Experts from the UK Data Service have recently hosted a series of talks at IASSIST 2023 – a prestigious international social science conference – with many presentations focused on sharing best practice approaches to ethical research practice.
Social scientists and research technicians attended the 48th IASSIST Conference (the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology) from a wide range of countries, including Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, UK and USA. This year, the event was held in Philadelphia.
The conference offers researchers and data professionals a unique opportunity to hear about the newest innovations in research data management, from experts with internationally renowned expertise. Many of the attendees work at some of the most prominent universities from around the world, including a number of representatives from high profile US universities, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Researchers and technicians from the UK Data Service were at the heart of all the talks and offered their specialist insights into essential areas of social science data best practice. The subjects they covered included data access, governance and ethics, data documentation and reproducibility, data literacy, data management and archiving.
This year’s theme focused on Diversity in research: Social justice from data. In a couple of the sessions, the UK Data Service covered data-based evidence of the racial and social inequalities that still exist in the UK. They also highlighted the efforts made over the last few years to increase diversity and inclusivity within the UK Data Archive, as well as the University of Essex.
Another presentation discussed how data from Census 2021 (available in the UK Data Service’s collection) about the LGBTQ+ population, combined with mental health and deprivation statistics, as well as other environmental factors, allow us to better understand how people from different genders and sexual orientations are represented across the UK.
Darren Bell, the Acting Director of the UK Data Service, was very pleased with the UK Data Service’s strong presence at the conference: “It’s a great opportunity to network with like-minded individuals from the social science community, old and new. As for the UK Data Service, we have learnt some new things about data governance and what people are doing on the ground in terms of best practice around the world, as well as the theory they follow.
“IASSIST is also an important event for bringing people together like this. The international scope of it is essential because we tend to work mainly with a European focus in mind, but this event gets us connected more closely with the global community. All of this work is for the benefit of better research, which leads to better policy and eventually better outcomes for citizens. It’s great to be part of that whole eco system.”
Joanne Webb, Acting Head of the UK Data Archive, added: “I think the UK Data Service in its presentations showed how willing we are to share our experiences and learnings with our global community for the benefit of as many people as possible. In the end, we’ve all got the same objectives about facilitating quality research that can have a strong impact on the world. And part of that is about helping the whole sector to progress. Our presentations demonstrated all the different areas we are working on, from making improvements to how we incorporate meta data, through to making it even easier for users to access the datasets in our collection.
“The international aspect is so important because otherwise you find yourself in an echo chamber. We need those new ideas. Sometimes I get inspired by other organisations that aren’t the same as us. A lot of what they do can spark new ideas because what they think is quite normal might be innovative to us, and vice versa.”
Gemma Hakins, Director for Communications and Engagement at the UK Data Service, added: “One of the fantastic things about IASSIST is it provides an international platform to showcase some of our most impactful work that happens behind the scenes. And it also helps to reignite the shared passion that we all have at IASSIST to use data for research to improve people’s lives.
“We’re keen to follow up some exciting opportunities created at IASSIST this year with fellow data departments and Universities in Nigeria, the US, Canada and extend more of our relationships across European Data Archives.”
The UK Data Service has the UK’s largest collection of economic, population and social research data for teaching, learning and public benefit, with new datasets joining its collection every week.