Data Bank of Social Research at the Institute of Sociology Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow, Russia

In 1985 the Data Bank of Social Research (DBSR, formerly All-Union Data Bank) was established within the Institute of Sociology of the USSR Academy of Sciences in order to store machine-readable data on sociological research projects conducted in the USSR. Today the BDSI contains a complete collection of data on the major research projects conducted by leading Soviet sociologist between 1968 and the end of the 1980s. There is a great amount of data sets from the period of "Perestroika" and the post-Soviet period as well as from the years 1990-1994. Thus a comprehensive outline of 25 years of empirical social research in the USSR/Russia is available.

After the political changes in the Soviet Union the geographical scope of the Data Bank was reduced. But a substantial portion of the studies stored in the DBSR was conducted in the republics of the former Soviet Union or on regional and local level within the republics. Thus, the DBSR contains essential information on the Russian society as well as on the other parts of the Soviet Union, from Central Asia to the Caucasus and the Baltic states, Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus. Therefore it is of tremendous scientific and practical value. The creation of the DBSR was preceded by years of methodological studies and applied scientific research into the questions of accumulation, storage and use of sociological empirical data.

At present the DBSR is an academic non-profit research center within the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Science offering the following services (Russian description at http://www.isras.ru/index.php?page_id=38 )

• Collecting, processing and archiving empirical data
• Data services
• Documentation
• Assisting in comparative and secondary analyses
• Training and research on evaluation methods for social science data.

The DBSR has established close contacts and special agreements with numerous research institutions and archives in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, Northern America and Australia. Its goal is the preservation and improvement of old links and the establishment of new ones between its former member organizations and a lot of new research centers.

With advances in information science and computer as well as communication technology getting ground, geographical distances are no longer barriers to the communication between researchers from different countries and continents. Modern technology has given a great impetus to the modernization of the DBSR. Improvements which are being planned are based on conceptions of universally accessible services with interactive access.

Contact in Russia:

The catalogue (available both in printed and machine-readable version) can be consulted at the GESIS Service Agency too. Data requests will be passed on to the DBSR in Moscow.