Spotlight on the Data Archive Social Sciences Italy
Italy has been working with CESSDA since it was founded and finally became a member in July 2021. Hear from Domingo Scisci, DASSI Data Manager.
The CESSDA Country Spotlight series showcases national service providers. We interviewed representatives of the national service providers, dear members of the CESSDA community. We asked them about the value CESSDA provides their data archive and vice versa.
Data Archive Social Sciences Italy
DASSI (Data Archive Social Sciences Italy) is a Joint Research Unit composed of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and the University of Milano Bicocca. DASSI ishoused and coordinated by the Interdepartmental Centre UniData – Bicocca Data Archive, a joint project coming from eight departments of the University of Milano-Bicocca.
DASSI aims to create a centre for excellence in data sharing, enhance the secondary analysis and to promote the responsible use of data in social, economic, and environmental science studies.
The current goal of DASSI is to ensure greater international dissemination of the data produced by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat). These surveys are widely used by the Italian community, however are often poorly described by metadata, especially from the point of view of FAIR principles.
“We think that as a data archive, we can add a lot of value to that data about the documentation for example”, said Domingo Scisci, DASSI Data Manager. There are now more than 100 Istat studies in English in the CESSDA Data Catalogue.
Data Manager Domingo Scisci about CESSDA
“The added value that I have found in CESSDA is not only to help us in developing skills in data archiving. I think the most important aspect about working with CESSDA is its community! For every question you have, any request, any advice, you can ask the community and have a quick reply with really good advice. It is a very nice community and I really love it!” Domingo Scisci, DASSI Data Manager.
More information: