INTRODUCTION

The South African Data Archive serves as a broker between a range of data providers (for example, statistical agencies, government departments, opinion and market research companies and academic institutions) and the reseach community. The archive does not only preserve data for future use, but all adds value to the collections. It safeguards datasets and related documentation and attempts to make it as easily accessible as possible for research and educational purposes.

Existing research data can be an invaluable source for further studies. Such data are, however, currently scattered throughout the country. By preserving this research information in a single resource centre like SADA, unnecessary and costly duplication of research are decreased while the quality of the research findings are enhanced by using data from experienced researchers both locally and internationally.

Objectives of SADA

To acquire and catalogue survey data and related information.
To preserve such data against technological obsolescence and physical damage.
To provide originators or depositors of data with necessary information in order to ensure high standards of data documentation.
To re-disseminate such information for use by other researchers, for re-analysis of data, longitudinal and comparative studies, research training, teaching and policy-making decision purposes.
To formulate policies for the scope and content of data and data preservation.
To promote the optimal use of data.

Value Adding

SADA adds value to its collections in the following ways:

The datasets received undergo a variety of checks and cleaning procedures to ensure their integrity.
Comprehensive machine-readable codebooks are developed, which include an abstract, sampling methodology and questionnaire.
The datasets are catalogued and made accessible through electronic search and retrieval systems.
Datasets from various sources are often integrated in order to produce easy to use information products, for e.g. on-line databases and CD-ROMs.

Data Catalogue

SADA's data holdings are from a wide range of areas, such as Censuses and household surveys, Omnibus and international studies, Demographic and health related studies, Substance abuse, Crime, Income and poverty, Inter-group relations, Labour and business, Education and training, and Political perceptions and attitudes. The expansion to other sciences and the anticipated establishment of virtual archives will increase the benefits to the research community. SADA also hopes to reflect the government's core priority themes in its holdings, for e.g. HIV/AIDS studies. View the data catalogue.

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Advantages of data archiving

Data archives ensure that the depositors' work is protected from extinction, and whenever depositors need to make use of it, they would simply request it from the archive, which stores the data in an orderly and compact manner.
Data that has been archived can also be used to test or develop new theories, generalize or extend findings and/or answer new questions.
Archiving leads to data sharing across disciplines, and this often results in new methodologies and theories being developed.
Research students in particular, often have a limited time frame within which to complete their programmes. It would not be feasible to undertake a reasonably good project conducting primary research within such a limited time. In this respect, a data archive would provide an answer, matching research quality, costs and time.

Membership

Empirical research often encompasses national, regional and international comparative studies - a field that has grown rapidly in recent years. Through its extensive network, SADA can channel data and information stored in its databases to interested researchers worldwide. Through its computerised system, SADA can also obtain data from outside the country for interested researchers in South Africa.

SADA's access to the collections of other data archives is facilitated by its membership of organisations such as the International Federation of Data Organisations (IFDO), the Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) (of which it is an associate member), the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST).

View more information on these organisations

Current & Future Developments

Making data available via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the latest of SADA' s expansion of online services to serve the social sciences research community better and more efficiently. SADA is encouraging users to take advantage of the data transfer capabilities afforded by File Transfer Protocol to download their data. More information.
SADA has adopted the World Wide Web to expand its range of online services, including the implementation of the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) for producing electronic documentation. To make this facility more user-friendly, SADA has released most of its codebooks, which were previously available only in hardcopy, in MS Word format and PDF for download via our web site. This is a significant development in providing information quickly and effortlessly to the users. More information.

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