This is the third article in a series presenting five data sets from archives across the CESSDA collaboration. DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services) is the Netherlands Institute for Permanent Access to Digital Research Resources.

DANS encourages researchers to make their digital research data and related outputs Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). DANS provides expert advice and certified services.

The core services are: DataverseNL for short-term data management, EASY for long-term archiving, and NARCIS, the national portal for research information. By participating in (inter)national projects, networks and research, DANS contributes to continued innovation of the global scientific data infrastructure. Via EASY, an online archiving system for depositing and downloading research data, the following examples of research data are available:

1. Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies

The Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES) are a series of national surveys carried out under the auspices of the Dutch Electoral Research Foundation (SKON). These surveys have been conducted since 1970. Studies since 1971 were conducted before and after the national parliamentary elections. Panel studies are also conducted within the framework of the DPES.

Many questions are replicated across studies, although each has questions not asked in the others. The major substantive areas consistently covered include the respondents' attitudes toward and expectations of the government and its effectiveness in both domestic and foreign policy, the most important problems facing the people of the Netherlands, the respondents' voting behaviour and participation history, and his/her knowledge of and faith in the nation's political leaders.

Question wordings and variables are available (both in Dutch and English) via the question bank http://nkodata.nl/.

2. Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study

The Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (NELLS) comprises wave 1 and 2 of a panel study on an initial sample of 5 312 inhabitants of the Netherlands, age group 15-45, with oversamples of the Moroccan and Turkish minorities. The variables include family background indicators, socio-demographic and socio-economic background variables, social inequality, social cohesion and integration, a large set of values, norms and attitudes, and leisure time items.

Highlight from the study: Scientists argue that the second generation of Turkish and Moroccan Dutch increasingly resemble indigenous peoples as a result of cultural integration. However, this integration is not yet found to be smooth as they do not really mix much with members outside of their group. This is for example due to their own preferences.

3. International Crime Victims Surveys

The International Crime Victims Surveys (ICVS), from the Tilburg University International Victimology Institute, look at householders’ experience with crime, policing, crime prevention and feelings of insecurity in a large number of countries. The ICVS began in 1989, with further waves taking place in 1992, 1996 and 2000. The initiative developed into a truly unique global project in 2005, during the last wave.

Highlight: Over a time span of fifteen years, more than 300 000 people have been interviewed about their experiences with victimisation and related subjects in 78 different countries. According to UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute), “the ICVS is the most comprehensive instrument developed thus far to monitor and study volume crimes, perceptions of crime and attitudes towards the criminal justice system”^[1].

4. Cultural changes in the Netherlands

Since 1975, the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau - SCP) has been running the Cultural Change in the Netherlands (Culturele Veranderingen in Nederland 2006) survey. The aim is to systematically survey opinions among the Dutch population in order to increase the understanding of cultural changes. The survey is repeated every two years with a net response of around 2 000 persons. The questions relate to the following topics: security, crime, living, social contacts, leisure time, health, emancipation, homosexuality, social security, migration, Islam, living conditions. Furthermore, the database also contains a large number of background variables, including on religion, political conviction, income and education.

Question wordings and variables are available via the question bank http://scpdata.nl/.

5. The Time Use Research Survey

The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau (SCP) has been carrying out the Time Use Research Survey (Tijdsbestedingsonderzoek) among the population of the Netherlands every five years since 1975. This is done with the help of the Centre for Time Use Research. In addition to a number of background questions and some general questions about time management, respondents are asked to keep a quarterly journal for a week containing their activities during that period.

Highlights on personal time:

For the last time research survey (TBO 2011), just under 2 000 Dutch citizens spread throughout the country recorded their activities in a diary over the course of a week. This mass of data produced a detailed picture of the many and diverse activities that people in the Netherlands undertake in their daily lives.

Where are people saving time and which people are they? The study shows that the savings in obligatory tasks derive not from a reduction in paid work but in the time spent looking after the household and care tasks. Dutch people spent an average of 2.4 hours per week less on the household in 2011 (and especially the more routine domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.) than in 2006 (17.9 hours in 2011 versus 20.3 hours in 2006). The reduction is actually slightly greater among 20-64 year-olds. Both men and women (in proportion to their input) spent less time on the household. The biggest reduction in time spent on these tasks is in households with young children aged up to four years and households with children of secondary school age (12-17 years). In addition, people with part-time jobs (1-34 hours per week paid work) and people who are not in paid work, in particular, have reduced the amount of time devoted to household tasks. There was no net change over the period studied in the amount of time devoted to paid work. That, too, is a break with the past: for a long time, the time spent on paid work increased steadily.

Source: SCP (2013), Keeping an eye on the time, a look at how the Dutch spend their time.

Open Access

DANS encourages researchers to grant open access to their data. Open access data in EASY are subject to the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence, a common international standard. This means that depositors waive all rights to their data when they deposit them as an open access dataset in EASY. The data then enter the public domain. Interested parties may freely reuse the open access datasets, but DANS does require its users to cite the data in accordance with scientific practice.

Because not all data can be available open access (yet), DANS also offers other access categories to the data, besides open access: 1) unlimited access to all registered EASY users, 2) access with depositor’s authorisation only and 3) access from another source – the data are permanently archived at DANS but available through another organisation.

Read the previous article in the series: "Democracy, youth, development, values and attitudes: Five data sets from FSD".

^[1] http://www.unicri.it/news/article/0903-2_Bari

^[2] https://www.scp.nl/Onderzoek/Tijdsbesteding/Met_het_oog_op_de_tijd