CESSDA.CZ

The CESSDA Project: Building a CESSDA-ERIC focal point in the Czech Republic and integrating it into the large pan-European research infrastructure of data services for socio-economic research

Basic Project Information

Funding: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, in the framework of funding large research, development and innovation infrastructures. Project registration number: LM2010006.

Implementation: Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Implementing department: Czech Social Science Data Archive (CSDA)

Principal Investigator: Mgr. Jindřich Krejčí, Ph.D.

Implementation time frame: 10/2010–2015

Large research, development and innovation infrastructures at the Ministry of Education website: here

Main Goal

The main goal is to establish a Czech national focal point of the international large research infrastructure, CESSDA, and to integrate the Czech Republic into the infrastructure, which is included in the ESFRI Roadmap and being built in the ESFRI process.

The ESFRI Process

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) initiated a process of preparing and building large European research infrastructures. Its strategic plan is elaborated in the so-called ESFRI Roadmap.

ESFRI website: here

ESFRI Roadmap 2008: here

Data Services for Socioeconomic Research

The centralized data archive gathers data from research projects, processes it and makes it available for further use. It is a part of basic socioeconomic research infrastructure. New material for research is created by connecting databases. Archives enable temporal and international comparison, are the source of methodological information for survey design, fulfil functions in the development of methodologies and technologies, preserve data for future research, provide the basis for organizing research surveys and international cooperation, actively participate on disseminating scientific information and are a prerequisite of effective utilization of survey data.

Data archived: Primary electronic datasets from research surveys intended for secondary statistical analysis are archived and made available. Such datasets are deposited by research organizations conducting surveys with public funding. Also, wherever possible, collaboration is established in order to archive data from surveys implemented by the government administration and from official statistical surveys. The archive enables the public and government sector to make use of data from commercial research surveys. Figure 1 depicts the principle upon which the archiving of socioeconomic data is built.

Open Access to Data

Access to social science data services is built in line with OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Data from Public Funding. In this sense, openness means “access on equal terms for the international research community at the lowest possible cost, preferably at no more than the marginal cost of dissemination. Open access to research data from public funding should be easy, timely, user-friendly and preferably Internet-based” (OECD 2007 – OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding – here) 

The CESSDA European Data Infrastructure

To date, the CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives) is a federation of twenty social science data organizations from twenty European countries. A total of over 100,000 datasets are provided to more than 7,000 users annually, and other scientific information is provided to more than 200,000 researchers.

Under the ESFRI process, the CESSDA is going to build a single European system of data services by connecting existing national social science data archives that are associated in the existing CESSDA organization. By doing so, it will provide access to data sources from European social research and enable utilization irrespective of the location of data and researchers in the European Research Area. Data sources will be mutually contextualized and build a basis for European comparative research. At the same time, international collaboration and the sharing and concentration of resources will strengthen data infrastructures. 

The new CESSDA-ERIC infrastructure (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives – European Research Infrastructure Consortium) will obtain international legal status as the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). 

The project will create and establish common standards, technologies and instruments in order to connect the individual archives’ services in a single system and create a single online portal (one-stop shop) for data libraries, enabling users to search, access, analyze and download data. Data will be mutually contextualized, datasets and information about data will be interconnected at several levels. This includes, for example, the establishment of electronic archives of social indicators and research instruments, databases of instruments for harmonizing data for international comparison (standardized variables, transformation keys etc.). The project will extend the network in order to systematically cover more types of data sources (including, for example, collaboration with the producers of official statistics) and to make available as many relevant data as possible. For that purpose, it will strengthen data services in member countries. At the same time, it will set international standards and deepen professionalization.

The CESSDA-ERIC National Focal Point 

The Czech CESSDA-ERIC National Focal Point will be established at the Czech Social Science Data Archive (CSSDA), Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It will guarantee:

 full access of Czech researchers to the international infrastructure,

 that the instruments and procedures implemented make integration of Czech data sources possible,

 inclusion of Czech data in and distribution through the system,

 participation in programmes of instruction and utilization of the technologies and know-how shared within the infrastructure.

