[1] The problem of storing empirical sociological data arose in our country in the late 1960s at a time when the first large-scale sociological studies were being carried out. However, it was only in the early 1980s when computers became widespread that the question of an automated information system serving the needs of sociologists moved into the practical realm. Computers are being used increasingly by sociologists to collect, retrieve, manipulate and analyze sociological sources and to present the sociological knowledge thus acquired.
[2] An important by-product of this activity was the creation of computer-readable resources. In order to ensure long-term preservation and wider dissemination of these resources within the academic research and teaching communities, the Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) was founded. It was established at the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1985. In the first place, the Bank's principal purpose was to store empirical data from sociological studies in a way suitable for repeated use. In 1987 this Data Bank was given All-Union status under the sponsorship of the Soviet Sociological Association. The Data Bank was set up with the cooperation of a number of researchers and organizations interested in the joint use of accumulated empirical data. These organizations represented practically all the regions of the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately after the collapse of the Soviet Union the territorial scope of the Data Bank was reduced. Since 1992, because of the political developments and the resulting breakdown of communication links between the former Soviet republics, the Data Bank has been forced to confine itself solely to Russia. However, the material accumulated by the DBSR reflects more than 30 years of life in our society and therefore has tremendous scientific and practical value. It still contains essential information on Russian society as well as on the other parts of the former Soviet Union ranging from Central Asia to the Caucasus, the Baltic states, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.
[3] When we now take into account the fundamental changes which have swept through our society since 1991, we can see that these data are unique and have historical importance. Secondary analysis of the data will allow researchers to trace and locate the origins of many social and economic processes not only in modern Russia but in other new states as well.
[4] The principle on which the Data Bank is based is the concept of consolidation and integration of sociological data. Consolidation refers to the accumulation of a large quantity of empirical data, which provide the basis for conducting secondary and comparative analyses of datasets produced in various sociological research centers. It opens up wide opportunities for social modeling, numerical experiments, verification and evaluation of methodology, as well as the formulation and solution of methodological problems.
[5] Data integration calls for the integration of separate data into a system of interdependent indicators which describe society as a whole and in its parts. In spite of long drawn-out discussions on the structure of the indicator system for separate sociological phenomena, there are still many problems relating to methods and methodology.
[6] In spite of these problems, the project involving the integration of separate indicators into a system was completed by the Data Bank's staff. Based on the empirical information obtained between 1966 and 1997 during several (about 10) large-scale projects, a catalogue of all variables of these projects was compiled. These variables represent the tool for gathering data relating to mass media communication. The entire conceptual apparatus of sociological studies has therefore been standardized and computerized. The result is the database "Integrated informational system of social data", which is registered in the Russian Scientific Research Center "Informregistr" (the administrator of the database is A. Zhavoronkov).
[7] Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) refers to multi-functional information and analytical systems aimed at one goal: the accumulation of different sociological information in a systematic form, including empirical data, for increased efficiency in its use.
[8] About 700 studies conducted by the Institute of Sociology and other research centers in the former USSR between 1966 and 2001 are stored in the Data Bank. They include over 20 Union-wide (USSR sample) studies and about 15 All-Russian public opinion polls which were conducted during the last ten years and reflect all aspects of life in modern society, including the political and structural changes that have taken place over the last decade.
[9] The Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) contains research on social tension, national conflicts, stratification of society, the emergence of new classes, strata and groups, problems during the transition to a new political and economic structure, problems of families and children, the status of women, problems of youth and education, structural changes in society, public opinion with regard to elections of deputies and presidents, political parties, ecology, demography, etc.. The Data Bank has accumulated datasets relating to the following types of research:
[10] Out of the Data Bank's many functions I would like to emphasize the following:
[11] Factors such as technological progress, the continuous increase in the volume of data to be stored and the growing information needs of sociologists are constantly being taken into account during the development of the Data Bank. Its goals and functions determine how information is stored. It consists of the following three databases:
[12] The data are divided into three classes based on their accessibility for users. Authors wish to reserve their rights to the results of their studies for a period of time, after which their data are placed in a more accessible class.
[13] The users of the Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) include scholars and research groups conducting theoretical or practical work in sociology. They provide the Data Bank with material from their own research and obtain in return information which they require. In addition, the Data Bank informs its users about new data received by the Data Bank and publishes a frequently updated data catalogue (Rostegaeva 2002).
