compile and share lists of recommended social science numerical data resources with users. This study leverages the machine-accessible nature of the LibGuides platform to collect links to data and statistical resources from over 10,000 LibGuide pages at 123 R1 research institutions in the United States. After substantial data cleaning and normalization, an analysis of the most common resources on those guides provides a unique window into the data repositories, libraries, archives, statistical data platforms, and other machine-readable data sources that are most popular on academic library guides. Results show that freely available resources from U.S. government agencies are among the most common to be included on data and statistical resources guides across institutions. Resources requiring paid licenses or memberships for full access, such as Statistical Insight (ProQuest), Social Explorer, and ICPSR are linked to most frequently overall, regardless of the percentage of institutions that include them. Findings also suggest that libraries are more likely to share traditional licensed statistical resources (e.g., Cambridge's Historical Statistics of the United States) and collections of simple charts and graphs (e.g., Statista) than more robust and complex microdata resources (e.g., IPUMS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What factors make data repositories successful in recruiting research data deposits from scholars? While quite a few studies outline researchers' data management needs and how repositories can meet those needs, few have assessed the success of various approaches. This study examines infrastructure for accepting data into repositories and identifies factors influential in recruiting data deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a social science data archive, we focus on collecting and archiving research data. However, there are more responsibilities that come with data archiving: cooperation on international social surveys (ISSP, ESS), supporting secondary data analysis, and much more. A significant part of our work is to communicate with students and researchers, and to educate them about data management and data analysis. Although the relationship we have is functional and seems sufficient, we tend to ask ourselves: who are the data archive users and what do they expect from us?. We decided to employ user-centered design methods and tools to define a typical user of our services, find their motivations for using our data archive and the specific functions they do (or do not) use and appreciate, and thereby get a better understanding of their needs. Moreover, we wondered about the role of open science and its impact on the users' needs and future requirements arising from the open science environment. The information obtained is a starting point for redesigning archival services to satisfy new demands our users have regarding more data resources, new techniques for scientific work, and better interconnection between different platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accompanying the growing importance of research data management, the provision and maintenance of metadata - understood as data about (research) data - have obtained a key role in contextualizing, understanding, and preserving research data. Acknowledging the importance of metadata in the social sciences, the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) started the Metadata Office project in 2019. This project report presents the various activities of the Metadata Office (MDO). Metadata models, schemas, controlled vocabularies and thesauri are covered, including the MDO's collaboration with the DDI Alliance on multilingual translations of DDI vocabularies for CESSDA Service Providers. The report also summarizes the communication, training and advice provided by MDO, including DDI use across CESSDA, illustrates the impact of the project for the social sciences and research data management community, and offers an outline regarding future plans of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As data skills are incorporated into academic curriculum and data becomes more widely available and used in everyday life, many librarians find themselves serving as 'accidental' data librarians in their subject areas, a phenomenon widely discussed at conferences (including IASSIST), in publications, and in the field at large. Due to this evolving landscape and growing data need, it is increasingly important for librarians to be familiar with data resources and able to answer secondary data reference questions. To learn more about this area of librarianship, this study uses survey responses from librarians who answer data questions to explore the challenges and frustrations that arise from data reference questions and interactions. Our key findings reveal that frustrations are ever present in data reference regardless of how much experience a librarian has, and many frustrations arise due to factors such as patron expectations, subject-specific and data-related jargon, and data formats and accessibility, some of which are beyond the data librarian's control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For social and economic researchers, many useful but previously unavailable sources of data have become at least potentially accessible in recent years. These 'new and novel' forms of data (NNfD), such as social media data or smart meter data, represent potentially invaluable resources for researchers, but pose challenges for access provision and analysis. This short article introduces Data Service as a Platform (DSaaP), a project currently underway at the UK Data Service to establish a technological infrastructure supporting data archivists and social and economic researchers in managing and analysing both familiar and new and novel forms of data. It presents an overview of NNfD in social science contexts, introduces the DSaaP system, and sketches short examples of DSaaP capabilities in analysing NNfD, drawn from an associated UKDS project Smarter Household Energy Data: infrastructure for policy and planning, before concluding with some reflections on the potential value added to social scientific research by Data Service as a Platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the opportunities and challenges for research in the date revolution, which include trust, data access policy to prevent unauthorized data access, need of data skills and its lack in the broader community, and data infrastructure of data archive.

