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Issue 23 (1/2008)
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Front page
FSD Bulletin is the electronic newsletter of the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. The Bulletin provides information and news related to the data archive and social science research.
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More Opportunities to Perform Cross-Country ComparisonsOne of the basic functions of data archives is to facilitate comparative research. Therefore, our data collection includes various domestic and international studies that enable longitudinal comparisons. During the past few years, access to international surveys has improved thanks to new online services. It is possible to conduct simple analyses online on the web pages of some European data archives, and the data can also be downloaded for further analysis with statistical programs. The ZACAT service of the German data archive already contains most Eurobarometers, most International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) datasets, and three data collection waves of the European Values Study (EVS). The data from the European Social Survey (ESS) project have been available from the beginning through the online service maintained by the Norwegian data archive. The most recent service that has become available in Finland is the North American ICPSR Direct, which was introduced at the University of Tampere at the end of last year. The service will be implemented in the other Finnish universities this year. By paying Finland's share of the access fees required by the international service providers, the FSD has brought thousands of datasets free of charge within reach of Finnish users. In addition to the ICPSR, the ISSP and the EVS, it is also worthwhile to remember the Luxembourg Income Study datasets. In conclusion, the opportunities to conduct comparative research are greater than ever thanks to cooperation between data archives. However, not everything is available online yet. Meanwhile, datasets can be ordered from the data archive, just as before.
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