Help on searching the Data Catalogue 
The Data Catalogue contains descriptions of a vast range of survey data as well
as the data supported by the ESDS specialist support services.
A free-text search of the Data Catalogue can be carried out via the
Basic Search
or a more focused search on specific fields may be performed via the
Advanced
Search. The catalogue may also be
browsed by subject or the latest additions and new editions viewed via
the
New data releases
listings.
Quick links are provided to the most popular datasets, including those
supported by the specialist ESDS services (ESDS Government, ESDS International,
ESDS Longitudinal and ESDS Qualidata) from the
Major studies page.
Basic Search
The
Basic Search is performed via a free-text search on
All of Study
Description or on the
Variables.
A search on
All of Study Description will search on all of the fields in
the catalogue record (with the exception of publications and variables),
including the abstract and methodology e.g. sampling methods, method of data
collection, and data sources.
A
Variables search is performed on all variable labels and value labels
within a dataset. These labels may contain acronyms and abbreviations. For
example, to search for variables about
national health service also
search for the term
NHS using the
any search words option.
Note: A
Variables search is currently available for the most popular
datasets in the Data Catalogue or for those datasets deposited in a suitable
format. Currently this is approximately one third of the holdings, including
major series such as Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Expenditure and Food
Survey, and British Household Panel Survey.
More
help on Basic Search
Advanced Search
The
Advanced Search allows the user to search in specific fields
*
of the catalogue record in addition to an
All Fields search. As well as
being able to search on multiple terms in one box, as in the basic search, the
user can also combine search terms entered in different boxes with the use of
the Boolean operators
AND NOT OR. This means a search can be built up to
include certain criteria and exclude others.
*The fields in the catalogue record that searches are performed on are:
-
All Fields - searches on all of the catalogue record except for the
access conditions and variables
-
Title - searches on all areas of title - main, sub-title, alternative,
series
-
Subject - searches on keywords, subject category, abstract and main
topics
-
Keyword - performs a free-text search only on HASSET subject keywords
list
-
Geography - searches on geographic coverage (country, region,
county/district, city/town, village etc.) as well as 'location of units of
observation' (i.e. National, Subnational or Cross-national)
-
Data Creator/Funder - searches on names and affiliations for Depositor,
Principal Investigator, Data Collector, Original Data Producer, Funder
-
Methodology - searches on Time Dimensions, Sampling Procedures, Method
of Data Collection
-
Publications - searches on publications and reports resulting from
primary and secondary analysis
-
UKDA Study Number - searches on study numbers
Multiple search terms can be entered within one field and combined by
checking the
Any All Exact buttons (the default is
All). For
example when the words
health care are entered with the:
-
Any button checked, the search will retrieve datasets which have any of
the words (health or care) somewhere in the field being searched
on
-
All button checked, the search will retrieve datasets which have all
words (health and care) somewhere in the field being searched on
-
Exact button checked, the search will retrieve datasets which have the
exact phrase (health care) somewhere in the field being searched on
More
help on Advanced Search
More help on Basic Search
Any search words/all search words - Basic Search
In the
Basic Search the default search is for
all search words,
meaning that records will be retrieved that contain all of the words searched
on (apart from skip words) but not necessarily in close proximity. The
any
search words option may be selected whereby records will be retrieved
that contain any (one or more) of the words searched on.
A search, for example, on
Health and Lifestyle (or
health lifestyle)
using
all search words will retrieve records which contain both the word
health
and the word
lifestyle somewhere within the record. In this case 'and'
is a skip word and is therefore ignored.
A search on
Health and Lifestyle using
any search words will
retrieve records which contain either (or both) of the words
health and
lifestyle
somewhere within the record. To search on an exact phrase or string enclose the
phrase in double quotation marks e.g.
"Health and Lifestyle" (see
Exact
phrase search below).
Exact phrase search - Basic Search
Put double quotation marks around words to search for an exact phrase. For
example,
"health and lifestyle" will look for the complete phrase
health
and lifestyle (checking either the
all search words or
any search
words button will make no difference here).
A search on
"National child" will retrieve records with the words
national
and
child next to each other e.g.
The National Child Development Study
datasets.
Note: Enclosing the search string in quotes will result in a slower search
response.
Truncation search/wild cards - Basic and Advanced search
Use
* to look for words with the same stem. For example, type
child*
to find child, children, childbirth, child-care, childminding and so on. A
search on
child (without *) will only retrieve records containing the
actual word
child.
(
Basic Search only) A search on
*crim* will retrieve
crime, criminal, discrimination, crime-related etc.
A question mark
? is used to substitute a single letter, for example
wom?n
will retrieve either
woman or
women.
