Furthermore, data services should be lobbying data owners to be more consistent in their own practices. top mechanisms for access to sensitive data in place at the moment. Why can I freely download the UK’s contribution to the cross-EU Labour Force Survey from the UK Data Service after registration, but have to jump through some significant hoops if I want to access the same data via Eurostat? Why is there this difference in approach?
Data access conditions need to move together rather than move apart, and we need to advocate interoperability (not harmonisation), and it is the data archives which should be able to manage this. Over the last couple of years the UK Data Service has been intimately involved in the UK’s Office for National Statistics review of the Approved australia rcs data Researcher Status (See Office for National Statistics (12 July 2016), Updated Response to the ONS Consultation on the Approved Researcher scheme, for further information) and I believe it is our knowledge and our reputation in this area which has allowed us to participate so intimately. Data services’ involvement in processes like these should be a brilliant opportunity, but getting our foot in the door is sometimes a challenge.
Data Skills
My third theme is around data skills – and in fact the lack of them – within our broader community. I was involved in an activity earlier in the year where someone who described themselves as a data scientist produced a series of tables based on a survey. These were straightforward cross-tabulations, but they omitted the number of responses. A ‘schoolboy’ error. When our governments and funders talk about evidence-based policy the evidence has to be accurate.