Social Science Datasets

September 2010

John Kaye – Social Sciences Dataset Lead

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Datasets Session

British Library Datasets Programme Economic and Social Data Service Other Sources of Data Analysis Tools Data Visualization Citing Data Depositing and Archiving

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What is a dataset?

Seismic measurements taken by a geologist.

Genetic data collected by a medical researcher.

A survey of public opinions collected by a sociologist.

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The Foundation for Research

Data is a crucial component of the scholarly record.

Re-acquisition may be impossible

Datasets are essential to the British Library’s mission to advance the World’s knowledge.

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The Datasets Programme

We envision a future where researchers can:

Discover, access, reuse, and reference datasets.

Track the impact of the data that they generate and receive appropriate credit.

Our approach is to:

Provide a focus for the community to establish needs, requirements and agreement.

Explore novel technology and creative solutions.

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Search Our Catalogue

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Search Our Catalogue (Portals)

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Projects – Search Our Catalogue (Portals)

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Resource Guides

Topical Bibliographies and Dataset Resource Guides are currently in production

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpsubject/socsci/topbib/bibliographies.html

Quantitative methods in social research (Published)Management and Business Studies (October 2010)Before End 2010:

Sport and Society and Olympics Food Studies International organisations UK government data

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Economic and Social Data Service - (ESDS)

http://www.esds.ac.uk/

ESDS Government large-scale government surveys, such as the Labour Force Survey and

the General Household Survey

ESDS International multi-nation databanks, such as World Bank's World Development

Indicators, and survey data including Eurobarometer

ESDS Longitudinal major UK surveys following individuals over time, such as the British

Household Panel Survey

ESDS Qualidata a range of multimedia qualitative data sources

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Economic and Social Data Service - (ESDS)

Data search and download

Research method guides

Thematic guides

Online analysis

Survey Question Bankhttp://surveynet.ac.uk/sqb/

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Other Sources of Data – Spatial Data

Go Geo! Searchhttp://www.gogeo.ac.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Edina Digimap and UK Bordershttp://edina.ac.uk/digimap/http://edina.ac.uk/ukborders/

Experian Mosaic data (Geodemographics/Market Research)http://cdu.mimas.ac.uk/experian/index.htm

Landmaphttp://landmap.mimas.ac.uk/

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Other Sources of Data – UK Government

http://data.gov.uk/

Office for National Statistics

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

National Digital Archive of Datasets

http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Census Data – casweb

http://casweb.mimas.ac.uk/

Regional Government

http://data.london.gov.uk/

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Other Sources of Data – International Organisations

United Nations

http://data.un.org/

European Union

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/

OECD

http://www.oecd.org/statsportal/

World Bank

http://data.worldbank.org/

IMF

http://www.imf.org/external/data.htm

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Examples of Other Sources of Data

Arts and Humanities data Service (AHDS)

http://ahds.ac.uk

Guardian Data Store

http://www.guardian.co.uk/data-store

Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/home/uk

Economist Intelligence Unit

http://www.eiu.com/Default.aspx

Web Archive

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/

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Analysis Tools and Software

SPSS, SATAArcGIS, MapInfo, IDRISIExcelOnline Tools

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Examples of Online Analysis Tools

ESDS NESSTAR

http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk

ESDS Spatial Tools

http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/gis/

Economists Online Dataverse

http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/NEEO

United Nations

http://data.un.org/Explorer.aspx

London Brownfield Sites Review

http://www.londonbrownfieldsites.org

CASA – Gmap Creator

http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp

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Data Visualization

Presenting data in a useful and interesting manner

Allowing concepts to be easlity understood

Lots of examples online e.g:

http://flowingdata.com/

http://datavisualization.ch/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog

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Citing Data

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DataCite

DataCite is an international consortium which aims to:

Establish easier access to research data on the Internet

Increase acceptance of research data as legitimate, citable contributions to the scholarly record

Support data archiving that will permit results to be verified and re-purposed for future study

http://datacite.org/

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A Key Component for Many Goals

MakeVisible

Find

AccessTrackImpact

Verify

Reuse

Cite

?Persistent

Identification

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Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) offer a solution

Mostly widely used identifier for scientific articles

Researchers, authors, publishers know how to use them

Put datasets on the same playing field as articles

Connecting an Article with the Underlying Data

DatasetYancheva et al (2007). Analyses on sediment of Lake Maar. PANGAEA.doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.587840

URLs are not persistent

(e.g. Wren JD: URL decay in MEDLINE- a 4-year follow-up study. Bioinformatics. 2008, Jun 1;24(11):1381-5).

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Depositing and Archiving Data

Why Archive?Institutional RepositoriesUK Data ArchiveMetadata and Code!

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John KayeLead Content Specialist – DatasetsSocial Science Collections and ResearchThe British Library96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB  Telephone: 020 7412 7450Email: john.kaye@bl.ukTwitter: @johnkayebl

datasets@bl.uk