[1] Creating the social science data archive at the Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) is quite a new activity at the Institute. We started with project proposals and an official application for a Slovak Grant Agency for Science (VEGA) in 2001. After being classified as a success, the Data Archive Project (DAP) formally started on January 1, 2002.
[2] Quantitative research is a standard instrument for testing theory. In social science in Slovakia it can be said that it is the most frequently used strategy for collecting empirical evidence. Recent developments in the area of information technologies (IT) and new advances in computer-aided statistical analysis are leading to an increase in quantitative analysis of electronic data.
[3] At present, there are many potential machine-readable data sources suitable for secondary analysis in Slovakia. Data are primarily produced by academic and educational institutions, state administration institutions, profit-making public opinion and market research agencies, and different non-profit-making foundations and associations. On the other hand, it is possible to observe growing demand for older research data, for example in the academic environment where comparative and longitudinal research increasingly predominates. Researchers or students in Slovakia often face problems relating to access to research data and the reliability of such data. This problem highlighted the basic need for a solid background to secondary analysis in Slovak social science. And to create such a background is a main goal of the DAP.
[4] The fact is, archiving of social data has no tradition in Slovakia and its benefits are not obvious to everyone. Nowadays, positive examples of already established and functioning archives in Europe are very beneficial in demonstrating the advantages of data archiving. Moreover, the main ideas in data archiving provide us with many inspirations and useful stimuli. The general objective of the DAP is to change from the current informal practice of storing research data (which unfortunately predominates in Slovakia) to more complex and standardized archiving methods and procedures. A comparison of the benefits of the two approaches to archiving research data, i.e. the informal and the standardized approach, proves beyond doubt the advantages of the latter. We can see the major benefits of archiving infrastructure, especially in the three following dimensions:
[5] What exactly does it mean to be a prospective user of social science data in Slovakia today? In order to acquire the dataset, you must carry out your own search for the history of a relevant field of the research, search for the datasets in the memory of the researchers and then contact the research team which produced the relevant data and negotiate with the researchers about access to these data. However, this time-consuming activity is still no guarantee that the data will be obtained in a suitable format and of sufficient quality, so that they can be used for the purpose of secondary analysis.
[6] The above-mentioned shortcomings could be solved by using highly promising general characteristics in systematic archiving of available empirical research data (for example access to primary data catalogues and adequate documentation of the datasets, access to the data by itself – datasets concentrated in one place and in compatible formats, data quality control, data security against inadequate changes or losses, transparent rules for dataset access, exchange and distribution, etc.)
[7] One of the basic ambitions of the researcher is to back up his or her theory with evidence in a clear and transparent manner. However, there are several historical examples of scientific malpractice which highlighted the problem of validity and reliability in social science. Independent access to primary data increases the number of options for verifying the results and the research testing instruments or methods which are used in secondary analysis of the research data. The issue of archiving is therefore highly topical in Slovakia.
[8] A summary of available empirical research data (or a catalogue of social datasets available in an archive) provides users with an overview of the subject areas of the research in the country and the researchers engaged in the research project. This indirect information enables new contacts to be made within the scientific community and increases direct cooperation in the field of comparative research. Newsletters and bulletins on current research projects, the provision of available data or offers of cooperation are all efficient ways of supplying information on past activities and new aspects in the field of empirical research.
[9] One of the first tasks of the DAP team is to create a catalogue of the sociological data which are available at the home organization, Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. We now concentrate on electronic data from surveys carried out in the 1990s. As already mentioned before, this type of summary of available empirical research data provides users with an overview of the subject areas of research in Slovakia and a list of the researchers involved in the research project. On the other hand, these datasets will also act as an initial "experimental" group of datasets for the early phase of DAP.
[10] As we have already started, we can see the future in more detail. We are now in a preparatory phase, which means collecting available information and documentation on datasets. The key problems in making a complete summary of available datasets include a lack of original materials (questionnaires, forms) and the non-availability of adequate original documentation of relevant datasets (sampling procedure, method of collecting the data, researchers). Generally speaking, the older the dataset, the less material that is available.
[11] On the other hand, we are fortunate that we can build on the experiences of the other archives in Europe. These archives have a longer tradition and have already developed archiving standards and working methods. Many of these standards are also suitable in our context, i.e. rules for data description or rules for access to and distribution of data. It appears as if these standards will also fully satisfy all the requirements of the scientific community in Slovakia.
[12] In addition to these basic standards and methods used in archiving social data, we can see the rapid progress which followed the application of IT and is demonstrated, for example, by the NESSTAR Project (Networked Social Science Tools and Resources). In future we would like to follow these trends and also adopt more sophisticated standards and methods relating to the application of virtual data libraries. However, we expect that the adoption of these standards will require more specialized training for staff and will also lead to some special requirements as regards hardware and software.
