Frequently asked questions
What is the ESDS Longitudinal data service?
ESDS Longitudinal is a joint venture between the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre (ULSC) and
the UK Data Archive that supports the use of a range of the most-widely used UK longitudinal data collections, namely:
- British Cohort Study (BCS70)
- British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)
- English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
- Families and Children Study (FACS)
- Growing Up in Scotland (GUS)
- Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)
- Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
- National Child Development Survey (NCDS)
- Understanding Society
The service exchanges information between users and producers, to enlarge the user base, to produce value-added
data enhancements and to support users. The service includes:
- a help desk service operated by email
longitudinal@esds.ac.uk and telephone +44 (0)1206 872143.
The help desk benefits from access to further specialist user support provided by the
Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the Institute of Education (IoE) and the Institute for Social and Economic Research
- a JISCmail list for parties interested in the longitudinal surveys, for discussion and to receive updates. You can
join this by sending the message subscribe esds-longitudinal to listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk
- web-based Frequently Asked Questions
- the provision of harmonised data standards across all waves or sweeps
- improved information on weighting, missing data, statistical adjustments, and additional derived variables
- the development of an online system for visualisation of documentation, subsetting and data matching
- allowing researchers to make use of confidential data, especially geo-coded data, without prejudicing the confidentiality of those respondents
What other longitudinal data sources exist?
There is now a large body of UK longitudinal data and not all of it is held by the ESDS.
The ESDS will therefore encourage linkage with other datasets not directly supported by ESDS, such as the ONS
Longitudinal Study and, in conjunction with the ESRC National Strategy Committee, aim to further identify new
longitudinal data collections suitable for inclusion. Possible candidates include the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (see
ALSPAC sampler files held by the ESDS), and the 1946 Birth Cohort.
In addition to the nine main cohort/panel studies supported by ESDS Longitudinal, the ESDS also makes available a number
of other longitudinal surveys.
ESDS Longitudinal also provides details and links to other longitudinal resources.
Finally, there is an excellent and up-to-date guide to the wide range of UK longitudinal data available
from both the ESDS and other sources that can be found at
Keeping Track: A Guide
to Longitudinal Resources.
Who can obtain survey data held by ESDS Longitudinal?
Researchers, students and teachers from all fields and types of organisation may register with the ESDS.
The UK Data Archive will usually need to obtain permission from the data depositor for commercial usage.
How much will it cost?
All users using data for non-commercial purposes can obtain the data at no cost. If data are requested on portable media
e.g. CD, handling and p&p fees will apply.
See Charges.
How do I gain access to the survey data?
The ESDS uses federated access management (shibboleth) user authentication. Information on how to register with ESDS is available from
How to access data.
You will need to have a username and password to register - see Login and
registration help.
Registered users can download datasets, or request them for download (usually in SPSS,
Stata or tab-delimited formats) via the
Data Catalogue and via the datasets section of the Major Studies web pages.
A number of the ESDS Longitudinal datasets are also available to most registered users in the
ESDS Nesstar Catalogue, which allow you to explore the data online
and to perform basic exploratory analysis before choosing to download all, or a subset of, data.
Alternatively, if other formats are required and/or the data are required on CD, users can place an 'Other Media' order.
See Usage restrictions for sharing data for information about passing data to other
ESDS registered users.
What formats are the data available in?
Most datasets are available in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited formats and can also be
converted to other formats such as SAS. Other systems, including the
ESDS Nesstar Catalogue may
also provide additional formats, such as Statistica and Dbase.
Are there any restrictions on the use of the survey data?
Restrictions on the use of the surveys are outlined in the
End User Licence
that all users agree to when registering with the ESDS. In particular there is a fundamental restriction on the
confidentiality of data. Users should not attempt to use the data to deliberately compromise the confidentiality of
individuals or households and are required to abide by the current Data Protection Act. This agreement also covers
requirements for citation of publications and safeguarding of data.
Sharing Data with colleagues, other researchers
or students must always be authorised.
Datasets usually require depositor permission for commercial use.
Can I order publications and obtain statistics?
The ESDS is not able to supply copies of publications (other than User Guides accompanying the data). However,
references to publications and journal articles produced by the data creators as
well as those produced by secondary analysts can be found in the 'References and Publications' section of the Data Catalogue
record for each dataset. The pages dedicated to each data series in the Access section of
this web site include a Resources page that provides
links to relevant bibliographies.
The ESDS does not typically supply tailor-made statistics.
How do I get help?
You can email us at longitudinal@esds.ac.uk or telephone us on
+44 (0)1206 872143.
Where can I get the longitudinal survey questionnaires from?
To view or download questionnaires and other survey documentation from one of the longitudinal surveys, find the
relevant catalogue entry (either via the Data Catalogue or
the Major studies web pages)
and click on the 'Documentation' link at the top. Questionnaires and codebooks are generally available in PDF format.
The Survey Question Bank also provides free
online questionnaires and related material. Often questionnaires can be found in the back of published reports. If you
cannot find the questionnaire you require email us at longitudinal@esds.ac.uk or telephone us on
+44 (0)1206 872143.
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