At the same time, the CESSDA-ERIC framework will ensure further provision and development of socioeconomic data services in the Czech Republic efficiently. The capacity of the existing Czech infrastructure in this area is limited and many datasets that might be accessible are still excluded from publicly available data services. The project will help overcome the existing limitations by relying on resources generated within the CESSDA-ERIC.

Access to the Infrastructure

The infrastructure is primarily accessed online, based on free access to datasets for the purposes of not-for-profit research and instruction.

Existing infrastructure

CSDA: http://archiv.soc.cas.cz

CESSDA: http://www.cessda.org (archives portal, support for secondary data analysis, information, beta version of the integrated catalogue)

Added Value of the Research Infrastructure

• Contribution to research in the European Research Area (ERA)
•  maximizing researchers’ access to data sources located in the ERA,
•  connecting national sources across Europe and creating conditions for comparative European research,
•  improving the quality of data services and data through standardization,
•  establishing links to data organizations outside Europe and outside the social and economic sciences – extending access to data from those areas,
•  deepening professionalization, access to programs of instruction for data specialists,
•  efficient development of technologies for accessing and processing data.

 Contribution to research and society in the Czech Republic

Given the substantial cost of research surveys with public funding, it is desirable to maximize data utilization. In this respect, the Data Archive and the proposed project pursue the Czech Republic’s national policy goals as well as its international commitments (e.g., the Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding approved by OECD and EU member states or European Commission Communication “on scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation”). Access to electronic databases is a condition of fulfilling the priorities for the development of Czech society set by the National Research, Development and Innovation Policy of the Czech Republic in 2009–2015 (Priority 8 – Section III.2.8).

The project will solve the problem of low capacity of domestic infrastructure effectively and build the necessary basis for developing modern and competitive empirical social research in the Czech Republic:

 Availability of internationally comparable data is a prerequisite of the orientation of social research at international excellence: Leading periodicals primarily publish those results of research about Czech society whose importance goes beyond the country’s borders, i.e. mostly international comparative results. 

 Basis for participation in EU programmes and other international projects: The 7th FP focuses on social research with a European dimension, a substantial part of international programmes is based on international comparison – availability of internationally comparable data and inclusion of Czech data in international databases are the prerequisites of participation.

 New sources for obtaining and analyzing empirical material: Participation in the context of international research will expand the possibilities of data utilization and, in turn, the cost-effectiveness of data collection. Czech researchers will obtain better access to international data.

 Easy access to research data for college instruction: The ability to build instruction around real-life research data without the necessity to invest and organize original surveys.

 Democratic distribution of research conditions across regions: Online availability of data and research instruments makes social sciences less dependent on resources located in the centre and makes it possible to implement excellent research in the regions.

 More studies of Czech society by international researchers: Czech data must be available, comprehensible and comparable so that foreign researchers include the Czech Republic in their regular analyses.

 Effective participation in a prestigious international project: Taking part in the CESSDA is widely supported throughout the ERA (a priority in 17 countries). The project takes advantage of international cooperation, Czech researchers will obtain top-quality conditions for scientific work, given the relatively little share of expenses borne by the Czech Republic (expenses are shared by many countries).

CESSDA participation is a necessary condition for efficient development of data services in the Czech Republic. Science is becoming more and more international and infrastructure can only be developed meaningfully in an international context. At the same time, the CESSDA has no alternative in Europe. Its added value lies in access to new technologies and in the basis it provides for the development of data services. 

Users

The data services are utilized by scholars from diverse social science disciplines who conduct both basic and applied research in the academia, government administration and other research organizations. Utilization in college instruction is of primary importance because the archive supplies courses with data from real-life research. As of 2010, the CSDA had over 800 registered users accessing the infrastructure for the purposes of statistical data analysis in research. Access to the documentation of data and projects, including summary tables, is free for all persons without registration. The CSDA also relays Czech data to international databases (e.g., the International Social Survey Programme database) where Czech users have been relatively highly active. Data users, data depositors and collaborators in the Czech Republic consist of researchers at universities (e.g., Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University in Prague, University of Economics, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, ZCU, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Palacký University in Olomouc), institutes of the Academy of Sciences (e.g., Institute of Sociology, Economics Institute/CERGE), departmental research institutes (Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs, Institute for Information on Education etc.) and bodies of government administration and the public sector. They are recruited from multiple disciplines (above all, sociology, social policy, political science, economics, social geography etc., but also agricultural economics, health economics etc.).

