Use and users of a social science research data archive

Abstract

This study focuses on the use and users of Finnish social science research data archive. Study is based on enriched user data of the archive from years 2015-2018. Study investigates the number and type of downloaded datasets, the number of citations for data, the demographics of data downloaders and the purposes data are downloaded for. Datasets were downloaded from the archive 10346 times. Majority of the downloaded datasets are quantitative. Quantitative datasets are also more often cited, but the number of citations vary and does not always correlate with the number of downloads. Use of the archive varies by user's country, organization, and discipline. Datasets from the archive were downloaded most often for study work, bachelor's and master's theses, and research purposes. It is likely that reusing research data will increase in the near future as more data will become available, scholars are more informed about research data management, and data citation practices are established.

Re-use of research data in the social sciences. Use and users of digital data archive

“…Applying their methodology using enriched log data we study the use of Swiss data repository, FORSbase, that archives both qualitative and quantitative social science research data. Our study supplements the findings by Late and Keka ¨la ¨inen [15] by providing comparative evidence from another context. We investigate whether there is a demand for open data in the social sciences and address the following research questions:…”

“…Late and Keka ¨la ¨inen [15] studied the use and users of the Finnish research data archive for social sciences by analysing user log data between 2015 and 2018. According to their study, most datasets were downloaded at least once during the time frame and a clear majority of the downloaded data were quantitative.…”

“…Similarly, Bishop's and Kuula-Luumi's study [53] about the re-use of qualitative datasets showed that data was downloaded for studying, master's theses, teaching and research, indicating that data re-use is even less prevalent for qualitative studies. According to Late and Keka ¨la ¨inen [15] the most typical downloaded dataset was survey data. The Finnish research data archive was most often used by social scientists from Finnish universities.…”

“…For example, Borgman and colleagues analysed user log data to identify data reuse in the Dutch interdisciplinary data archive DANS [5] using number of downloads and users. Focusing on data re-use in the social sciences, Late and Keka ¨la ¨inen [15] studied the use of the Finnish research data archive in more detail based on enriched log data. Applying their methodology using enriched log data we study the use of Swiss data repository, FORSbase, that archives both qualitative and quantitative social science research data.…”

Sustainability through the liaison with data archive users

“…Due to the endeavor of constantly developing archive services, we decided to focus on understanding the needs of users: their perceived needs and how we, as a data archive, manage to meet these needs and what should be considered for their future needs. Unfortunately, only a handful of studies focus on data consumers (Borgman et al, 2015;Late and Kekäläinen, 2020). Moreover, the cited articles only describe users' backgrounds and the characteristics of the downloaded data.…”