The GESIS Data Catalogue contains the study descriptions for all archived studies at GESIS, currently more than 5000 datasets mainly from survey research in the social sciences. These descriptions include information about primary researchers, research topics and objects, used methods, and the resulting dataset, which is mainly used for archiving and retrieval in order to serve secondary researchers. For this purpose the existing metadata can be enriched with further information about the study investigators, involved affiliations, collection dates, content, and more from other sources like DBpedia or the Name Authority File of the German National Library. In recent years the paradigm of Linked Open Data (LOD) encouraged various research organizations to expose their data to the web according to Semantic Web standards. This has increased the number of available data sources and the feasibility of their reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is written in appreciation of the pioneering contribution made by Sue Dodd to what we would now call metadata standards for research data files. It describes two occasions when I had good cause to cite her work, the first when writing in 1984/5 about data libraries and how these might develop in the UK. The context is the early years of Edinburgh University Data Library and the visit by Sue Dodd to present at a seminar and workshop in London and Edinburgh. The second occasion for citation was almost 30 years later, when writing about digital preservation of scholarly statement. That gives opportunity to place her work in the context of the new forms of scholarly publication in which research data form an increasing part, with new need to ensure appropriate citation for webbased resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to prove and improve trustworthiness is an issue not only for new archives but also for those who have been doing this job successfully for a considerable time. But what happens when an established data archive faces the challenges of certification and audit processes? Founded in 1960, the GESIS Data Archive for the Socials Sciences has been "in the business" for more than 50 years and is one of the oldest archives in Germany to preserve electronic resources for the long term. Driven by a growing awareness of the needs of its stakeholders, who have to be sure that the data they produce, use, or fund is treated according to common standards, the Data Archive started a process of audit and certification within the European Framework for Audit and Certification. After giving an overview of the GESIS Data Archive and the European Framework for Audit and Certification, this article describes how existing workflows were evaluated with regard to the requirements of the chosen level of certification. While the workflows themselves are already in place, in some cases the evaluation process showed a lack of appropriate documentation. Suitable documents have to be created and made available to the public. In some cases, this process has to be accompanied by discussions within the institution about the mission and goals of the archive. In our experience, these can be very productive and lead to a common understanding and an improvement of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote data access, defined as the ability of a researcher to access and evaluate restricted micro data via a secure internet connection from his home desktop computer at any time, has not been implemented by a German Research Data Centre (RDC) so far. Privacy regulations and especially the problem of access control are reasons why German RDCs are not able to offer restricted data via remote data access to the research community. By initiating the "RDC-in-RDC" approach, the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany, aims to bring data access in Germany closer to the ideal perception of remote access. The basic idea is to allow remote data access from designated institutions with comparable standards at locations other than Nuremberg. In a first step, access to BA and IAB data will be granted from four sites in Germany and one site in the US. Moreover, the RDCin- RDC approach represents a change of paradigms in two respects. First, data access will be decentralised and the FDZ literally brings its data closer to the researchers. Second, data of the FDZ will be accessible from abroad so the dissemination of micro data will be no longer restricted to national borders. The RDC-in-RDC approach may therefore be regarded as a first step towards remote access in Germany and may also represent a blue print for an intensified international data sharing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report starts from recognition that the archiving of qualitative raw materials that achieved a status of national cultural heritage, has been part of long established and well elaborated Slovenian national policy on preserving historical materials of national importance. A well established network of regional and national museums and archives operates a service of preservation, and of access for scientific purposes. On the other hand, despite a rich and flourishing tradition of academic (and even private) qualitative research in Slovenia, in most cases all that remains after a project is finished is a research report. Still, besides official traditional archives and museums, there is a range of topic-specific public qualitative data resources, e.g. archives of Slovenian Radio and Television, and some emerging infrastructure for preserving the qualitative data originating from social science research projects (ETNOINFOLAB [http://www.etnoinfolab.org/]). Qualitative longitudinal