CESSDA - COMPDAT

Data sources, research of standards, data quality and data harmonization methods for international social comparative research and integration in the CESSDA network (COMPDAT)

Funding: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic
Principal Investigator: Mgr. Jindřich Krejčí, Ph.D.
Implementation time frame: 2009–2011

The project aims at strengthening the data and methods base for empirical social research, with emphasis on international comparison, through (1) acquisition, professional standardized processing and archiving of a package of data from socioeconomic research studies, and ensuring its availability for the purposes of long-term analytic utilization, (2) methodological research in the field of data quality, standardization and harmonization for the purposes of international comparative research. In this way, the project will prepare empirical materials from Czech research studies for inclusion in the data exchange systems of the CESSDA European research infrastructure, create conditions for better utilization of the infrastructure through Czech researchers’ participation in international scientific cooperation, and improve the knowledge base for implementing comparative surveys.

International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)

The CSDA provides the technical and organisational basis for Czech participation in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).

International data as well as full national datasets from ISSP surveys are available via CSDA data services.

The ISSP is a continuing annual programme of cross-national collaboration on surveys covering topics important for social science research. It brings together pre-existing social science projects and coordinates research goals, thereby adding a cross-national, cross-cultural perspective to the individual national studies.The ISSP researchers especially concentrate on developing questions that are meaningful and relevant to all countries, and can be expressed in an equivalent manner in all relevant languages.

European Social Survey (ESS)

The CSDA collaborates on preparing data for the European Social Survey (ESS).

The European Social Survey (ESS) is a long-term research programme which aims at obtaining data for understanding modern European societies and the changes taking place in them. The ESS is one of the main projects of the European Research Area. It was initiated by the European Science Foundation in 2001. In 2005, it won the European Commission-sponsored Descartes Prize as the first project in the field of social sciences and humanities with Czech participation.

The ESS is concerned with the preparation and implementation of international quantitative surveys of the values, attitudes, behaviours and socio-demographic and socio-structural characteristics of European countries’ populations. Research surveys are implemented every two years. From the beginning, the high-quality data from ESS research surveys have existed in the “open access” regime: registered users can download it freely and conveniently from the online data archive of the Norwegian Social Sciences Data Service.

The Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, was at the inception of the ESS project in 2001. Since then, it participated in the implementation of the first, second, fourth and fifth rounds of data collection for the project. Between 1300 and 3000 respondents aged 15+ participated in each round of data collection in the Czech Republic. Respondents are selected by means of random sampling.

The ESS also implements special programmes of instruction for social scientists:

 ESSTrain – methodology courses for European researchers

 EduNet – an online application which uses examples to teach students how to work with international data

The added value of the ESS mainly consists of the following:

 continued (longitudinal) and highly standardized international comparative research – makes it possible to keep track of changes in attitudes over time and across European countries,

 high demands on data quality – methodological flaws that have been coming up in international social surveys on a repeated and long-term basis are remedied in this research project,

 easy access to high-quality data for a large population of scientists, teachers and students– the ESS raises the bar for scholarly works in the social sciences,

 the recording of important media events throughout data collection helps to grasp national-level contexts and facilitates the interpretation of results.

Social Research Laboratory

The CSDA participates on the Social Research Laboratory project of the Department of Sociology and Adult Education and Department of Politics and European Studies, Palacký University in Olomouc.

The project aims at innovating the study programmes of Sociology, Politics and European Studies in order to improve their graduates’ employability. Thus, the programmes are enriched by interdisciplinary workshops led by experts from the above fields. At the same time, a Social Research Laboratory was established under the project in order to provide students of the above disciplines with practical experience. The Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, is a project partner. Thus, the CSDA participates in preparing the workshops and provides expert knowledge and expert consultations.

Social Research Laboratory – project website – click HERE.

Courses of Instruction

Analytical Methods in Sociology – SEMINARS (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University)

Management of Sociological Data and Data Archives (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University)