The UK Data Archive is a national centre of expertise in data archiving in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

(UK). It houses the largest collection of

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

and population digital data in the UK. It is certified under CoreTrustSeal as a trusted digital repository. It is also certified under the international ISO 27001 standard for information security. Located in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, the UK Data Archive is a specialist department of the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...

, co-located with the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER). It is primarily funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the

. Many of the data services formerly hosted by the UK Data Archive joined the ESRC-funded

UK Data Service 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 ...

, established 1 October 2012. The UK Data Archive 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.

Scope and purpose

UK Data Archive, University of Essex - geograph

The UK Data Archive supports social science research and teaching by acquiring, developing and managing data and related digital resources for secondary use. The Archive hosts and manages the

, which provides free research access to over 6,000 social science

data set A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record of the ...

s, including

quantitative data Quantitative research is a research strategy that focuses on quantifying the collection and analysis of data. It is formed from a deductive approach where emphasis is placed on the testing of theory, shaped by empiricist and positivist philoso ...

and

qualitative data Qualitative properties are properties that are observed and can generally not be measured with a numerical result. They are contrasted to quantitative properties which have numerical characteristics. Some engineering and scientific properties are ...

from a wide range of disciplines. Access to the data catalogue, including online documentation such as questionnaires, is completely open. The Archive removes data access barriers wherever possible, however registration is required to download data where there are disclosure risks. A large part of the UK Data Archive's data collection consists of publicly funded data, especially large-scale statistical surveys such as the

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 als ...

and

Crime Survey for England and Wales The Crime Survey for England and Wales (previously called the British Crime Survey) is a systematic victim study, currently carried out by Kantar Public (formally known as BMRB Ltd) on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Curated by ...

. Another important source of data is the academic community, sponsored 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 ...

and other funding bodies. In this category belong studies such as Understanding Society and the

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 ...

. The Archive also provides access to important international macrodata series (

aggregate data Aggregate data is high-level data which is acquired by combining individual-level data. For instance, the output of an industry is an aggregate of the firms’ individual outputs within that industry. Aggregate data are applied in statistics, d ...

) such as those held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),

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 glo ...

(IMF) and

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 Inte ...

via its partnership with Mimas. The UK Data Archive ensures that the data will be available not just to current researchers but also to future researchers through

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 and ...

and migration to new storage media as technology evolves. To promote the use and re-use of its data, the UK Data Archive provides technical support and advice to users on how to access and use the data, and on data management issues. The UK Data Archive also works closely with national and international partners on data-related projects and initiatives.

History

The UK Data Archive was founded in 1967 on the campus of the

as the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Data Bank. (The SSRC was the original name of the

.) Four years prior to that, in 1963, the SSRC co-funded the Social and Economic Archive Committee (SEAC) which was set up to investigate and propose solutions to the problem of sharing information about social surveys and the data generated by them. SEAC was particularly concerned that poor communication between researchers was leading to survey work being replicated, thus wasting both time and money, and that data were being sold to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and therefore 'lost' to British researchers.

Change of name

Across the years, the UK Data Archive has changed its name several times, reflecting changes to both its role and funders. In 1972 it changed its name from SSRC Data Bank to the Survey Archive when the Government Statistical Service allowed government surveys to be archived with it. The Survey Archive, in its turn, became the SSRC Data Archive in 1982 when it began to archive data resources other than just survey data. When the SSRC changed its name to Economic and Social Research Council in 1984, the Archive changed its name again to the ESRC Data Archive.40 years of the UKDA - the social science environment
UK Data Archive In 1996, the UK Data Archive began to receive direct funding from

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 ...

in recognition of the support provided by the Archive for teaching and learning, and dropped

from its name to become The Data Archive. Finally, in 2000, in order to reflect both its UK-wide remit and the importance of its role within an international context, the organization became the UK Data Archive. In 2007, the Archive's 40th year, it relocated to a new purpose-built building on the

campus along with the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Expanding its scope

