New Version of the CESSDA Data Catalogue

The CESSDA Data Catalogue (CDC) was updated in February 2021.((CESSDA (2021):  Discover what’s new in CESSDA Data Catalogue, 10th February 2021, https://www.cessda.eu/News-Events/News/CESSDA/Discover-what-s-new-in-CESSDA-Data-Catalogue.)) Because this could also be an exciting service for scientists of the Max Planck Society, it makes sense to briefly introduce this special service here.

The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives, in short CESSDA, is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium and provides large-scale, integrated and sustainable data services to the social sciences.((For more information, please see the CESSDA website.)) European social data archives started CESSDA as initiative in the 1990s. In the year 2006, the CESSDA reached an ESFRI status, followed in 2017 by ERIC.

The CSC is a one-stop-shop for search and discovery, enabling effective access to European research data for researchers. Details of over 30.000 data collections are listed. These are harvested from fifteen different CESSDA Service Providers including GESIS, … other German providers.((Dekker (2018), p. 3 and https://marketplace.eosc-portal.eu/services/cessda-data-catalogue.)) The CDC is also part of the EOSC marketplace.

Joining in the CDC, many datasets are listed by Max Planck researcher already. The search term “Max Planck Institute” alone yields 53 records. All the datasets were published by the German GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and delivered to the CDC. In the result list, you can find historic mobility data from Vienna in the 1920s to studies on diversity and contact in the neighbourhood in the 2010s.

With this search, the new version of the CESSDA Data Catalogue is also visible.New helpful features are implemented, such as improved filter options or the definition of a search language i.e. English, German, or else. Furthermore, CDC now also offers a discovery service. Thus, in the item view the user gets a suggest list with a search for other data that includes that original term. This makes it easier to find similar records.

Further Reading

Bell, Darren, and Kerrin Borschewski (2020): Making Models into Reality – The DDI Profile Journey at CESSDA, presented at the 12th Annual European DDI User Conference (EDDI20), https://zenodo.org/record/4305683#.YDYkY3kxk2w.

CESSDA Training Team (2020): CESSDA Data Management Expert Guide, https://zenodo.org/record/3820473.

Dekker, Ron (2018): CESSDA Strategy Paper 2018-2022, https://www.cessda.eu/content/download/4260/48215/file/CESSDA%20Strategy%202018-2022.pdf.

Zenk-Möltgen, Wolfgang (2020): Managing Social Science Metadata at the Data Archive, presented at the 12th Annual European DDI User Conference (EDDI20), https://zenodo.org/record/4309112#.YDYkBHkxk2w.