ARCES

What is Ar(es?

Who we are

ARCES (ARChivo de Estudios Sociales) is a social research survey data archive, based at the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) of the Ministry of the Presidency. It collects, preserves, and disseminates data from studies conducted by various institutes and organizations with the aim of providing easy and universal access to microdata.

The CIS has launched ARCES based on encompassing studies conducted by Spanish entities and those developed in Spain.

The ultimate goal is to improve the transparency and openness of information for use by citizens.

In this way, ARCES provides a service to society by indefinitely preserving data of a wide variety of nature, protecting it from loss or irreversible damage, sharing it, and promoting its dissemination in academic, political, media, and general public circles.

It is part of the Open Data Access initiative proposed by the OECD and European institutions and is designed as a research data repository serving society.

Guiding Principles

The principles that will guide ARCES are the accessibility and dissemination of most social research surveys conducted in Spain by public bodies or those financed with public funds.

The aim is to convey to the public, official centres and the scientific community that the inclusion of any study in ARCES contributes definitively to its dissemination and to the improvement of knowledge in Spanish society.

The project is defined in line with national and international initiatives. The most notable initiatives are:

  • Communication from the Commission to Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Towards better access to scientific information: Boosting the benefits of public investment in research , European Commission. Brussels, 17.7.2012 COM(2012) 401 final.
  • Commission Staff Working Document. Executive summary of the impact assessment accompanying the document: Recommendation on access to and retention of scientific information. European Commission. Brussels, 17.7.2012 SWD(2012) 221 final.
  • OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Publicly Funded Research Data. OECD, Paris 2007

Institutional Repositories

An institutional repository (IR) is a set of infrastructures and services that provide storage and access to research materials in digital format generated by institutions or research communities.

Repositories support the goal of open access: transforming scholarly communication by making it easier for researchers to find and share research results through free online availability.

Institutional repositories facilitate access to the research results of universities, research institutes, government agencies, and individual researchers. They thus provide a window into the knowledge produced by publicly funded research conducted in Spain and are an essential part of the content strategy for preserving, sharing, and managing digital objects.

Factors leading to the establishment of repositories include:

  • Publicly funded research belongs to everyone and should therefore also be publicly accessible.
  • Depositing research data and results in an open-access resource eliminates access barriers and increases their impact.
  • RIs represent a way to increase efficiency by avoiding duplication of work and spending on costly data collection operations.
  • In IRs, the digital foundation of research is preserved, allowing for analysis to be reviewed and conclusions to be reformulated, allowing them to be interpreted from new perspectives.
  • RIs support the training of new scientists by enabling them to use quality research data in their practices.
  • The exploitation of RI allows for the improvement of methodologies for analyzing and interpreting results.
Volver al inicio