Over the decades, the UK Data Archive has evolved from an organization hosting a single service and supported by a single grant from the SSRC, to one that offers a wide range of services and activities, funded by a variety of sources. In the 1980s the Archive began to get involved with a number of large data-oriented projects. Notable amongst these were the

BBC Domesday Project The BBC Domesday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers, Philips, Logica, and the BBC (with some funding from the European Commission's ESPRIT programme) to mark the 900th anniversary of the original ''Domesday Book'', an 11th-centu ...

and the Rural Areas Database. The trend to participate in projects increased through the 1990s up to the present, in particular with a string of projects funded by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

, most of which have been orientated toward research and development work and the advancement of technical solutions. They include Nesstar, FASTER, and the CESSDA-PPP project. In the 1990s and early 2000s, in addition to these projects, the UK Data Archive developed a number of discrete yet interlinked services, most notably the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), Secure Data Service, and History Data Service. These services are now integrated into the

, established in October 2012.New national digital repository for economic and social data
ESRC news release, 24 July 2012

Directors

Directors of the UK Data Archive are as follows: *Allen Potter (1967-1970) *Ken Macdonald (1972-1974) *

Ivor Crewe Sir Ivor Martin Crewe DL FAcSS (born 15 December 1945) was until 2020 the Master of University College, Oxford, and President of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex and also a Profe ...

(1974-1982) *

Howard Newby Sir Howard Joseph Newby (born 10 December 1947) is a British sociologist. He was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2008 and retired in December 2014. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton from 1994 to ...

(1983-1988) * Catherine Hakim (1989-1990) * Denise Lievesley (1991-1997) * Kevin Schürer (2000-2010) *Matthew Woollard (2010 to present)

Collaborations

The UK Data Archive is a partner in delivering the

, established and funded by the

in October, 2012. Other host organizations include

Mimas (data centre) Mimas was a nationally designated academic data centre based at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Its mission was to support the advancement of knowledge, research, and teaching. It hosted a number of the UK's research informatio ...

and the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR) at the

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 Univ ...

; School of Geography at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

; the department of Geography and Environment at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

; EDINA at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

; and two units at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. On a national level, the UK Data Archive works closely with its funders, the Economic and Social Research Council and

, 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 t ...

and other key government data providers. It also has close links with the National Centre for e-Social Science and the National Centre for Research Methods. It has been designated a Place of Deposit for public records for

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

. The UK Data Service is also the UK Service Provider for the CESSDA ERIC (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) as well as the US Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO). It also contributes to the development of the

Data Documentation Initiative The Data Documentation Initiative (also known as DDI) is an international standard for describing surveys, questionnaires, statistical data files, and social sciences study-level information. This information is described as metadata by the st ...

Former services

Many of the services once hosted by the UK Data Archive were consolidated under the

in 2012. These services include the following.

Economic and Social Data Service

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) was a national data archiving and dissemination service founded in January 2003. It was funded jointly by the

and

and now forms the core of the

History Data Service

The History Data Service was founded in 1992 as the History Data Unit. It was funded initially by the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

, the

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to suppo ...

and eventually jointly by the

Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts ...

(AHRC) and

. In 1996, the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) was set up comprising a managing executive and five service providers. The History Data Service, still hosted by the UK Data Archive, became one of these service providers, and thus formally became part of the AHDS, changing its name in the process to the History Data Service. In October 2003 AHDS service providers became 'subject centres' and all the subject centres of the AHDS were renamed, with History Data Service (HDS) becoming AHDS History. AHDS History ceased operation in 2008, but its successor, the History Data Service, continued to be hosted by the UK Data Archive, which retains a commitment to providing curation and preservation services for the historical community. In addition to its data collection, the History Data Service supported online services that provide access to important census report material. These include the Online Historical Population Reports (Histpop) web site, the Enclosure Maps database and the Contemporary and Historical Census Collections (CHCC).

