Those who own and manage large-scale surveys now have a compact and detailed guide to help them make their data more widely used by researchers.
The guide 'Depositing shareable survey data' was developed by a specialist team at the UK Data Service with extensive input from UK government departments, academic survey owners and survey producers.
The 16-page handbook takes the reader through the full data journey, from fieldwork planning to eventual user access. Correspondingly, all content is organised into five stages of the journey: Plan, Prepare, Negotiate, Deposit and Ingest. While the guide was specifically developed to support new depositors of large-scale surveys, the principles apply to a wide range of significant deposits.
The guide can feature as a useful check for owners and producers; it also suggests wording for commissioning tenders and briefs on considering any data sharing requirements. The aim is to encourage commissioning departments to include a standard paragraph requiring archiving with the UK Data Service in a timely manner and pointing to existing protocols for doing this.
"This handy guide encompasses all relevant guidance we provide on depositing survey data - written and verbal - in a nutshell", says Louise Corti, who heads the UK Data Service Collections Development and Producer Support team. "I expect the guide will find a place pinned to the notice board of every survey commissioner and manager."