Note:
Sort by date does not work for truncated and wild card searches in
the
Basic Search.
Name search - Basic Search
To search for an individual's name (e.g. depositor) in the
Basic Search
it is advisable to enter the surname only.
To search for an organisation it is advisable to search for both the
full name (in double quotes) and the abbreviation e.g.
"Office for National
Statistics" ONS and check the
any search words button.
Name searches in the
Basic Search will retrieve records which
contain that name
anywhere in the record. For a more precise search it
is advisable to use the
Advanced Search where a more focused search can
be performed on the
Data Creator/Funder field.
See
Data
Creator/Funder for more help on name searching.
Results - Basic Search
There is no maximum limit to the number of hits retrieved. The hit number is
displayed at the top of the list.
The default is for retrieved studies to be ordered by
relevance. This
order can be changed by clicking on
Sort by date where results will be
ordered by date of data coverage with the most recent first.
Where the list contains several datasets
with the same temporal coverage these will be displayed in study number order.
Note:
Sort by date does not work for truncated and wild card searches.
Relevance
The Data Catalogue currently uses Zoom in the search engine for the
Basic Search.
The results are sorted in order of a page score system. This score is
calculated based on a number of factors to determine the relevance of a page to
a user's search terms. These factors include:
-
the number of times the searched term appears on that page
-
the number of search terms that appear on the page
-
the individual words that form part of an 'exact phrase' query
-
whether the word appears in the title, meta description, or meta keywords part
of the page
Filter results to show major studies
For searches that return more than 50 studies there is an option to refine the
search to major studies:
-
if the search has been performed with the all search words button, the
option will be given to Show only major studies from these results
-
if the search has been performed with the any search words button, the
option will be given to Show major studies first
Note: Because this
will add "Major studies" to the terms being searched on there will be
studies returned that may not fulfil the search criteria; these will however be
displayed last in a sort by relevance listing.
Variables - Basic Search
A
Variables search is currently only available in the
Basic Search.
It is available for the most popular datasets in the Data Catalogue or for
those datasets deposited in a suitable format. Currently this is approximately
30 per cent of the holdings, including major series such as Quarterly Labour
Force Survey, Expenditure and Food Survey, and British Household Panel Survey.
International macro data series are not included in a variable search. Neither
are the 'virtual' international micro series such as the Eurobarometers where
the data are held elsewhere.
A
Variables search is performed on all variable labels and value labels
within a dataset. These labels may contain acronyms and abbreviations. For
example, to search for variables about
National Health Service also
search for the term
NHS using the
any search words option.
The results are displayed by dataset title, each of which could have numerous
variables relevant to the search term(s). The individual variables can be
viewed by clicking on
Variables in SN xxxx link. From the resulting list
of individual variables in that particular dataset, any variable can be
selected to view further details including a full list of value labels for that
variable and a link to the complete variable list for that dataset.
Unweighted
frequencies and percentages are displayed alongside the
values for more recently processed (since October 2005) datasets. Where a
dataset does have
frequencies some may be missing for one of the
following reasons:
-
continuous variables - no frequencies will be displayed
-
invalid cases - some frequencies may be displayed but will not add up to 100 per cent
The
frequencies displayed are unweighted and users should consult the
associated documentation for information on whether, and how, to correctly
weight the data. For datasets displaying the
Explore Online nesstar link
it is possible to view unweighted frequencies and to produce weighted
frequencies (and perform other analysis) online using Nesstar.
The
any search words/
all search words and use of double quotes
can be used in a variable search.
In an
all search words search, although the datasets retrieved will
contain all search terms within the variables, it is not guaranteed that all
search terms will be contained within an INDIVIDUAL variable. To ensure this,
the search terms should be enclosed within double quotes.
Note: A
Variables search can take longer than other types of specific
searches.
More help on Advanced Search
All Fields - Advanced Search
A search on
All Fields will search on all of the catalogue record with
the exception of the access conditions and variables.
Title - Advanced Search
A search in the
Title field is performed on all elements within the
title i.e. main title, sub-title, alternative title and series title. A
truncation search is recommended if the full title is not known.
Note: A truncation search will not work when the
Exact button is
checked.
Subject - Advanced Search
A
Subject search can be used to locate datasets whose subject coverage
reflects the area of interest of the user e.g. health care, social networks,
voting behaviour. The studies located might be wholly about the subject area or
have variables/questions covering the subject. In the
Advanced Search this
is performed on several areas of the catalogue record: the subject category,
abstract, main topics and subject keyword list.
-
Subject Categories
One or more subject categories, selected from the UK Data Archive list of subject
categories, are assigned to each dataset to reflect the overall subject scope
of the dataset.
The subject category list reflects the subject scope of the data collection.