resources for re-use were identified with similar problems as are found elsewhere. In conclusion we observed that the problems of qualitative data archiving are not insurmountable, as generally there is willingness, and much valuable material identified. International and national collaboration could help in optimising resources allocation, and an explicit national policy on data archiving would be a prerequisite for future success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany as in many other countries there is an abundance of experience with secondary analysis of quantitative data. In particular, the GESIS 'Data Archive and Data Analysis' in Cologne has for more than 50 years supported and promoted this tradition of social science and multidisciplinary research by providing the opportunity to use a wide range of social science data for secondary analysis. A similar picture cannot be drawn for the area of qualitative research in Germany. In spite of the growing relevance of qualitative methods since the 1970s, there is no widespread culture of data sharing in qualitative research nor can one find an institution providing a user-oriented data service for qualitative material on a nationwide scale. In view of this situation the Archive for Life Course Research (ALLF) at the University of Bremen addresses itself to the task of improving the unsatisfactory methodological and data-related conditions through planning for national archival development. As a first step, a nationwide feasibility study on archiving and secondary use of qualitative interview data has been conducted. Drawing on the results of the feasibility study, this contribution reports on the culture of sharing and archiving qualitative research data in Germany, the support for such a service infrastructure, already existing archiving infrastructure, and last but not least, the development planning for the next two years. Due to the ALLF's holdings and the particular value of this kind of data, this overview of the German situation includes a special attention to longitudinal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Finnish Social Science Data archive started archiving qualitative data in 2003. Many researchers found this to be highly problematic. Their main reason for opposing the archiving of qualitative data was research ethics. Researchers who oppose the archiving of qualitative interviews mainly appeal to the confidential nature of the interview situation. This kind of argument against archiving is put under scrutiny in this article. It covers issues such as the presentation of research subjects and the understanding of research relationship. Researchers tend to define the interview relationship as unpredictable and private, and interviewees as helpless participants in need of protection. In contrast, the interviewees themselves define the relationship as an institutional one aiming to foster science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the time of the Bremen workshop in 2009, there was no Swiss institution responsible for archiving qualitative social science data collected in Switzerland. Since that time, the Swiss institution FORS (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences) has assumed this role, with development of the infrastructure, policy, and know-how needed for implementation. The archiving of qualitative data at FORS is now moving forward in close collaboration with Swiss universities with established and strong qualitative research traditions. Over time, the success of qualitative data archiving at FORS will require the support of research funding institutions and policymakers, enhanced educational initiatives at universities, promotion of the value and potential of secondary data analysis, and a well-equipped and staffed archive that serves also as a network node and resource centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hungary, like in many of the former socialist countries, regardless of ongoing research projects based on qualitative data, archives of such research data are sporadic and fragmented. The strong tradition of sociological research produced a vast amount of qualitative social data but no infrastructure was developed to capture, organize and make available these data sets for further analysis. In most cases the secondary analysis or the long-term preservation of these valuable collections is hindered by institutional and disciplinary boundaries as well as a culture of unwillingness to share data in the humanities and social sciences. In Hungary future progress can only be expected if legal barriers are removed or addressed at the policy level; if the underlying infrastructure offers an attractive set of tools for future data collectors; if potential researcher's become aware of the improved access to data; and finally, if preservation best practices, standards, and benchmarking are spread among custodians of the content. It remains an open question which approach is more appropriate: creating a central data repository or setting up a decentralized network of institutions and individuals which can lead to inter-operable platforms to share content and know-how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the situation for archiving qualitative data in Denmark. Presently Denmark does not have infrastructure for preserving or sharing qualitative data. A pilot project aimed at developing documentation standards is being carried out at the moment. Based on this project and recommendations from fellow data archives with established services for qualitative data, a launch of a service for qualitative data will be made in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]