The UK Data Service is the largest digital repository for quantitative and qualitative social science and humanities research data in the United Kingdom. The organisation is funded by the UK government through the
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...
and is led by the
UK Data Archive
The UK Data Archive is a national centre of expertise in data archiving in the United Kingdom (UK). It houses the largest collection of social sciences and population digital data in the UK. It is certified under CoreTrustSeal as a trusted ...
at the
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...
, in partnership with other universities.
The service is free to data owners and free at the point of use to non-commercial data users.
History
The organisation developed from the
UK Data Archive
The UK Data Archive is a national centre of expertise in data archiving in the United Kingdom (UK). It houses the largest collection of social sciences and population digital data in the UK. It is certified under CoreTrustSeal as a trusted ...
, established at
Essex University
The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...
in 1967.
Its funder, the
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...
(part of
UK Research and Innovation
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding, funded through the science budget of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Str ...
) established the UK Data Service in its current form in October 2012. Besides the UK Data Archive, the partners are:
* Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research,
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
*
Jisc
Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector.
History
T ...
, a not-for-profit technology supplier
* Geography and Environment,
University of Southampton
, mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour
, type = Public research university
, established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...
*
EDINA
EDINA is a centre for digital expertise, based at the University of Edinburgh as a division of the Information Services Group.
Services
EDINA front-end services (those accessed directly by the user) are available free at the point of use for ...
, University of Edinburgh
* Department of Information Studies,
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
*
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) is a research centre at University College London (UCL), which specialises in the application and visualisation of spatial analytic techniques and simulation models to cities and regions. It is a con ...
, University College London
Rapid response to COVID-19
The UK Data Service enabled continued research access to data throughout the pandemic and the first COVID-19 datasets were made available in July 2020. Within six months of the pandemic they held their first online COVID-19 data dive with researchers and policy makers across the UK and beyond.
The organisation frequently advise at a national and international level on data governance, ethics and confidentiality. They advised the Cabinet office on its development of the draft data ethics framework, which influenced the implementation of the Digital Economy Act 2017, and are often called upon to input into government White Papers around the use of data for research.
In October 2013, the UK Data Service received additional funding to coordinate the Administrative Data Research Network (ADRN), the predecessor to ADR-UK, designed to streamline research access to data routinely collected by UK government departments and other agencies.
UK Data Service is listed in the
Registry of Research Data Repositories
The Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data.org) is an open science tool that offers researchers, funding organizations, libraries and publishers an overview of existing international repositories for research data.
Background
re3da ...
, re3data.org. It is part of the "trusted research environment" provided by the
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for th ...
.
Data access
The UK Data Service is commissioned to provide data access and support for researchers from all sectors including higher education, central and local government, foundations, charities and business. There are currently more than 6,000 datasets available from a variety of sources. Key data types include:
*
UK Census
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...
data
* Government-funded surveys (such as
Labour Force Survey
Labour Force Surveys are statistical surveys conducted in a number of countries designed to capture data about the labour market. All European Union member states are required to conduct a Labour Force Survey annually. Labour Force Surveys are also ...
and
Health Survey for England)
*
Longitudinal studies
A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over short or long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of obs ...
(such as
British Household Panel Survey
The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), carried out at the Institute for Social and Economic Research of the University of Essex, is a survey for social and economic research. A sample of British households was drawn and first interviewed in ...
and
Millennium Cohort Study
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a longitudinal survey conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the University of London, following the lives of a sample of about 18,818 babies born in the UK in the year 2000–2001.
His ...
)
* Cross-national surveys (such as
European Social Survey
The European Social Survey (ESS) is a social scientific endeavour to map the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of the various populations in Europe.
ESS is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data.org.
Prof Rory Fitzge ...
and
Eurobarometer
Eurobarometer is a series of public opinion surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission and other EU Institutions since 1973. These surveys address a wide variety of topical issues relating to the European Union throughout i ...
)
* International macrodata (such as statistics from the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
and
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
)
* Business microdata
* Qualitative and
mixed methods
Multimethodology or multimethod research includes the use of more than one method of data collection or research in a research study or set of related studies. Mixed methods research is more specific in that it includes the mixing of qualitative a ...
data
Access to the data catalogue, documentation and guides are available free of charge. Registration may be required to download data, and its use subject to licensing requirements specified by data owners. Most data are available under a standard End User Licence, but data are available along a spectrum ranging from 'open' to 'secure'. The latter requires specific approval and training to ensure the appropriate level of security for highly detailed and sensitive data.
Data skills training and guidance
Their comprehensive learning resources in their Learning hub, training events and on-demand webinars relate to several innovative aspects of data-intensive social science research, alongside the foundations of research using quantitative and qualitative data. Whether new to research, new undergraduates or teachers; veteran data analysts, career researchers or data managers; there is likely to be some training or best practice guidance that will be useful.
From understanding more about how to use large national surveys, Census or qualitative data, through to the many innovations, including those in modelling, simulation, big data, web-scraping, social media and more, we continue to enable researchers to access, manage and explore data.
Experts in research data management
The organisation publishes policies, procedures and protocols to help other national and international organisations, researchers and data providers to manage research data more effectively. They promote and maintain metadata standards for describing collections and data in the social sciences and their approach to data preparation and curation, and the standards they use, mean that data can be accessed now and in the future.
Through the UK Data Archive they continue to be at the forefront of developing international standards for data processing, both quantitative and qualitative.
