Treffer: The Royal Statistical Society Working Group on archiving data : Standards for documenting data for preservation and secondary analysis

The Royal Statistical Society has recently established a working group to create standards for the collection and preparation of data in readiness for preservation. The working group is made up of members of key organisations involved in both the collection and preservation of statistical material, including representatives from the private sector, the Office for National Statistics, the Public Records Office, The National Centre for Social Research (formerly, Social and Community Planning Research), NDAD and the Data Archive. The representatives of these organisations bring to the group a wealth of experience in both the collection and preservation of data from a range of sources including historical and administrative records, survey data and spatially referenced data The goals of the group are as follows: ○ To define the extent to which materials, including questionnaires, data coding dictionaries, instructions for computations, working drafts and definitions of terms should be archived for future use. ○ To establish a code of best practice for doing this ○ To suggest how data creators, custodians and users can co-operate to ensure that best practise is observed. The paper explores the need for such standards and describes progress to date with a view to stimulating debate and eliciting wider opinions on some of the key issues that the group is addressing.