CDAMAA encourages both students and researchers to share their data with the Centre to enhance the visibility of research work and increase the number of citations a researcher gets. CDAMAA provides a platform for the submission and storage of datasets. The Centre also provides access to these datasets for reuse by other researchers who would cite the producer of the initial dataset. Data curation is the process C-DAMAA employs to add value to data, maximise access and enhance the long-term usage and preservation of the data. The data curation process also ensures that datasets are cleaned, well-organised, described and preserved for public use. In today’s world, it is relatively easy for data to be shared, however, without any proper data curation it would be relatively difficult for such datasets to be found, used, and properly interpreted.

Start Data Depositing

Data can be deposited at CDAMAA using a secure data deposit form to describe the data collection process and all materials associated with the data as well as upload content of the data. Individuals who wish to deposit data with CDAMAA are encouraged to read CDAMAA’s Guide to Social and Economic Data Preparation and Archiving to ensure that data shared with CDAMAA follows internationally accepted best practices for data sharing and archiving. Your submission should include the following listed items.

1. Actual Data File(s) 
   For all quantitative data files, CDAMAA encourages data depositors to submit data files for archiving as CSV, SAS, Stata, or SPSS files. Each variable in the data collection should have a set of mutually exclusive and exhaustive codes. Depositors must ensure that variable labels and value labels clearly describe the information or question recorded in that variable. Missing data codes should be defined in the data file. It is important to note that CDAMAA can only accept data with identifying information under conditions that are in sync with the consent provided by the participants and the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. For further information on how CDAMAA handle such sensitive datasets, please kindly check our Data Confidentiality Procedure.
2. Documents that need to be attached to Data Files 
   The ability of other people to use shared data depends on the details of data documentation that is attached to the shared data. Because of this, CDAMAA requires people who share their data with the Centre to provide detailed data documentation on every data shared. Examples of data documentation files that must be included are Codebooks, user manuals, README files, copies of data-gathering tools, project summaries, summary statistics, and bibliographies of publications utilizing the data are a few examples of documentation files. Among other formats, documentation can be submitted as DDI XML files, Microsoft Word documents, or ASCII files. It is preferable for documentation to have the question text integrated with variable information.
3. Description of the Study 
   Because every new or updated CDAMAA study includes descriptive information (metadata) like the study title, principal investigators, and summary in addition to more specific details about the study design, sample, and technique, CDAMAA users can find, comprehend, and analyze data. The CDAMAA data deposit form provides the majority of the data that the data curators use to create the study description.

After Depositing Data with CDAMAA, What Happens?

A CDAMAA data curator receives submitted, examines the data and supporting materials, creates a study description for the study homepage, assesses disclosure risks to establish access level, and harmonizes the files for ease of use. Quality control is applied to every curation activity before data are authorized for publication on the CDAMAA’s website. An overview of the procedures from pre-deposit to data post-release assistance is given in CDAMAA’s Process of Data Archiving and Sharing (pdf). For a more in-depth discussion of CDAMAA's approach to digital curation, please visit the Data Digital Curation Page of the Centre.

How Much would it cost me to share Data with CDAMAA?

The sharing of research data by students and lecturers at the University comes at no cost. However, funded research works would be required to pay a one-time payment of between GH₵2000 and GH₵30,000 per dataset depending on the dataset and your Project’s access to funding for data sharing. Non-staff of the University undertaking small-scale projects without funds for data sharing should contact the Centre for special arrangements to be made for the hosting of their research data on our repository.

For the Data Hosting Fee, CDAMAA will:

1. Assist researchers in preparing Data Management Plans for the funders;
2. Provide data quality check services;
3. Ensure the anonymisation of your data for public access;
4. Publish the needed metadata that would aid the re-use of the data;
5. Make your data available in the long term under a clear data use license;
6. Publish your data in compliance with the Ghana Data Protection Act and research ethics;
7. Ensure data re-users cite you as the producer(s) of the data in their research publications;
8. Furnish your project with regular updates on data use statistics.

What type of Data Can be Shared with CDAMAA?

The centre currently accepts all data generated within Ghana and Africa as a whole. This may include multi-country studies that may involve countries in other parts of the world, however so far as there is an African country involved then it fits to be part of the data that can be shared with CDAMAA. The Centre accepts survey, census, administrative records and any other data that could be useful for research. Data shared with the Centre covers areas in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Health Related datasets. All data Shared with the Centre must go through its quality checks to pass for sharing.

Data Assurance

Disclosure control

To ensure the anonymity of respondents for each dataset submitted, the Centre undertakes disclosure control to ensure that data files do not contain identifiable information about respondents. View the Flowchart for CDAMAA Disclosure Control.

Data Quality Check

The dataset submitted to CDAMAA is usually taken through quality control to ensure its accuracy and usability. Data management experts and data curators within the Centre check for anomalies in the data file and documentation associated with the data and correct them in consultation with data depositors.

Metadata Creation

All datasets provided by CDAMAA come with extensive user information created for each specific dataset. The metadata for each dataset is produced according to the Data Documentation Initiative data description standard.

Archiving Data

An archival version of all iterations of each dataset is maintained by CDAMAA. Archival versions are securely kept and migrated as technology changes, to ensure they are always accessible.

Get help

If you have any difficulty accessing data from the Centre’s website kindly send an email to c-damaa@ucc.edu.gh. Please kindly indicate in your email the dataset required and the kind of difficulty you have. Note that you don’t have to register on our website to log a query. Our helpdesk officers will respond to your query(ies) within 24 hours.

Citing Data from the Centre

Research works that analyse statistical data derived from the Centre should cite the primary data sources in the final published papers, just as they would cite other sources. The essence of the citation is to ensure that, the research data can be:

• detected
• reused
• replicated for validation purposes
• credited for acknowledgement
• tracked to measure usage and impact

How to Cite Data

Citing data is quite simple. Each citation must include the fundamental elements that allow for a unique dataset to be identified over time. These elements are

• Author
• Title
• Distributor
• Date
• Version
• Consistent identifier (e.g. Digital Object Identifier)
• E.g. Ghana Statistical Service. (1991). Ghana living standards survey. Ghana Statistical Service.

Deposit Data

Researchers who wish to submit their data with other researchers, or as part of the requirement by funders of the research can submit it via c-damaa@ucc.edu.gh. Sharing data with C-DAMAA would enhance the visibility of your research and increase the number of citations of that particular research.