Managing Data Access in CESSDA I: The Data Catalogue and Beyond

The catalogue records of CESSDA’s national Service Provider organisations are harvested for the CESSDA Data Catalogue. Each organisation has their own data access classification. The classifications differ due to differences in national legislation and the type of data deposit agreements. User feedback from the CESSDA Data Catalogue suggests that users would like to be able to narrow down their searches to find open access data. CESSDA plans to manage this by creating a common access vocabulary to which Service Providers map their own categories. To facilitate this, a vocabulary element for access has been suggested for DDI standards. Current challenges and developments in the wider landscape also provide background and context to the harmonization of data access.