[13] The most important representative surveys available at the Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences are described in the table 1.
| Year | Title of the study | Countries | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 |
ISSP: Social Inequality 2001 | cross-national | www.issp.org |
| 1999 |
European Values Study 1999 | cross-national | Coordinator: Loek Halman, University of Tilburg, Netherlands |
| 1998 |
: Religion 1998 | cross-national | www.issp.org |
| 1997 |
Elite Recruitment in Slovakia | Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary | Coordinators: Donald J. Treiman and Iván Szelényi, University of California, USA |
| 1996 |
ISSP: National Identity 1996 | cross-national | www.issp.org |
| 1995 |
Actors and Strategies of Transformation and Modernization | Czech Republic France, Poland Slovakia | Part of the project "System Change and Modernization", coordinator R. Sainsaulieu, France SR: 956 respondents |
| 1993 |
Social Stratification in Eastern Europe after 1989 | Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Slovakia | Coordinators: Donald J. Treiman and Iván Szelényi, University of California, USASR: 4920 respondents |
| Opinions about Social Change 1993 | Czech Republic, Slovakia | SR: 1223 respondents; CZ: 1903 respondents | |
| The division of Czechoslovakia into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic (on 1.1.1993) | |||
| 1992 |
Civil Society in the Slovak Republic | Only in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia | 1021 respondents from Slovak population |
| ISSP: Social Inequality 1992 | cross-national | Czechoslovakia: n=1101 (where: SK: 423 respondents and CZ: 678 respondents) | |
| 1991 |
European Values Study 1991 | cross-national | Two separate surveys in the Czech and Slovak parts of Czechoslovakia. |
| Study of Social Structure Transformation in Czechoslovakia | Czechoslovakia | SR: 977 respondents; CZ: 1872 respondents | |
| July 1, 1990 |
The Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences was re-established. | ||
[14] These surveys concentrated mainly on the study of social stratification, attitudes and values. Most of the surveys are limited to the geographical region of Slovakia (age mostly 18+). However, in some of the samples the population is represented by inhabitants of Czechoslovakia (because of the division of Czechoslovakia into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic on 1.1.1993).
[15] Since all these data were produced by the Institute of Sociology, we have full responsibility for defining access rules. According to the experiences of the other archives, we assume that the prospective users of the data bank will be mostly researchers and students. These people are our primary target group and our task is to make them familiar with the data archive mission. For Slovak students of sociology and the other social sciences, for example, it will be an unique opportunity to acquire "real" data as universities are rarely involved in the research projects which generate the representative surveys. One can say that universities in Slovakia are more education-oriented than research-oriented (in the field of social sciences we can say exclusively education-oriented). However, the situation is quite different in the field of natural sciences, engineering and technology where applied research at university is a common practice.
[16] Unlike university, the Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (or its predecessors) has (have) always been involved in empirical research projects (apart from the strange period in the 1950s when sociology was labeled a "bourgeois pseudo-science" and all its activities were stopped until the late 1960s). At present the Institute is an "umbrella institution" for several comparative cross-national research projects and networks such as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), European Values Studies (EVS), etc.
[17] In the last decade science and technology (S&T) in Slovakia underwent several fundamental changes. These changes included new elements, of which a free market economy is the most important one (51% of R&D organizations in 2000 were from the business enterprise sector). As we can see, we are talking about a change at the macro-level. It is an ongoing process accompanied by the introduction of new legislation. We could describe this change as a S&T institutional transformation and reintegration within the scope of Slovak society. The key agents in this change at government level are: The Commission of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Science and Technology and The Ministry of Education and Science. In 2001 the Government of the Slovak Republic adopted “The Conception of the State's S&T Policy up to the Year 2005” and also defined a set of measures for its implementation.
