Frequently Asked Questions
Need to add FAQs relating to creating
This section of the web site contains frequently asked
questions about depositing data with the History Data Service
The History Data Service collects high-quality digital resources - transcribed,
scanned or compiled from historical source documents - which are of long-term
interest to the historical community. The collection covers a wide range of
historical topics, and brings together over 650 separate collections of data,
including databases, spreadsheets, textbases, electronic texts and scanned images.
Data collections are accessioned for all periods, from ancient history through
to 1945, and although the primary focus is on the UK, cross-national data collections
are regularly accessioned. The History Data Service Collections
Development Policy contains further information about the scope and the
nature of the collection.
The UK Data Archive , a lead partner of the Economic and Social Data
Service (ESDS), undertakes the long-term preservation for the History Data Service.
Advice about data formats suitable for deposit with the History Data Service
can be found on on the data
formats and software page of the UK Data Archive web site.
The History Data Service preserves digital resources produced by individuals,
projects and organisations, mainly within the higher education sector.
The time and resources invested in the creation of digital resources
can easily be placed in jeopardy because hardware and software
become obsolete, and magnetic media degrade. Long-term preservation
is essential if this investment is to be safeguarded. Data collections
deposited with the History Data Service are preserved and migrated
through changing technologies to ensure that they will be accessible
in the future.
Many historical digital resources have significant and long-term
value to the research and teaching community, and the time and
resources invested in their creation can only be fully realised
if they are systematically collected, preserved and disseminated.
The History Data Service makes deposited data collections available
for future re-use by distributing them to the research and teaching
community in a range of formats and on a variety of media. Data
collections deposited with the History Data Service are professionally
catalogued, and information about them and any associated publications
is made accessible through online catalogues.
By collecting, evaluating, cataloguing and publicising data
collections the History Data Service helps to provide tangible
evidence of the scholarly effort involved in data creation.
Data collections deposited with the History Data Service are
widely publicised, for example through workshops and online
catalogues, and individual depositors gain professional recognition
when their data collections are re-used in research and teaching
and cited in subsequent publications.
If your data is created as part of an Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) award you should consult the Advice
for data creators section of the Economic and Social Data Service web site
in the planning stage of your project. All ESRC award holders are under a contractual
obligation to offer their data for archiving within three months of the end
of the award. All potential depositors should consult the Creating
data section of the History Data Service website as soon as possible for
advice on how to create and document a digital resource. This is important because
the way a resource is created and documented affects how, and even if, it can
be preserved and re-used. In addition because the History Data Service, now has to charge for the costs of depositing (unless the data was created as part of an Economic and Social Research Council) award you should consult in the planning stage of your project the Charging Policy so that you can determine the estimated costs of long-term preservation and if neccessary include this cost in any grant application that you make. Once your data is ready for deposit you should consult
the Depositing data section of the History Data Service website for information
on the costs and processes involved in depositing data.
Data are deposited with the History Data Service with a non-exclusive licence
for use in research and teaching. This means that intellectual property rights
and copyright are retained by the copyright holder(s) and that the depositor
grants the History Data Service the necessary permissions to preserve and disseminate
the data for use in research and teaching. You can only deposit data and grant
these permissions if you are the copyright holder or are authorised to do so
by the copyright holder(s). Copyright and other intellectual property rights
must be clearly established before a data collection is deposited.
Currently there are no charges for depositing data with the History Data Service
if the data was created as a product of an Economic and Social Research Council
award. For other deposits there is a one-off charge which is used to meet the
costs of accession, cataloguing and preserving data. These costs are laid out
in the UK Data Archive Charging Policy.
Yes, the History Data Service will accept commercially produced data collections,
but there would be charges for commercial data deposits. If you are interested
in depositing commercially produced data, please see the
charging policy..
The maintenance of comprehensive documentation detailing
the data creation process and the steps taken involves a significant
but profitable investment of time and resources. It is more
effective if documentation is generated during rather than
after a data creation project. Such an approach will result
in a better-quality data collection as well as better quality
documentation, because the maintenance of proper documentation
demands consistency and attention to detail. The process of
documenting a data creation project can also have the benefit
of helping to refine research questions and it can be a vital
aid to communication in larger-scale projects.
Good documentation is crucial to a data collection's long-term
vitality: without it, the resource will not be suitable for
future use and its provenance will be lost. Proper documentation
contributes substantially to a data collection's scholarly
value. The elements essential to good documentation are described
in the Guidelines for Documenting Data.
At a minimum, documentation should provide information about
a data collection's contents, provenance and structure, and
the terms and conditions that apply to its use. It needs to
be sufficiently detailed to allow the data creator to use
the resource in the future, when the data creation process
has started to fade from memory. It also needs to be comprehensive
enough to enable others to explore the resource fully; and
detailed enough to allow someone who has not been involved
in the data creation process to understand the data collection
and the process by which it was created. Except in exceptional
cases the documentation that accompanies a data collection
deposited with the History Data Service must meet the standards
set out in the Guidelines for Documenting
Data. In exceptional cases data collections which are
not accompanied by comprehensive documentation may be considered
for deposit after negotiation and agreement.
The acquisition and accession of data into the History Data Service collection
is managed by the UK Data Archive acquisitions team, who are also responsible
for the acquistion and accession of data for the Economic and Social Data Service
(ESDS). For data depositors depositing data is essentially a two-stage process.
Firstly, depositors complete the UK Data Archive Data submission form. This is then reviewed
by the Acquistions Review Committee (ARC) which meets fortnightly to review
submissions. Secondly, if the data is accepted by ARC then depositors must prepare
materials for formal deposit. This includes completing the data collection deposit
forms, completing and signing a Licence Agreement and sending the data to the
acquisitions section. Further information about how to deposit data is given
in the depositing
data section of the ESDS web site.
Further guidance on the creation of data and documentation
is available from the History Data Service publication Digitising
History
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