There are 20 thematic headings which, in most cases, are further divided into
subheadings. The full list can be viewed on the
Browse by subject page. From this page a separate browse function
is available allowing users to browse the full data collection for datasets
matching their area of interest.
One or more boxes within a category can be checked to retrieve datasets on the
required topic(s). Alternatively selecting a main heading (e.g. Politics) will
retrieve studies on ALL areas within this category.
Note: It is not possible to select from more than one category group within the
same search.
Titles are returned in date order - latest first.
-
Abstract and Main Topics
The abstract and main topics contain information on the aims, purpose and
background to the data collection, they also list the key themes and topics or
variables covered by the data.
-
Keywords
Each catalogue record contains a list of assigned subject Keywords covering
all topics included in the data. The keywords are taken from a controlled
vocabulary list held in the UK Data Archive thesaurus,
HASSET, which is available to help decide on the appropriate search
term.
In the Subject search, the keyword list is just one of the fields being
searched on (the others being the abstract, main topics and the subject
categories) - this provides a broad search, retrieving datasets where the
search term(s) can be anywhere within these fields. This is in contrast to the Keyword
search, where the search is confined to the controlled subject keyword list.
See Keyword - Advanced Search below.
Keyword - Advanced Search
The
Keyword search performs a free-text search on the list of keywords
assigned to each study. More than one term can be entered in the search box and
the
Any All Exact buttons used, or terms can be entered in more than one
box and combined with the
AND NOT OR operators.
Examples:
-
select Keyword from the drop-down list and enter crime in the
search box and check the Any box - this will result in a list of
datasets with keywords containing the word crime; it will include such
things as crime, crime victims, fear of crime
-
enter fear of crime in the search box and check the Exact box -
this will locate datasets which have been assigned the keyword fear of crime
If the original search term retrieves no studies (i.e. it does not match or
partially match a keyword) or if help is required in choosing appropriate
keywords, then the
HASSET
thesaurus is available either to consult for suggested terms or as a
stand-alone search tool. See
Thesaurus-aided keyword search using HASSET
below.
Thesaurus-aided keyword search using HASSET
The thesaurus-aided search using the Humanities and Social Science Electronic
Thesaurus -
HASSET
allows a more precise search than the
Keyword search.
Entering a search term (consisting of one or more words) in the HASSET interface
will result in either a match with the word in the thesaurus or, if there is no
exact match, a listing of partial matches. A matched term will automatically be
displayed in its position in the thesaural structure showing its relationship
to other terms. From here broader, narrower, or related terms may be selected
to refine or extend the search. If there is only a partial match then selecting
a term from the resulting listing will display the thesaurus view for that
term.
Once an appropriate keyword has been found in the thesaurus, a search can be
carried out on the Data Catalogue by clicking the
Search on Keyword button.
This will retrieve datasets to which the keyword has been assigned.
To search the catalogue for one or more terms simultaneously, check the boxes
to include
Narrower terms and/or
Related terms
then click on the
Search on Keyword button.
Note: Searching on multiple terms can result in a slower response time.
It is currently not possible to combine this thesaurus-aided search with other
elements of the catalogue search. Thus if a user wishes to search on a specific
thesaurus keyword combined with e.g. year, geographical coverage, then
once the desired keyword(s) in HASSET have been identified, they should be
manually entered into the appropriate field in the catalogue search.
Geography - Advanced Search
A search on
Geography can be performed to locate data which cover a
particular geographic coverage: country, county, region, city/town or village
etc. Two or more geographic areas can be combined within one search box using
the
Any or
All buttons, or in separate search boxes by using the
AND NOT OR
operators on the left hand side.
Data at national or subnational level, or covering more than one country, can
also be located.
Examples:
-
a search on Scotland will pick up any studies with a geographic coverage
of Scotland at a national level, as well as data that covers only parts of
Scotland (subnational)
-
to find data on Scotland at a national level search Scotland and national
using the AND operator on the left hand side
-
to find subnational level data search on Scotland and subnational
using the AND operator on the left hand side
-
data covering more than one country may be retrieved by searching on the term cross-national
-
to locate global or world data use the search term multi-nation
-
when searching for international macro time series data it is advisable to
search for country name (e.g. Argentina) rather than region (e.g. Latin
America)
-
it is advisable to search on a full name rather than abbreviation e.g. Great
Britain not GB
-
when searching on a two or more word country e.g. Great Britain, Republic of
Ireland the Exact button should be checked
Geographic terms can also be viewed in the
HASSET thesaurus and can be used in either a
Geography or a
Keyword
search.
Data Creator/Funder - Advanced Search
This search is performed on all individuals or organisations associated with
the creation of the data e.g. principal investigator, data collector,
depositor, funder.
