Building a Social Science Data Archive
Building a Social Science Data Archive
The need to create the means for bringing together and organizing scientific resources which are widely dispersed, and for disseminating both the processes and results of research, creates new demands on social science research and teaching institutions. The more prominent role they will be required to play in disseminating scientific content calls for the development of a scientific infra-structure to integrate the results of research into information networks. Alongside this technological capability, it is also of fundamental importance to encourage the scientific community to become more willing to make available the resources they have developed in doing their research. \nThe proponent and participant institutions (ICS, CES, CIES, cesNOVA, CEG), as leading players in the social science field in Portugal, intend to go ahead with the setting up of a Social Science Data Archive to bring together information on Portuguese society deriving from surveys or public opinion studies carried out by the academic community in general.With a few exceptions, information deriving from research, in particular from surveys and other forms of collecting quantitative data, is not made available for further consultation and analysis after the results are published. Making that information available for easily accessible public consultation is a compelling reason for the setting up of a data bank. \nThus, in setting up an archive, the proponent and participant institutions intend to position itself as the key issuer and disseminator of scientific content and to contribute to strengthening the links between social sciences and society.
Data Archive; Data Dissemination; Surveys; Secondary Analysis
The need to create the means for bringing together and organizing scientific resources which are widely dispersed, and for disseminating both the processes and results of research, creates new demands on social science research and teaching institutions. The more prominent role they will be required to play in disseminating scientific content calls for the development of a scientific infra-structure to integrate the results of research into information networks. Alongside this technological capability, it is also of fundamental importance to encourage the scientific community to become more willing to make available the resources they have developed in doing their research. \nThe proponent and participant institutions (ICS, CES, CIES, cesNOVA, CEG), as leading players in the social science field in Portugal, intend to go ahead with the setting up of a Social Science Data Archive to bring together information on Portuguese society deriving from surveys or public opinion studies carried out by the academic community in general.With a few exceptions, information deriving from research, in particular from surveys and other forms of collecting quantitative data, is not made available for further consultation and analysis after the results are published. Making that information available for easily accessible public consultation is a compelling reason for the setting up of a data bank. \nThus, in setting up an archive, the proponent and participant institutions intend to position itself as the key issuer and disseminator of scientific content and to contribute to strengthening the links between social sciences and society.