National Data Archive application (NADA)

The IHSN developed National Data Archive (NADA) as a complement to its Microdata Management Toolkit. NADA is a free web-based survey cataloging system that serves as a portal for researchers to browse, search, apply for access, and download relevant census or survey data and metadata.

NADA, as other components of the IHSN Toolkit, makes use of the XML-based international standards designed for data and metadata exchange known as the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and Dublin Core. This software is complemented by policy guidelines and other supporting materials.

NADA, along with the other IHSN tools, provides a powerful instrument that facilitates the process of releasing study metadata and microdata to the user community. It allows for:

• Increased quality and diversity of research
• Improved reliability and relevance of data
• Reduced duplication of data collection activities
• Improved visibility of the institution as their data becomes more frequently used and is more readily accessible
• Increased donor and public confidence in the institution
• Improved publishing and dissemination efficiency of the National Statistical Office or other data depositor
• Access to survey information such as reports, tables, and microdata

NADA is a tool for informing users about the existence and characteristics of survey, census or other microdatasets, and for sharing metadata and (optional) disseminating microdata files. NADA does not provide any tool for data tabulation or analysis.

User Interface

NADA aims to provide users with detailed and searchable documentation of your micro-datasets, along with information on policies and procedures in place for their access and use. NADA comes as a pre-packaged but fully customizable website. The default website comprises the following sections:

• Home
• Our mission - A mission statement should succinctly define, in a paragraph or two, the essence of the agency and/or data archive. It should provide a clear and brief statement of purpose that embodies the agency's philosophy, goals, and aspirations.
• Our activities - This page is where the Institution can enumerate the activities they have undertaken to complete the mission.
• Policies and Procedures - NADA is designed to provide control over user access by the implementing agency. It is a vehicle for implementing an agency’s data access policy, and so it is important to develop a clear and concise policy on data access before beginning development of the NADA website.
• Data catalog - See section Data catalog
• Acknowledgments

NADA is an extensible system and can include links to various producers. Contributors to the archive should be acknowledged, as this builds consensus and acceptability among contributors for the site and its contents.

All menus items are optional except "Data Catalog". Optional menu items can be edited or removed. Additional menu items can be created. The sequence of menu items can be changed.

The NADA website is not intended to replace the institution's home site. A link to the institutional home site can be added to the menu, or the institution can decide to use only the “Catalog” section and integrate it into its existing website.

Data catalog

The data catalog is the heart of NADA. It provides researchers with a list of available surveys with detailed and searchable metadata. It facilitates access to the microdata by providing reference to data access policies and appropriate licenses and applications for data access.

The key features of the data catalog are:

• Easy to maintain and virtually effortless
• Provides summary information on each survey
• Provides access to reports, tables, and other analytical output
• Provides data access policies to the user community and facilitates access by serving as an implementing tool of the data access policy
• Provides links to related survey metadata
• Facilitates searches at the variable level and displays variable-level information
• Provides authorized users access to the data (via direct access or through online forms), with conditions for access clearly stated
• Keeps a log of user requests
• Links to the HTML output as provided by the CD-ROM Builder of the Microdata Management Toolkit
• Includes an automatically-generated history of added/updated datasets via an RSS feed

The Data catalog page is interactive, allowing users to sort and search catalog by study elements and/or data variables, or find out detailed information through the survey's metadata.

Searching the study list

The search engine allows users to find datasets that match a keyword given in either the study description or in one of the study's variables. The user enters their keyword in the search field, and based on the items selected in the checklist, NADA returns a list of datasets containing this keyword. A complete list of searchable elements can be seen in the "Variable Description" drop-down list (which is likewise accessible via the "Study Description" drop-down).

 

Browsing metadata

NADA provides detailed metadata (provided the survey has been fully documented using a DDI metadata editor). Metadata relates to the survey, the data files, each variable, and the related materials (questionnaires, interviewers manuals, reports, etc).

 

Accessing the data

Once the metadata is created for a study and loaded onto the NADA website, the agency may wish to include the microdata for some or all of the studies. NADA does not require metadata to be published, but provides options to disseminate data under four generally-accepted levels of data access; these correspond to direct access, public use files, licensed access, and data enclave.

 

NADA 2.0 - Standard Edition

NADA is a web-based cataloguing system which will typically be installed on a web server (internet or intranet). The minimum requirements to install NADA on a web server are:

• PHP 4.4 or above.
• Database (Mysql, Sqlite, Postgres or Microsoft SQL Server)

Download the application: NADA v2.0, Size 5.1MB (Version 2009-11-09)

NADA 2.0 Portable

A portable version which can run on a stand-alone computer with no internet access is also available. This version comes with a built-in Apache web server and pre-configured PHP 5. It does not require any installation or configurations. Just unzip the files and you are ready to use the application.

Download the application: NADA Standalone v2.0, Size 11.5MB (Version 2009-11-09)

Documentation

NADA 2.0 Admininistrator Manual (draft): nada_guide_2.0.pdf, Size 3.5MB, Version 2009-07-07)

Technical support on the use of NADA

Questions and suggestions on NADA can be sent to toolkit@ihsn.org.

Planned enhancements of NADA

The following enhancements will be available in future versions of NADA:

• Availability of a full-text search; this will provide additional search functionalities, and a faster search
• Implementation of a new (optional) tool, the "citation manager". The citation manager will allow you and user of your data to provide references to papers and publications that make use of your datasets. This will help demonstrate the diversity of research work and the value of your data.
• Increased security of the application
• More reporting tables available to NADA administrators
• Customization options for the display of the Metadata Browser pages (inclusion of a banner to the pages)
• Implementation of an (optional) tool for collecting users' feedback
• Implementation of an (optional) module to provide information on planned surveys
• Improved management of data requests and communications with users
• Optional tool to search datasets by topic, based on controlled list of topics (CESSDA or other)
• In a more distant future, integration of an international thesaurus