Making data accessible and sustainable: Innovation in international social science data archives

The largest social science data archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany (ICPSR, UKData, and GESIS, respectively) are undertaking substantial efforts to modernize their data ingest, curation, and dissemination platforms to ensure data is FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) so that researchers have the data necessary to work at the forefront of social science research. Modernizing these platforms helps future-proof these institutions, ensuring they are flexible and extensible enough to support different data types, protect confidentiality, and advance interdisciplinary social science research. This modernization, critical to the long-term sustainability of the data archives, requires greater collaboration among the community of social science archives. The panel structure will include a 10-15 minute presentation by representatives of each archive. During their presentations, panelists will discuss their current user and technical challenges, the steps they are taking to address these challenges through software platform modernization, and how this work contributes to the organization's long-term sustainability. Following the presentations, there will be a 15-minute moderated discussion among the panelists, focusing on shared challenges and opportunities in infrastructure and service development, approaches to data deposit and cataloging methods, and strategies for curation flow, particularly concerning standardization or innovation in curation processes. The session will conclude with a 15-minute audience Q&A.