Sharing Data
The CESSDA archives are all based on the principle that the sharing of research data is of great value to the research community at large as well as to the individual researcher. General arguments for data archiving and sharing as well as practical benefits to the depositor are numerous. Archives that preserve and disseminate social data perform a critical service to the scholarly community and to society at large, ensuring that these culturally significant materials are accessible in perpetuity.
Planning Data Collection
This section outlines the basic principles of planning data collection. To ensure that the data which you are collecting today can be used in the future, standards in terms of data structure and format, documentation format and content and metadata need to be considered from an early stage. It is also important to develop a data management plan to address the archival considerations that come into play across all stages of the data life cycle. [more...]
Managing Data
This phase refers to the creation of a "good" data collection, which implies clear and easy-to-use documentation, clean and straightforward data, both of which facilitate easy and quick access by the secondary user, and to the best practice in managing data. [more...]
Depositing Data
The conditions required for depositing a dataset are outlined in this section. As data deposit requirements might well differ in detail between archives, it is always advisable to contact the relevant archive as early as possible in the deposit process. All CESSDA archives have individual websites and staff who are willing and able to talk to potential depositors and answer any of their questions. [more...]
Archival Process
This section describes the major archival services and procedures that are employed in data archives or centres to ensure the safe preservation of data files once they are received from the data collector. [more...]
Dissemination
Dataset dissemination and related issues, such as licensing agreements, levels of access and end user licences are described in this section. [more...]
Rights & Confidentiality
The section addresses issues such as intellectual property rights, data protection, respondent confidentiality and research ethics. [more...]