Oxford Data Library

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Oxford Data Library

• Jane Roberts
• Nuffield College
• http//www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/projects/datalibrary/

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What is Oxford Data Library?

• Data support service for all students and
  researchers in social sciences
• Enables users to discover and access all the
  available electronic data resources for their
  research
• Rapid access to the collection of data resources
  we hold locally

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Types of data macro-data

• Data on populations or groups
• Aggregated to region or country level
• e.g. GDP, national accounts, industrial
  production, employment, trade, demography, and
  other indicators of national performance and
  development
• From international organisations e.g. OECD, World
  Bank, IMF, UN
• Time-series data
• No central point of access at the moment
• via OxLip
• Economics Dept. e.g. financial databases like
  datastream
• much is now freely available on the web via ESDS
  international http//www.esds.ac.uk/international

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Types of data micro-data

• Mostly collected by sample surveys
• Data on individual people or units, such as
  households or families
• From governments, academic researchers, private
  organisations
• Demographics, behaviour, attitudes, values
• Allowing analysis of relationships between
  individual characteristics

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Microdata types

• Continuous surveys from governments e.g. GHS, LFS
• using a sample designed to represent the whole
  population
• a cross section of different people at each time
  point can be added together to look at trends
  over time
• Longitudinal or panel datasets which trace the
  same people over time
• Household panels e.g. BHPS, PSID and ECHP
• UK birth cohort studies (1946, 58, 70,
  millennium)
• Major series of datasets e.g. BES,
  Eurobarometers, WVS
• Ad hoc surveys

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The Data Library collection

• http//www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/projects/datalibrary/
• list of holdings, and links to further info
• situated on a Nuffield server but accessible from
  anywhere in the university
• Contact me for access
• Can see all the datasets but not open the files
• almost all data is access-protected
• requires permission from provider, usually UKDA
• must agree to conditions (e.g. acknowledge source
  when publishing, not use for commercial purposes)
  
• then can be given access on the local server
• stored as spss and stata files

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Other data archives and support services

• Economic and Social Data Service - UKDA
  http//www.esds.ac.uk/
• national data service providing access and
  support for an extensive range of key economic
  and social data, including UK census data,
  qualitative data, aggregate data resources
• you will need to register as a user with them
  using your Oxford SSO
• ICPSR http//www.icpsr.umich.edu/
• Many other archives worldwide e.g.
  http//www.nsd.uib.no/cessda/

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searching and acquisition

• Help with identifying existing data that fits
  research needs, within our collection or from
  other providers
• International network of data managers knowledge
  of the international statistical and archival
  sites and networks
• Negotiations and management of contracts with
  data providers (e.g. Eurostat), some of whom will
  only provide data through the Data Library, not
  to an individual
• Conversion to a familiar format even though
  datasets are often easily downloadable by
  individuals from archives and providers, they can
  come in a form which is unrecognizable to most
  users
• Most survey datasets are free for academic use
  if there are costs involved it may be possible to
  fund the purchase

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other services offered

• Troubleshooting and in-depth support
• interpreting variables and documentation
• deriving new variables
• dealing with errors in data files
• customising data
• merging data over time
• contacting providers with queries
• Primary data collection advice
• Questionnaire design, data collection and
  management methods, knowledge of question
  wording, coding structures and methods
• BUT
• collecting your own is fraught with difficulty -
  large investment of time, cost, effort. We
  strongly recommend that you use some existing
  data, if possible

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Register for email list

• news of new or revised data and documentation,
  and related resources
• info re user groups and workshops outside Oxford
• to be added, contact jane.roberts_at_nuffield.ox.ac.u
  k

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Im here to help!

• Data requirements are as different and unique as
  each thesis or dissertation, so Im happy to give
  individual help at every stage. Please email
  your queries
• jane.roberts_at_nuffield.ox.ac.uk
• L3 Nuffield College