Census.ac.uk

Launched in 2007, Census.ac.uk provided a one-stop gateway to data and support services for users and researchers from higher education and further education in the UK to access census data from the 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses. Census.ac.uk built on the work of the Census Registration Service (CRS) project (2001-2006), also based at the UK Data Archive, which provided a one-stop access and registration service for the same range of users and data. Census.ac.uk offered additional services, including centralized searching across all census resources, help and support for users, census guides, workshops and online training materials. These services are now provided through the Census Support program of the

Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu) Data Support Service

Interdisciplinary research data of Relu projects are archived at the UK Data Archive, in addition to the Environmental Information Data Centre. The Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Data Support Service (Relu-DSS) provided data support for Relu projects. Relu projects investigate the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges faced by rural areas in the United Kingdom in an interdisciplinary manner, and involve the integration of social, economical, biological, agricultural and environmental science data. Relu-DSS offered an interdisciplinary data support service, coordinated between the UK Data Archive and the

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is a centre for excellence in environmental science across water, land and air. The organisation has a long history of investigating, monitoring and modelling environmental change, and its science ma ...

(CEH) at Lancaster, with the lead being taken by the UK Data Archive. Relu-DSS also provided the UK Data Archive and CEH with sufficient information to enable them to plan for the management, longer-term preservation and re-use of Relu datasets. Today the UK Data Archive still hosts the Relu Knowledge Portal which provides advice on data management, data sharing and preservation to Relu grant holders and applicants, and links to third-party data sources.

Secure Data Service

The Secure Data Service was established and funded by the

in 2009 to help approved members of the research community access data that were previously considered too sensitive, detailed, confidential or potentially disclosive to be made available under standard licensing and dissemination arrangements. The service became fully operational in 2010, before becoming integrated into the

in 2012. It is now called Secure Lab. In order to become accredited as an Approved Researcher under the

criteria, users must provide information about their bona fides and their proposed research. They are also required to undergo training on how to use Secure Lab, on the principles of

statistical disclosure control Statistical disclosure control (SDC), also known as statistical disclosure limitation (SDL) or disclosure avoidance, is a technique used in data-driven research to ensure no person or organization is identifiable from the results of an analysis of ...

, and on their legal rights and responsibilities. They are then able to access the data remotely, perform analyses on the data, and work collaboratively with others, all within the confines of a secure server. All data remain on the secure server, and final publications are only able to be removed after careful vetting for statistical disclosure issues.

Survey Resources Network

The Survey Resources Network was established in 2008 to coordinate and develop

-funded activities related to survey research methods. The service was coordinated from the

under the Directorship of Professor Peter Lynn and with partners at four other academic centres. It ceased to operate as a network on 31 January 2012, however its Survey Question Bank remains a valuable resource; it has been extended, improved and rebranded as the

Variable and Question Bank.

UKDA StatServe

UKDA StatServe was a service provided by the UK Data Archive (2008-2010) for creating tailor-made figures and tables from the data from the UK Data Archive’s catalogue. This service produced statistics (including frequency counts and cross tabulations using either single datasets or more complex time series) for customers who are not in a position to analyze the underlying data themselves.

ESRC Data Store

Launched in 2008 as UKDA-store, ESRC Data Store was a self-archiving system for the storage and sharing of

primary research Research is "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, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...

data from the social and

behavioural sciences Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through naturalistic ...

. The initial phase was aimed at

award holders, who are required to offer data outputs for sharing under the terms of their award contract. In 2012 ESRC Data Store was incorporated into the

, and in 2014 it was extended and improved under the name ReShare. Today ReShare accepts digital data from researchers beyond the social sciences, and offers access to open and safeguarded data collections for anyone involved in social science research and learning. Data can be found via Discover, the discovery portal of the

.UK Data Service ReShare
retrieved 8 July 2014

References

External links

UK Data Archive

Across the Decades – 40 years of data archiving

UK Data Service

Census Support, UK Data Service

Discover search portal, UK Data Service

ReShare (formerly ESRC Data Store and UKDA-store)

ESRC Research Catalogue

Knowledge Portal, Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu)
{{authority control 1967 establishments in the United Kingdom Archives in the United Kingdom Government agencies established in 1967 Government databases in the United Kingdom Jisc Online databases Organisations based in Colchester Science and technology in Essex Social statistics data University of Essex