| 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slovakia |
1.45 | 0.96 | 0.98 | 0.97 | 0.13 | 0.82 | 0.68 |
| Neighboring States: |
|||||||
| Czech Republic |
1.21 | 1.10 | 1.01 | 1.03 | 1.17 | 1.27 | 1.29 |
| Poland |
- | 0.76 | 0.69 | 0.71 | 0.71 | 0.72 | 0.75 |
| Hungary |
0.97 | 0.88 | 0.73 | 0.65 | 0.72 | 0.68 | 0.68 |
| Austria |
1.47 | 1.54 | 1.56 | 1.60 | 1.69 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
| World |
|||||||
| European Union |
1.88 | 1.83 | 1.81 | 1.81 | 1.80 | 1.81 | 1.85 |
| USA |
2.52 | 2.42 | 2.50 | 2.54 | 2.57 | 2.60 | 2.64 |
| Japan |
2.68 | 2.63 | 2.773 | 2.83 | 2.90 | 3.04 | 3.04 |
[18] Despite an official declaration which highlights the importance of the development of S&T in contemporary society, a great many government intentions have not been implemented due to insufficient financial resources from the national budget. The negative trend in the support for R&D (expressed as a percentage of GDP spent on R&D) is clear. A comparison between the share of total expenditure on R&D in 1993 (1.45% of GDP) and 1999 (0.68% of GDP) reveals that expenditure has decreased more than twofold. Among the Visegrad Four countries it is the smallest share, as shown in Table 2.
[19] According to the latest report by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic on R&D in the year 2000, the share of total expenditure on R&D in gross domestic product remained almost the same as in 1999 (0.69% of GDP). This fact proves that, despite the latest assurances by the government to increase the share of R&D regularly every year up to a figure of 1.8% of GDP in 2005, the practice remains the same. 2 (Note2: Conception of the State's S&T Policy up to the Year 2005, Ministry of Education SR, Bratislava 2000. [http://www.education.gov.sk/svt/otsvtp/ksvtp_2000.htm, accessed 4/2/2002])
[20] On the other hand, there is one positive trend in the funding of the R&D sector in Slovakia, i.e. the growth in the resources received from the business enterprise sector (54.4%). However, the share of public resources is still substantial (42.6%) and the rest is unfortunately not so significant (3 %, see table 3).
[21] Looking at the latest R&D indicators published by the Slovak Statistical Office of SR 4 (Note4: Review of the Basic Statistical Indicators for R&D Potential in the year 2000. Statistical Office of SR, Bratislava 2001. [http://www.education.gov.sk/svt/otsvtp/vvp/cast_A.rtf, accessed 4.2.2002]) can see that the following basic data describe the situation in 2000 5 (Note5: GDP= Gross Domestic Product, NB= National Budget Slovakia.)
[22] As we can see from these macroeconomic indicators, the situation regarding R&D funding from the public sector has not improved as expected. 6 (Note6: The Conception of the State's S&T Policy up to the Year 2005, op. cit.) When looking at the distribution of total expenditure on R&D from the aspect of science (see Table 4), there is no doubt that natural sciences enjoy a privileged position (in 2000 – 78.7% compared with 1999). By contrast, the share of social sciences is tending to drop (in 2000 – 12.8% fall compared with 1999).
[23] The R&D sector in Slovakia in 2000 contained about 303 research organizations employing around 22,256 people (71% researchers +20% technical and equivalent personnel +9% support staff). Social science personnel represent 15.5% of total R&D personnel (measured in man-years, table 5).
[24] The negative trend is aging of R&D staff in Slovakia. The average age of researchers is 45 to 46 while the corresponding figure abroad is 40 to 41. Nowadays, the share of young people (up to the age of 29) working in R&D fluctuates between 14% and 18% (lowest in the R&D state sector – 13.4% and highest at universities – 18.1% of young people). One typical characteristic is the high level of fluctuation among young scientists. According to the results of the survey, the main reasons for low motivation are often connected with the lack of sufficient material conditions, e.g. low earnings and the poor housing situation. A low level of motivation regarding scientific work also results from inadequate and old IT equipment (especially at universities), lack of scholarships for young researchers and a lack of research mobility grants.
[25] The average income of young researchers – up to the age of 30 – in 2000 was 68.4% (= SKK 7,694 = EUR 178, $160) of the average income in Slovakia (= SKK 11,241 = EUR 258 = $234). As declared in the latest ”Conception of Motivation...“, the average income of young researchers should reach the minimum level of 115% of average income in Slovakia. 9 (Note9: The Conception of the Motivation and Stabilization of Young Researchers in R&D in the Slovak Republic. The Ministry of Education SR, Bratislava 2002. [http://www.education.gov.sk/pk/pk.htm, accessed 4.2.2002])
[26] As we have described above, there are several positive as well as negative trends regarding the development of R&D in Slovakia. The most significant positive trend includes an increase in commercial resources spent on R&D, which reached 54.4% of total expenditure in 2000 (in 1990 we started at 0% as no private business enterprise resources were available in the former socialist state of Czechoslovakia).
[27] However, the negative trends appear to predominate. The most important indicators include a regular decrease in the share of R&D in GDP and the national budget, aging and the lack of members of the younger generation in the scientific community in Slovakia.
26 April 2002
