What is the AUSSDA Dataverse?

AUSSDA Dataverse is the digital archive of AUSSDA - The Austrian Social Science Data Archive. You can find and use data under https://data.aussda.at.

The AUSSDA Dataverse is based on the open source application Dataverse which has been developed by Harvard University. Users can find more in-depth information in the Dataverse User Guide.

Your guide through the AUSSDA Dataverse

• Create and manage your account
  • Log In
  • Sign up
  • Forgot password
• Search
  • Finding data using the search 
  • Search on variable level
  • The difference between a Dataverse and a dataset
• (Re)using data
  • The difference between an OA edition and a SUF edition
  • A first look at the dataset
• Files
  • Which file do I need?
  • How do I download a file?
• Metadata
  • What are metadata?
• Terms
  • Agreeing to AUSSDA terms

Log In

Here you can log in with your institutional login. Choose your institution from the list and log in using your institutional credentials. If you choose institutional login, look for the English name of your institution in the list. Under Log In you can also log into your local AUSSDA Dataverse user account. 

Sign up

If you do not want to or cannot use institutional login, you can create a local account in our AUSSDA Dataverse. Please be aware of the password requirements: Your password has to 1) be at least 8 characters long and 2) contain at least 1 character from 3 of the following types: uppercase, lowercase, numeral, special. If your password is longer than 20 characters, requirement 2) does not apply.

Forgot password

If you have forgotten the password of your local account, request an account password reset. If you use institutional login, we cannot reset your password, as only your institution can reset your institutional password. Thus, if you have not received a link to reset your password via e-mail, you have used institutional login in the past. 

Find data using the search

To find data of interest to you, you can use the search function. You will find it in the upper navigation bar or on the left edge of the screen. When you enter a search term, all metadata such as title, abstract, keywords,... will be searched. To improve your search results, search for terms in English. You can use wildcards * to broaden the search. For example, by entering "Democra*" in the search field, you will get search results for Democracy and democratic.

By selecting "Advanced Search" you can make more specific searches. For example, if you search for "Panel" in the search field "Time Method", you will find all studies that use this survey design.

If you do not find a study with your query, try making the term broader or use the search in the top navigation bar. This search box searches all dataverses, while the search bar on the left edge of the screen searches only the dataverse you are currently in.

Search on variable level

If you are interested in a specific variable and its use across different datasets, enter your search term in the search field in the upper navigation bar, for example "PTV" for propensity to vote. This way, you can see all datasets and files that contain the term PTV. All metadata and files in open formats are searchable, whereas PDFs are not. Be aware that might need to search in both German and English, as some datasets are only available in one language. 

What is the difference between a Dataverse and a dataset?

On one hand, Dataverse is the name of our archival software and on the other hand, it is a folder to share datasets. This way, researchers, projects, or journals can collect and give access to their datasets in one place. Some examples are the COVID-19 Pandemic Dataverse, the Public Dataverse or the Statistik Austria Dataverse.

Datasets contain research data in different formats, documentation materials like questionnaires and method reports, metadata and terms of use.

What is the difference between an OA edition and a SUF edition?

You have found an interesting dataset using the search function. Reading the title, you can quickly spot if it is an open access dataset as OA edition appears in the title or if it is a scientific use dataset as SUF edition appears in the title. 

OA editions are available under a CC BY license by default. Data and documentation files can be downloaded without prior login into the AUSSDA Dataverse. They can be reused directly. 

SUF editions are licensed for scientific use. After logging in sucessfully, data can be used by researchers, lecturers and students of scientific institutions for the purpose of research and teaching. If you are not logged in, you see a closed, red lock and you can click the Request Access button on the right side of your screen. You will be prompted to log in. A open, green lock signifies that a dataset can be used directly after log in. In special cases SUF editions are only available after filling out and signing a form that is verified by AUSSDA: Therefore, if you still see a closed, red lock, click on the Request Access button again. AUSSDA will then contact you on how to proceed.

A first look at the dataset

Once you have selected a dataset, you can see the title on top of the page. Below the title, the suggested citation is highlighted in blue. It can be exported to a citation program in different styles. You can find the abstract and keywords describing the study further down. Select one of the four tabs Files, Metadata, Terms or Versions for more information on the dataset.

Which file do I need?

In the tab Files you can see all the files that belong to this dataset. For each file you will find the following information in English:

• the file name in blue font
• technical metadata in gray font 
• a description of the content in black font 
• tags have a grey background

To the right of the file description you will find the download button. To find out which file you need, have a look at the description.

Data

If you are looking for data, you can recognize it by the description Core data file and the tag Data (with a grey background). You can also recognize data by the abbreviation _da_ in the file name. This is especially relevant if you want to find the downloaded file on your computer. AUSSDA provides data in Stata, SPSS and an open format (csv). You can also find information about the format in the description, tags and file extension (Stata as .tab, SPSS as .zsav and csv as .zip).

Documentations

If you are looking for documentation such as questionnaires or codebooks, you will recognize them by the Documentation tag with a grey background. Documentation can be recognized by the following abbreviations in the file name: _qu_ for Questionnaire, _co_ for Codebook, _mr_ for Method report. 

AUSSDA creates two additional documentation files that describe the data set in more detail. The first file is a readme file in PDF format. The second is a machine-readable variable and value summary in .tab format, which has the abbreviation _vi_ in the file name. The _vi_ files are not a Core data file.

How do I download a file?

To the right of the file descriptions, you will see a blue download button in the shape of an arrow. If you click on the blue arrow, you will find the options available to you. You can download most documentation files  directly as PDF after clicking on the blue arrow. If you click on the blue arrow next to data files after login and see a green lock and the text "Restricted with Access Granted", you can select different formats of the file to download immediately. 

• Stata files, recognizable by the tag STATA and the file extension .tab, can be downloaded either as Stata 14 binary or as a tab delimited file. 
• SPSS files, recognizable by the tag SPSS and the file extension .zsav, can only be downloaded as compressed SPSS file. 
• If you use other statistical programs, you can download the zipped CSV file, recognizable by the tag CSV and the file extension .zip, or download and read the labeled Stata or SPSS files. 

After selecting the download format, a pop-up window appears where you agree to the terms of use. This completes your download. You can find more information under Terms. 

If you still see a red lock after logging in and the text "Restricted - Request Access", click Request Access. AUSSDA will then contact you.