Dataverse as a Single Source of Truth in a DDI-Compliant Environment

At the Center for Socio-Political Data of Sciences Po, DDI-documented data is published on several repositories. The publication workflow is not user-friendly for the data managers, as it has several entry points and duplicated processes. Additionally, there is an important risk of having platform-dependent versions.

In order to preserve the system’s consistency and integrity, a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) is needed.

To solve this problem, we designed a new infrastructure and workflow, coherent and interoperable by design, and compliant with both DDI and the FAIR principles. We focused on a flexible, upgradable infrastructure. After a thorough review of available solutions, we opted for a Dataverse repository as our SSOT. We are currently in the process of building a tailor-made data ecosystem, through the use of APIs querying our single repository.

This presentation will focus on the processes and technologies used to set up this viable DDI-compliant platform and on the reasons for choosing this solution.