-
Searching on a personal name:
Names usually appear in the catalogue record in the format surname, followed by
initial(s), e.g. Crewe, I. rather than I. Crewe or Ivor Crewe. However as some
initials will be classed as 'skip' words and will therefore be discounted from
the search, it is strongly recommended to search on surname only.
-
Searching for an organisation:
Names of organisations are usually entered in the catalogue record in full e.g. Office
for National Statistics rather than as an acronym e.g. ONS. It
is therefore advisable to search for both the full name and the abbreviation by using the first two
boxes, check the Exact buttons and combine with the OR operator.
Methodology - Advanced Search
A search on
Methodology is performed on
Time Dimensions,
Sampling
Procedures and
Method of Data Collection. These fields are
populated from controlled vocabulary lists i.e. they use standard terminology
to ensure consistency. Using these controlled vocabularies as search terms
ensures consistent and effective retrieval. The terms currently used are listed
below:
-
Time Dimensions
-
Cross-sectional (one-time) study
-
Follow-up to cross-sectional study
-
Repeated cross-sectional study
-
Longitudinal/panel/cohort study
-
Time Series
-
Sampling Procedures
-
No sampling (total universe)
-
Quota sample
-
Simple random sample
-
One-stage stratified or systematic random sample
-
One-stage cluster sample
-
Multi-stage stratified random sample
-
Quasi-random (e.g. random walk) sample
-
Purposive selection/case studies
-
Volunteer sample
-
Convenience sample
-
Method of Data Collection
-
Face-to-face interview
-
Telephone interview
-
Postal survey
-
Self-completion
-
Psychological measurements
-
Educational measurements
-
Observation
-
Clinical measurements
-
Simulation
-
Diaries
-
Physical measurements
-
Transcription of existing materials
-
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
-
Focus group
-
Video recording
-
Audio recording
Publications - Advanced Search
Select
Publications to search on publications or reports resulting from
the primary or secondary analysis based on the data. This search works on all
areas of the publications lists (bibliographic references) that accompany the
study description. A search may be carried out on author (it is recommended to
use surname only), title, publisher, etc.
UKDA Study Number - Advanced Search
This is a quick, simple search to locate a study where the UK Data Archive study number is
known. More than one study number may be searched at a time (it is advisable to
check the
Any box).
Time Period - Advanced Search
Searches can be focused to locate data covering a particular year or a span of
years:
-
Single year
Entering a single year in the first box will locate all studies covering the
specific year as well as studies with a date span which includes the specific
year. For example, a search on 2007 will return studies with the
following dates: 2007, 1995-2007, 2001-2008, 2007-2008, etc.
-
Year range
Entering the start year in the first box and the ending year in the second box
will locate studies that have data both covering and spanning the range of
years entered. For example, a search on the year span 1990-2001 will
locate studies with data covering 1990, 1991,...etc, 1980-1999, 1990-2008,
1989-2001, etc.
Service - Advanced Search
The search can be performed on
All Data Catalogue or restricted to a
subset of the catalogue to focus the search on a specific range of data:
-
ESDS - data which are supported by the Economic and Social Data Service
-
History - data supported by the History Data Service (HDS) - these are
data which result from or support historical research, typically covering the
period up to 1945
-
UK Census - UK census data supported by the ESRC Census Programme data
support units
Example: to limit results to historical data
History should be selected.
To exclude historical data (and UK census data) from the search results
ESDS
should be selected.
Show only major studies - Advanced Search
This allows the user to restrict their search to the most frequently used
datasets.
Results - Advanced Search
The number of hits for the search is displayed at the top of the list. There is
no maximum limit to the number of hits retrieved, however where a search
results in 100 or more hits only the first 100 are displayed with the option to
Display
All if desired. Depending on the number of records being displayed this
may result in a slow response.
Sort by Relevance - Advanced Search
The ranking used in the sort by
Relevance is
fair similarity -
this means that datasets are ranked according to how many times the search term
or terms appear in the record. Sort by relevance is the default.
Sort by Date - Advanced Search
Sort by
Date is ordered by the date of coverage of the data - with the
most recent first.
Group by Series - Advanced Search
The search results are displayed as a list of all datasets which match the
search criteria - displaying the first hundred only by default with an option
to display all if desired.
Sometimes the full list can consist of several hundred datasets - many datasets
in the collection are part of a series e.g. the Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
Group
by Series will bring together all of the individual datasets from a
series which have matched the search criteria and group them under one entry.
This makes a shorter list which is easier to browse. Each grouped series can be
expanded with the
+ sign on the left hand side.
Note: This grouped list will only contain the first 100 datasets unless the
Display
All option is selected first (this may result in a slow response time).
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