Access regulations for data sets

Even where datasets are generally available, there may be a requirement for researchers to notify the data archive of their usage. Such notifications are often dealt with on an individual basis, so wherea group of people need access to a dataset for research or teaching, the process of registering a particular usage needs to be repeated. Changes in the regulations place an additional burden on researchers, lecturers andstudents.

"The one thing, one aspect of working with UK Data Archive that produces challenges in the sort of things that I am involved with might be in to do with sharing datasetsbetween people and indeed using datasets in teaching examples and in undergraduate and postgraduate workshops that I am involved in training, training people to use specials survey datasets, special survey datasets, [I:is the sharing problem, sorry] the process of instructing people how to individually go about accessing thefiles and ensuring that people are allowed to access the same files individually and in order to give the data to other people essentially, the process of doing that it changes, the instructions that you need to pass onto people regularly change over time and that could make it a relatively challenging thing and the expectation that every one is able to access the same services, you know, well to me, that’s the relatively minor problemin itself but if you think of whether there is a room for improvements." (researcher)