23 Feb 2010 - International data use tops 25,000!
28 Jan 2010 - Case studies on international data use wanted
09 Dec 2009 - ESDS International reports on 5th Annual Conference
27 Oct 2009 - ESDS International attending 3rd OECD World Forum in Busan, Korea

View previous news items from 2003 onwards

23 February 2010: International data use tops 25,000!

ESDS International is delighted to report that usage of the ESDS International databanks has now topped twenty-five thousand. Records show that from the inception of the service in June 2003 to January 2010 over 25,000 unique users from 214 different UK educational institutions accessed international macro data via ESDS International over 510,000 times. The graph below shows the ever-increasing international data community and dataset release dates, the latest of which was the UN Comtrade data in Sept 2009.

Of these 25,000 users 47% were postgraduates, 36% were undergraduates and the majority of others were staff at Higher or Further Education (FE) institutions with a very small percentage of FE student usage. This new generation of international data users came primarily from the fields of Economics and Econometrics, Business and Management Studies, Politics and International Studies, Accounting and Finance, Library or Data/Information Centre, but interestingly also included users from areas as diverse as Engineering, Media Studies, Mathematics, Anthropology, Psychology and Middle Eastern and African Studies. This gives an indication of the huge range of topics that are covered by ESDS International's data portfolio.

The service hosts high quality international time series statistical databanks produced by international governmental organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the International Energy Agency, the United Nations, the World Bank and OECD covering a wide array of topics, from finance, trade and industry to education, employment, health, migration, social expenditure, human development, energy and the environment. The graph above shows the breakdown of dataset usage by dataset, i.e. we can see that the World Bank datasets (which include the World Development Indicators, the Global Development Finance and the African Development Indicators) are by far the most popular for our users, followed by the OECD datasets and the IMF's International Financial Statistics.

All of this data is freely available to UK academics and researchers via Beyond 20/20 and ESDS International also helps users to locate and acquire international micro-level datasets, such as Eurobarometer. The service also supports the use of these macro and micro databanks through the provision of a helpdesk, user guides, training and learning and teaching resources.

Please let us know if you have any comments about the service or need any further information about what we do!

ESDS International Team
Mimas, The University of Manchester
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6109
Email: international@esds.ac.uk
URL: www.esds.ac.uk/International

28 January 2010: Case studies on international data use wanted

Are you using data from ESDS International as part of your research or study? If so, you may be able to collect a £ 50 Amazon voucher and have your work published on the ESDS International website!

Photo by: 3mieszczanka, Creative Commons, Flickr.ESDS International, a specialist data service of the Economic and Social Data Service wishes to enhance its 'Case studies of international data use' feature with further studies. As well as highlighting the diverse use of international data in research and teaching, it allows ESDS International users to showcase their work and enables others in the international data community to see interesting examples of current research.

The current selection includes studies on:

• The relationship between public attitudes and public knowledge about science
• Gender Equality in the Labour Market in Central and Eastern Europe: Attitudes to Women's Work
• When do people feel European? European identity, EU attitudes, and questionnaire design
• Low emission European energy scenarios
• Comparing Early Warning Systems for Banking Crises

If you would like to read our current case studies or would like to submit a case study for possible publication, please visit www.esds.ac.uk/International/casestudies/casestudies.asp for further information or contact the ESDS International team.

ESDS International Team
Mimas, The University of Manchester
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6109
Email: international@esds.ac.uk
URL: www.esds.ac.uk/International

09 December 2009: ESDS International reports on 5th Annual Conference- Real Data: Real World

ESDS International, hosted by Mimas at the University of Manchester held their fourth annual conference on the 30 November 2009 at the Institute of Materials in London. The event was well received by delegates who came from a wide range of educational, research and inter-governmental organisations to meet and share their ideas on issues relating to international data research. A full report on the day can be found at ESDS International 2009 Conference: Real Data-Real World and conference proceedings from all ESDS International conferences are available online.

Further information on previous conference programmes, abstracts, slides and reports is available on the ESDS International Annual Conference page of the website.

Posted by the ESDS International Team
Mimas, The University of Manchester
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6109
Email: international@esds.ac.uk
URL: www.esds.ac.uk/International

27 October 2009: ESDS International attending 3rd OECD World Forum in Busan, Korea

Celia Russell and Paul Murphy of ESDS International attended the OECD's 3rd World Forum on 'Statistics, Knowledge and Policy' which included an international exhibition on 'Charting Progress, Building Visions and Improving Life' from the 27th to 30th of October 2009 in Busan, Korea. See their article 'Debating Global Progress' on the Talking globally – Mimas at international events feature on the Mimas website.

ESDS International have submitted a paper for the conference: What do academics want? Research requirements for cross-national data

For more information please visit the Forum Website: www.oecdworldforum2009.org