The UK Data Archive is a national centre of expertise in data archiving in the United Kingdom. It houses the largest collection of social sciences and population digital data in the UK.Costs of Digital Repositories, Science as an Open Enterprise, The Royal Society, June 2012 It is certified under CoreTrustSeal as a trusted digital repository.Data Seal of Approval assessment, 8 March 2011 It is also certified under the international ISO 27001 standard for information security.UK Data Archive recommended for registration for ISO/IEC 27001, UK Data Archive, 28 June 2010ISO 27001 standard requirements, International Organization for Standardization Located in Colchester, the UK Data Archive is a specialist department of the University of Essex,University of Essex website 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 University of Essex.
Many of the data services formerly hosted by the UK Data Archive joined the ESRC-funded UK Data Service, established 1 October 2012.
The UK Data Archive is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data.org.
Scope and purpose
The UK Data Archive supports social science research and teaching by acquiring, developing and managing data and related digital resources for secondary use.UK Data Archive website
The Archive hosts and manages the UK Data Service, which provides free research access to over 6,000 social science data sets, including quantitative data and qualitative data from a wide range of disciplines.UK Data Service: About our data Access to the data catalogue, including online documentation such as questionnaires, is completely open. The Archive removes data access barriers wherever possible,UK Data Service: Open Access Data however registration is required to download data where there are disclosure risks.UK Data Service: How to access data
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 and Crime Survey for England and Wales. Another important source of data is the academic community, sponsored by the ESRC and other funding bodies. In this category belong studies such as Understanding Society and the Millennium Cohort Study. The Archive also provides access to important international macrodata series (aggregate data) such as those held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank via its partnership with Mimas.Mimas, University of Manchester
The UK Data Archive ensures that the data will be available not just to current researchers but also to future researchers through digital preservation and migration to new storage media as technology evolves.Preservation Policy, UK Data Archive Preservation Policy
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.Policy-making for research data in repositories: a guide Ann Green, Stuart Macdonald and Robin Rice, Data Information Specialists Committee UK (2009)Managing and Sharing Data: a best practice guide for researchers, UK Data Archive The UK Data Archive also works closely with national and international partners on data-related projects and initiatives.UK Data Archive: Projects
History The UK Data Archive was founded in 1967 on the campus of the University of Essex as the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Data Bank. (The SSRC was the original name of the ESRC.) 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, and therefore 'lost' to British researchers.Across the Decades - 40 years of data archiving, UK Data Archive
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 in recognition of the support provided by the Archive for teaching and learning, and dropped ESRC 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 University of Essex 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 ProjectDomesday Project, 40 years of the UKDA 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, most of which have been orientated toward research and development work and the advancement of technical solutions. They include Nesstar, FASTER,NESSTAR and FASTER, 40 years of the UKDA and the CESSDA-PPP project.CESSDA-PPP project partners, Council on European Social Science Data Archives
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 UK Data Service, 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:Profiles - Directors of the UK Data Archive , 40 years of the UKDA
Allen Potter (1967-1970) Ken Macdonald (1972-1974) Ivor Crewe (1974-1982) Howard Newby (1983-1988) Catherine Hakim (1989-1990) Denise Lievesley (1991-1997) Kevin Schürer (2000-2010) Matthew Woollard (2010 to 2022) Joanne Webb (2022-)
Collaborations The UK Data Archive is a partner in delivering the UK Data Service, established and funded by the ESRC in October, 2012.New national digital repository for social and economic data, Economic and Social Research Council news release Other host organisations include the Cathie Marsh Centre for Training at the University of Manchester; EDINA at the University of Edinburgh; and two units at University College London.UK Data Service Host Organisations
On a national level, the UK Data Archive works closely with its funders, the Economic and Social Research Council and Jisc, the Office for National Statistics 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.About the UK Data Archive
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)ICPSR Official Representatives and the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO).IFDO member organizations It also contributes to the development of the Data Documentation Initiative.DDI Alliance membership organizations
Former services Many of the services once hosted by the UK Data Archive were consolidated under the UK Data Service 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 ESRC and Jisc and now forms the core of the UK Data Service.
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 Leverhulme Trust and eventually jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Jisc. 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.History Data Service, University of Essex
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 the Enclosure Maps database and the Contemporary and Historical Census Collections (CHCC).Contemporary and Historical Census Collections (CHCC), History Data Service, University of Essex
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),Past Grants & Projects, UK Data Archive 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 UK Data Service.About Census Support, UK Data Service
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 Data Support Service, Rural Economy and Land Use Programme