132 research outputs found

    Migration and the 'left-behind places'

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    UK Census 2021 Challenges and data access: data on the LGBTQ+ population and privacy

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    The UK Data Service (UKDS) is the flagship project in UK research infrastructure. It is a collaboration between the universities of Essex, Manchester, Southampton, UCL, Edinburgh and Jisc, and it provides a wide range of social sciences, humanities, and economic research data. Part of the data offered by UKDS is census data. The Office for National Statistics has partnered with UKDS to disseminate 2011 and 2021 census data, trusting it with securing access to safeguarded tables. The 2021 census has been unique because it took place amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which is expected to have affected the given responses. For these reasons, Scotland decided to delay its census by one year to 2022, which has made harmonising census data across the UK almost impossible. This paper will discuss the challenges and peculiarities of the 2021 census in the UK and will demonstrate how UKDS handles data management and access to census data. As the first data derived from the 2021 census began hitting the headlines in late November 2022, most data are yet to be released. The paper will present some of the privacy measures implemented to protect persons’ identities in areas with few people. In addition, it will present findings on gender identity and sexual orientation, which were introduced for the first time in the UK census history. The UKDS is currently developing new tools to modernise its census delivery services. The paper will present some of these applications, with the most emphasis on introducing the census origin and destination data API and the new user interface, both currently under heavy development. These tools will be made available after ONS releases the related data, expected in Q2 2023. The IASSIST conference will be the first opportunity to present them to the public

    Meeting new challenges posed by the UK Censuses

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    This paper builds on and extends a presentation at IASSIST2023 which outlined the challenges faced in disseminating data from the 2021/2022 Censuses in the United Kingdom, as part of the UK Data Service (UKDS). The UKDS is a key part of UK research infrastructure, and provides a wide range of social sciences, humanities, and economic research data with census data being one of the major collections. A range of tools have been developed within UKDS to provide access to data, and these continue to be extended. New workflows exist for aggregate data and for origin-destination data – the latter being addressed in detail in a separate submission to this conference. In this paper we illustrate the full set of current tools, explain how they can be used, and showcase examples of analysis. Census data are disseminated with a variety of license arrangements: open, safeguarded, and secure, and we reflect on shifting balances of risk appetite, and what this means for researchers, including those based outside the UK. We also reflect more broadly on long-standing and new challenges faced in disseminating this data: the size and complexity of the resulting outputs; user expectations; new competitors etc. The 2021 census round in the UK was notable for a number of reasons: operational changes enforced by the covid-19 pandemic including deferment in Scotland, new questions and legal challenges to question and guidance wording. The wider context is a public consultation over the future of population and migration data collection in the UK, with the possibility that the 2021 census will also turn out to have the last such census, and thus we also reflect on how we can adapt a census archive/service to a future 'administrative based census' archive/service, with more frequent data about which researchers may be less aware

    Refactoring data delivery: The case study of the new tools for census flow data at UKDS

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    This paper presents the API and user interface for disseminating census flow data developed as part of the UK Data Service (UKDS) strategy to modernise its supported software. It explores the development challenges and the diverse technologies employed, contextualised within the broader scope of data services. The new tools were in the final stages of development at the time of writing. We opted to construct these tools from the ground up, a decision influenced by the complex nature of the underlying data, which necessitated high levels of flexibility and adaptability. This paper will critically evaluate the decision-making process, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of developing in-house solutions versus the trend of relying on external, often commercial, platforms. Third-party solutions frequently compromise functionality and the ability to tailor to specific requirements, especially when dealing with highly complex data. The presentation will showcase some functionalities of these new tools, highlighting ongoing enhancements, including integrating AI and machine-learning technologies. We will also discuss the advantages of the design principle to separate the user interface from the backend API. This approach improves user experience and promotes better interoperability. While acknowledging that budget and overall resource constraints are a common hurdle in such initiatives, this case study provides insights into the feasible options available to data services striving to deliver robust and comprehensive data to their users. The insights and experience shared are intended to contribute to the dynamic relationship between data services and information science, especially when dealing with data related to the social sciences. By offering practical examples and lessons learned, we aim to inform those enhancing data accessibility, utility, and distribution in a rapidly evolving digital environment, where data services often face challenges in keeping pace with technological advances

    Yr Iaith Gymraeg: un miliwn o siaradwyr Cymraeg erbyn 2050? Welsh Language: A million Welsh speakers by 2050?

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    A stated goal of the Welsh Government is to have a million Welsh speakers by 2050 (https://cymraeg.gov.wales/splash?orig=/Mwy/1MiliwnErb yn2050). How feasible is this goal? We used the ONS LS to look at the characteristics of those who gained ability in Welsh over a ten year period (2001-11) and those who retained an existing ability

    Lessons for museums from the pandemic lockdown: exploring user engagement with art museums in London on Facebook

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    Due to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions, such as museums, had been required to close so as to reduce non-essential human mobility. The dilemma of maintaining a consistent relationship with museums’ users emerged. What are the digital initiatives that museums had developed? How did user engagement change during the lockdown? Most importantly, what can be learnt from these practices for developing more effective engagement strategies after the pandemic? With basic statistical analysis and content analysis as the main research methods, this study examines how London art museums used Facebook during lockdown and the changes of corresponding user engagement behaviours. Specifically, three London-based art museums are chosen for this study, which are the National Gallery, Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The results show that, during the period of lockdown, all three museums adjust their Facebook strategies in terms of both post type and content. The increase in the level of user engagement also suggests the effectiveness of some strategies, such as the frequency of museum posts and creation of different types of post content. These findings give reflections on art museums’ digital initiatives and contributed to the understanding of the museum online users

    Exploring international collaboration and language dynamics in Digital Humanities: insights from co-authorship networks in canonical journals

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    Purpose: This paper presents a follow-on study that quantifies geolingual markers and their apparent connection with authorship collaboration patterns in canonical Digital Humanities (DH) journals. In particular, it seeks to detect patterns in authors' countries of work and languages in co-authorship networks. // Design/methodology/approach: Through an in-depth co-authorship network analysis, this study analysed bibliometric data from three canonical DH journals over a range of 52 years (1966–2017). The results are presented as visualised networks with centrality calculations. // Findings: The results suggest that while DH scholars may not collaborate as frequently as those in other disciplines, when they do so their collaborations tend to be more international than in many Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences disciplines. DH authors in some countries (e.g. Spain, Finland, Australia, Canada, and the UK) have the highest international co-author rates, while others have high national co-author rates but low international rates (e.g. Japan, the USA, and France). // Originality/value: This study is the first DH co-authorship network study that explores the apparent connection between language and collaboration patterns in DH. It contributes to ongoing debates about diversity, representation, and multilingualism in DH and academic publishing more widely

    Gender influences in Digital Humanities co-authorship networks

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    PURPOSE: This paper presents a co-authorship study of authors who published in Digital Humanities journals and examines the apparent influence of gender, or more specifically, the quantitatively detectable influence of gender in the networks they form. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This study applied co-authorship network analysis. Data has been collected from three canonical Digital Humanities journals over 52 years (1966–2017) and analysed. FINDINGS: The results are presented as visualised networks and suggest that female scholars in Digital Humanities play more central roles and act as the main bridges of collaborative networks even though overall female authors are fewer in number than male authors in the network. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This is the first co-authorship network study in Digital Humanities to examine the role that gender appears to play in these co-authorship networks using statistical analysis and visualisation

    Working at the coalface: contract staff, academic initiation and the RAE

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    This a post-print, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Area. Copyright © 2009 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The definitive version is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com
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