[14] Thanks to advances in computer science, modern technology has provided a major boost to the modernization of the Data Bank. Improvements which are now being implemented are based on conceptions of universally accessible services with interactive access. These improvements in the Data Bank's infrastructure will stimulate researchers' interest in developing the national network of sociological information and attract investment. Modern communication technology between various research centers will reduce the costs of creating and maintaining archives. Consequently, researchers will have access to the Data Bank's computing power and information resources.
[15] The main endeavors during practical implementation of the above conception are directed towards the following goals:
[16] Achieving these goals will permit the modernization of the existing system which serves sociologists' needs, eliminates incompatible database formats and creates a network infrastructure for the collection and distribution of knowledge on our society. Let's discuss some of these goals in more detail.
[17] Attaining this goal will ensure convenient and efficient interactive information access and exchange. It will revolutionize information searches and permit easy access to information resources. The aim is to achieve these goals by creating an interactive information retrieval system to serve the integrated datasets. Another way to solve this problem is adaptation to sociological databases of the information retrieval system "Russia", which was developed by the Research Computing Center of Moscow State University. This integration will help to solve different kind of problems concerning the development of software and the unified indicators' system, and will provide standard approaches, something which is necessary for the Bank's activities.
[18] However, well-organized resources and effective means of access can only produce the expected benefits when every researcher is sure that he/she will find the requested information. For this reason, the existing three-level access system of Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) will be reviewed and changed in favor of greater accessibility (while observing the authors' rights). Business-like openness of DBSR is the principal idea of universal services.
[19] The information environment is quite variable. Empirical datasets come in different amounts and in a variety of types. The consolidation of stored information and its integration into a database provide full and coherent information on any of the registered projects. This type of environment supports many types of information subjects and establishes connections and relations between subjects which are easily discernable. This approach is based on the strategy towards an open architecture of the Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR), which refers to a collection of a number of independent information sets unified in integrated databases and to ready access to this information and automated search. The machine-readable catalogue connects all types of information contained in the Data Bank.
[20] Creating the integrated system means that the stored information must be standardized. This can be achieved by developing standards for new data and adjusting the existing data to make them conform. The specification for the standards for new data is based on established world standards, and this standardization will boost extensive exchanges of information. The mobility of data will permit the distribution of initial and secondary analysis in the telecommunications network. Users are thus guaranteed a conflict-free interface. The new standards will cover the elements of the catalogue and the elements of databases making up the integrated medium. First of all, the standards are applied to research data stored in the Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) as SPSS files. (The majority of the collection of datasets were portable files exported from the mainframe tapes to a PC in a zipped format. At present they are represented in SPSS format, some of them are portable files and the others are system files with all the necessary documentation). The new standard must take account of various software options, make allowance for the reliable storage and presentation of information, and assure compatibility with world standards for free export and import of information. When it comes to ensuring the mobility of data, the question of authors' rights and the related issue of regulating access to data are other important considerations. Registration and identification of users, as opposed to the three-level access system, seem to be the most constructive approach. The mobility of data will promote international cooperation which will in turn, significantly improve the DBSR's position in Russia. However, it is impossible to reach the goal of data mobility without bilingual documentation of datasets. To date this has unfortunately been a weak point in the activities, and the DBSR is trying to solve this problem.
[21] Organizing a unified telecommunications network will promote the process of accumulation of empirical datasets from the other research centers in the Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR), and will provide users with modern access methods to the Bank's resources. On the one hand, local and distant researchers will be able to use the universal services of the DBSR and to interact with other research centers subscribing to this network. On the other hand, they will be able to interact with the to add information to the Data Bank and have direct access to it.
[22] The core of all foreign and Russian information centers is the idea of international cooperation. It is especially relevant to Russia where the support for the Data Bank of Sociological Research (DBSR) efforts in aggregating and transforming datasets to conform to international standards and following the strategy of the DBSR's development will allow for the preservation of unique data on society in the socialist period and its subsequent transformation. International cooperation will be of great benefit in the process of collecting new empirical data on the formation process in society and will play a decisive role in the integration of local national centers.
26 April 2002
