Report on the state-of-the-art, obstacles, models and roadmaps for widening the data perimeter of the data services

The overall objective of WP3 is to evaluate social science data archives and services in EEA countries to identify gaps and bottlenecks in existing data centres and services, in such a manner that national development plans can be suggested to help close the gaps and overcome present barriers in developing archiving services on a global level. Task 3.4 works towards this goal by surveying the state-of-play of DAS and researchers’ needs as well as developing best practices and guidelines to support data services to widen their data perimeter.

The “tidal wave of data” evoked by major actors such as the High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Scientific Data of the EU, is described in a following manner:

"A fundamental characteristic of our age is the rising tide of data – global, diverse, valuable and complex. (...) We all experience it: a rising tide of information, sweeping across our professions, our families, our globe. We create it, transmit it, store it, receive it, consume it – and then, often, reprocess it to start the cycle all over again. It gives us power unprecedented in human history to understand and control our world. But, equally, it challenges our institutions, upsets our work habits and imposes unpredictable stresses upon our lives and societies”.

Fifteen years ago, Science Magazine published interviews based on all fields’ scientists including SSH researchers and questioning about the future of their fields2 . They did not foresee in 1995 the deluge of new social science data and the huge quantities of digital information to spread worldwide. CESSDA was one of the informal consortiums at that time, of which members organisations seemed to foresee the evolutions ahead and attempted in various ways to reflect upon and deal with the data deluge to come. This transformation of the landscape must be investigated further to evaluate the future directions for data archiving services. Social science and humanities data archive services must indeed consider the manners in which the emergence of new types of data bring forward unprecedented legal, ethical, technical, financial and management issues, to name just a few issues in need of attention. In the current context, there are not only new types of data but also new data sources. Private corporations, various agencies, governmental organisations, all these actors contribute to producing data anew. Some of these actors do not have the same data sharing culture as researchers, nor do they have the same prerogatives as public entities, serving citizens and democracies interests. In parallel to new types of data and an increase in the number of data sources, the points of access have multiplied. Several data providers can offer access to same data, creating confusion for users as well as improper management of resources. These changes affect directly CESSDA and CESSDA’s SPs as the playing field is undergoing extensive and rapid evolutions, creating new needs and stakes that must be taken into account to prevent losing ground. For CESSDA and its partners to move ahead and plan the future at best, it is essential to have a good understanding of how data archiving services need to evolve to keep on track and serve data producers at best.

Even without taking into account how the data inflation is affecting the field of archiving, it is essential to assess the current state of data production, data sharing practices as well the level of coverage of archiving services. CESSDA’s future depends on its’ ability to be relevant and used by researchers from SSH, which implies investigating the kind of data CESSDA SP’s have, whether this data meets researchers needs, at an extent, where co-operation should be envisioned or what bottlenecks in coverage prevent the expansion or a broader visibility of services.

This task takes up these challenges; it starts reviewing the level of coverage provided by SPs and identifies some of the main challenges data archiving services are facing. Surveying the data perimeter and exploring researchers’ needs for various types of data, is a first step to map the state of play of the data field. Carrying out case studies and best practice cases within CESSDA SPs is a second step to attempt providing practical roadmaps in view of contributing to the CESSDA global strategy.

The survey of the data perimeter and researchers’ needs is conducted by exploring different fields of data. The Description of work suggests studying four fields in particular, i.e. historical data; academic data; health and big data; official statistics.

Using a field-based approach is a key to comprehend the changes within the European landscape over the last years. By focusing on sub-domains of data, depicting or identify existing and new kinds of data that should be included within CESSDA as well as providing useful pieces of information towards possible directions for the future. It is worth mentioning that T3.4 has connections with the aforementioned project. Therefore, it attempts going beyond in the sense that it investigates along with existing new kinds of data and tries to set up a practical roadmap based on SPS experiences and practices to meet new needs and challenges.