Experts in data quality and replicability
As part of their commitment to making sure research is replicable, their work with DataCite and the British Library helps researchers and data depositors cite data correctly, thereby helping demonstrate real value and impact to the data collections they hold. They ensure data follows the FAIR principles of being Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable, thereby enhancing the quality and replicability of the data. Their guidance to improve data citation across social science, along with their easy-to-use citation tool helps researchers cite data as they would other sources.
Social science research benefits from accountability and transparency, which can usefully be underpinned by high quality and trustworthy data. Rigorous data curation practices are still sometimes viewed as a dark art, and easy-to-use tools to correct and clean numeric data are not widely used, despite awareness of the desire to make data FAIR. Their innovative, open source QAMyData tool provides a health check for numeric data and helps repository staff check, clean and document data.
Digital preservation and archiving
The UK Data Service follows a policy of active preservation to ensure the authenticity, reliability and logical integrity of all digital resources while providing usable versions for research, teaching or learning, in perpetuity.
The UK Data Service is based around a functional model, which in turn is based on the
Open Archival Information System
An Open Archival Information System (or OAIS) is an archive, consisting of an organization of people and systems, that has accepted the responsibility to preserve information and make it available for a Designated Community. The OAIS model can ...
or OAIS (an
ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Iso ...
standard). This means that the UK Data Service works with standards for archiving digital materials to build trust relationships: researchers must trust that archivists are giving them the ‘right’ data, and data owners and producers must trust that the archivists are not damaging the integrity of their data.
The UK Data Service adheres to the UK Data Archive Preservation Policy, which codifies long-standing archival practice standards. This policy conforms to the
OAIS
An Open Archival Information System (or OAIS) is an archive, consisting of an organization of people and systems, that has accepted the responsibility to preserve information and make it available for a Designated Community. The OAIS model can ...
reference model, with additions and alterations specific to the materials held within the UK Data Service collection. The policy holds strict requirements for
digital preservation
In library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. It involves planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods an ...
activities, together with how these requirements can best be achieved in keeping with regulatory requirements, archival best practice,
information security
Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorize ...
and funding constraints.
Data sharing and reuse
The UK Data Service encourages
data sharing
Data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research available to other investigators. Many funding agencies, institutions, and publication venues have policies regarding data sharing because transparency and openness are consid ...
and reuse as a means to extend the inherent value in primary data for replicating research results as well as for additional analysis and teaching use. To this end, it supports the
ESRC
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...
's Research Data Policy, which requires researchers funded by the research council to commit to a structured
data management plan A data management plan or DMP is a formal document that outlines how data are to be handled both during a research project, and after the project is completed. The goal of a data management plan is to consider the many aspects of data management, me ...
to enable data produced in the course of research to be deposited and archived for future sharing and reuse. To support researchers in developing robust data management plans, the UK Data Service makes a toolkit of resources available in formats designed for researchers as well as those responsible for teaching
data management
Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource.
Concept
The concept of data management arose in the 1980s as technology moved from sequential processing (first punched cards, then magnetic tape) to r ...
skills.
Experts in safe research using controlled data
Information security is at the heart of the UK Data Service and flows through everything they do. Lead partner, the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex, was the first university to be awarded ISO27001 certification, an international standard of information security. Working closely with HMRC DataLab and the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Services, they developed safe research protocols including the Five Safes Framework to enable secure research access to data while protecting confidentiality.
Accredited in 2020 by the UK Statistic Authority under the Digital Economy Act 2017, they continue to provide a more streamlined pathway for researchers to securely access controlled data they need for research.
UK Data Service partners have a long history of contributing to best practice in trustworthy repositories. Also in 2020, they helped to develop CoreTrustSeal, which sets out international requirements for trusted data repositories. This demonstrates their expertise to perform all of the relevant activities relating to providing long-term access to data of value to social science researchers.
They also advised on the creation of the SafePod Network (SPN) launched in 2021 that enables wider geographical research access to sensitive data.
Structure and governance
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in its current form established the UK Data Service in October 2012, after originally setting up and funding the organisation in earlier forms since 1967. The governance structure is managed by the
ESRC
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...
Introducing the UK Data Service, StatsLife, Royal Statistical Society, 15 April 2013
retrieved 11 November 2013
Additional funding from other UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) councils includes the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) that enables specific projects such as the Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL), and European based projects and investments such as the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) and Synergies for Europe’s Research Infrastructure in the Social Sciences (SERISS).
Advisory committee
Following the establishment of UKRI in 2018, the new national body that brought together all UK Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England, the strategic oversight and provision to the ESRC of independent assurance for the UK Data Service has been undergoing change.
A new advisory committee for the UK Data Service was established in 2019 and meets twice a year. The advisory committee for the UK Data Service is the independent body with responsibility to ensure that the investment is developed, managed and maintained in a manner that maximises its benefit as a long-term scientific resource of importance both nationally and internationally. As an independent body, advisory committee members act as critical friends in relation to the overall shape, academic direction and relevance to policy and practice of the UK Data Service, advising on its general strategy in order for it to achieve its overall objectives. Scientific and/methodological advice may also be sought from external, independent sources.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Censuses in the United Kingdom
2012 establishments in the United Kingdom
Government agencies established in 2012
Government databases in the United Kingdom
Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom
Jisc
Projects established in 2012
Science and technology in Essex
Social statistics data
University of Essex