JISC

The UK Data Archive (UKDA) has many innovative developments intended for this year, one of which is UKDA-store, a new research output management tool which is to be launched mid-year.

This new service will be used to submit data deposits into the UK Data Archive. UKDA-store is to be initially released to the social science research community with the intention of extending the system to other researchers.

UKDA-store will enable researchers to submit a range of digital outputs to the self-archiving repository with the right to set permissions for individual and group access, so that data can remain private (on embargo) although metadata continues to be searchable. Furthermore, data that is judged to meet the UKDA’s acquisition criteria can be formally lodged for long-term central system preservation within the UK Data Archive.

UKDA-store is a valuable tool for the archiving of social science dataAstrid Wissenburg, Director of Communication and Information at the ESRC commented that "The ESRC welcomes the creation of UKDA-store as a valuable tool for the archiving of social science data, and is complementary to the ESRC's publications repository".

UKDA is funded by the ESRC, JISC and the University of Essex. Founded in 1967, UKDA now houses several thousand datasets of interest to researchers in all sectors and from many different disciplines. The UK Data Archive is an internationally-renowned centre of expertise in data acquisition, preservation, dissemination and promotion. It is curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK.

UKDA-store is sure to become a fundamental tool of research discovery which will continue to support the secondary use of quantitative and qualitative research data.

UKDA-store will be formally launched at the National Centre for Research Methods Festival on 30 June 2008 in Oxford.