The Data Documentation Initiative (also known as DDI) is an
international standard
international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...
for describing
surveys,
questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, ...
s, statistical data files, and social sciences
study-level information. This information is described as
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
by the standard.
Begun in 1995, the effort brings together data professionals from around the world to develop the standard. The DDI specification, most often expressed in
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
, provides a format for content, exchange, and preservation of questionnaire and data file information. DDI supports the description, storage, and distribution of social science data, creating an international specification that is machine-actionable and web-friendly.
Version 2 (also called "Codebook") of the DDI standard has been implemented in the
Dataverse
The Dataverse is an open source web application to share, preserve, cite, explore and analyze research data. Researchers, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive appropriate credit via a data citation w ...
data repository and the data archives of the
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The latest version 3.3 (also called "Lifecycle") of the DDI standard was released in 2020.
DDI Specification
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Member Institutions
See also
* Colectica
* Metadata standards
A metadata standard is a requirement which is intended to establish a common understanding of the meaning or semantics of the data, to ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of the data by its owners and users. To achieve this common unde ...
References
External links
* DDI Project
*
Official website
*
DDI Tools
Related software/tools
Colectica
CSM's XCONVERT
IHSN Microdata Management Toolkit
Nesstar Publisher
(development was discontinued and Nesstar reached end-of-life status in 2022)
SDA to XML
SPSSOMS2DDI
The Dataverse Project
* Scholars Portal'
Dataverse Data Explorer v.2
Rich Data Services
Metadata standards
Statistical data coding
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