1. Artela Mitrushi IDM Albania
Analysis of existing potentials for the establishment of social sciences digital database archive in Albania
Artela Mitrushi
IDM Albania
SEEDS Workshop I
Belgrade, October

2. Table of Contents Study Objective and Motivation Methodology
Instruments Used
Sample Characteristics
Policy & Legal Framework
Basic features of science system/scientific research
Findings
Access to data
Use of data
Archiving Practices and Need for data
Sharing Data
Draft Conclusions
SEEDS Workshop I

3. Objective
The Study’s objective is to map the existing potentials for establishing a social science data services in Albania. This mapping will help to identify current situation with regards to data archiving and build on future perspective.
How the research is going to achieve its objective?
through identifying stakeholders
conducting survey, interviews, meetings with potential interested and supportive parties.
analyzing existing potentials, infrastructure, etc.
SEEDS Workshop I

4. Motivation Why this study serves Albania?
Albania is a country where academic research in universities or other institutions, organizations, etc., is not prevalent and is still viewed as a new practice.
As such, it faces many deficiencies and the data are difficult to collect because they are not easily accessible.
There is no previous study conducted in this respect thus, it is a very positive opportunity to see what the situation with regards to research setting in general and data archiving in specific is in Albania.
A great prospect to create infrastructure for data archiving that will be relevant and beneficial for researchers and Albania in general.
SEEDS Workshop I

5. Methodology Instruments used:
Desk Research on Science system in Albania, Research policy, Legislation and Government Policy.
Survey shared by with approximately 400 individuals coming from different backgrounds: social science institutes, universities, NGOs, Bank of Albania, etc.
Interviews with key informer: representatives of main research institutions and individual researchers.
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6. Methodology Survey Sample Characteristics
Low respondents participation-70 respondents in total
lack of interest for participating.
commune apathy related to conducting surveys.
poor formulation of questions (lost interest)
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7. Methodology Survey Sample Characteristics
Respondents are mainly researchers and professors working at a university or NGO (56%), as well as doctoral students constantly engaged in research by default.
Respondents mainly have an expertise in economics and political sciences and are primarily working in the public sector (48%), private sector 30% and non-governmental sector 22%
SEEDS Workshop I

8. Policy & Legal Framework
Law on Science and Technological Development
Proposes any Science and Technological Development Policy to be approved by the Council of Ministers.
Reviews and takes decisions on the National Programmes.
Sets out the objectives of S&T policy, including incentives for global integration of national R&D and measures to encourage privatization.
Defines the main functions of the Committee for Science and Technology, currently performed by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
Law on Archives
Defines basic rules about organization and function of the archival service in Albania the institutions that perform this service, and also their legal obligations on creation, preservation, and the accessibility of the archival heritage, as part of the national heritage.
Article 2: “Archives”, are specialized governmental or non-governmental institutions, which collect, manage, administer, preserve and serve the archival heritage that is protected and secured by the government.
Article 4: “Records of national historical records” are all the documents that are considered as having a permanent value and are declared as such by the General Directorate of Archives because of their juridical – administrative, historic, scientific and cultural importance to the heritage of the Albanian people.
Article 5: “Documents” are all the acts which are created by the public authorities while they do exert their administrative function; acts created by non-governmental institutions and also by private juridical and physical entities, if they are considered of national historic importance
SEEDS Workshop I

9. Policy & Legal Framework
Law on Protection of Personal Data
Defines the rules for the protection and legal processing of the personal data in Albania.
Article 7: Processing of sensitive data shall be done only if: data are processed for scientific or statistics research.
Article 10: Processing for scientific and statistical research paragraph states:
Personal data collected for any purpose, may be further processed for scientific or statistical research purposes provided that the data is not processed in order to take measures or decisions related to an individual.
Transfer of sensitive data for scientific research shall take place only in case of an important public interest. Personal data shall be used exclusively by individuals who are bound by confidentiality.
When data processing is made in a manner that allows the identification of the data subject, the data should immediately be encrypted in order for the subjects to be no longer identifiable. Encrypted personal data shall be used exclusively by individuals bound by confidentiality.
SEEDS Workshop I

10. Policy & Legal Framework
Law on the Academy of Sciences
Duties of the academy:
Cooperates with domestic and foreign education and research institutions that have physical capacity to conduct research and studies in different scientific areas
Proposes new research and study fields
Offers advice on and expertise in issues of importance to the development of the country
Publishes periodicals and other works of high scientific level
Hosts scientific and topical congresses and conferences at a national and international level
Host contests and grant award scientific prizes
SEEDS Workshop I

11. Policy & Legal Framework
Law on Higher Education and Scientific Research (yet be decreed by the President of Republic of Albania)
Foresees the role of research from Article 1, sating the mission of higher education in Albania.
A complete new research governance structure in the higher education system
A complete new structure of research financing
Academic evaluation based on scientific research
Increased financing in research
Financing on the basis of competition/applications
SEEDS Workshop I

12. Basic features of science system/scientific research
SEEDS Workshop I
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ALBANIA 2015

13. Basic features of science system/scientific research
Research Performers in Albania
The Higher Education Institutions
Ministerial Research Institutes/Agencies of development and technology transfer
Industry-based governmental and privately owned R&D institutes/centers/foundations.
Other private entrepreneurships are private organizations in the form of institutes or NGOs
Public financing is implemented in line ministries and public institutions through three mechanisms:
Direct financing of research institutions in line ministries
University R&D financing
Competitive research project funding. (EU funds support Albanian membership in EU framework program)
SEEDS Workshop I

14. Access to data
Majority of respondents have used international data or data produced by themselves
Web is an important source to retrieve data even though the National Statistical Office is helpful
international information is sufficient, however there is a high need for Albanian data
91.4% argue that their work would benefit sufficiently from more access to Albanian data
For data archiving respondents say that they ask personally their friends and co-researchers for help. This implies that the data is either not archived properly or is not accessible
SEEDS Workshop I

15. Use of data
Researcher mainly use help of at least of one other researcher but usually no more than 5 researchers work on the same project (20% of the cases researchers say to have worked alone)
Methodologically surveys and interviews are pretty common and usually these instruments are used together
Even though the researchers use a vast majority of qualitative data they do not know or use any software for qualitative analysis (59.42%)
The most common software used for quantitative data is excel meaning that researcher go as far as doing very basic statistical calculations
SEEDS Workshop I

16. Archiving Practices and Needs to Archive
Researchers mostly keep data on their own computers (72.73% )
Data is difficult to be understood and used by other researchers if needed
Only 50 % keep raw data from their studies which is the most important when it comes to secondary analysis.
Researcher would like to have access to data but do not know how to properly preserve they own data.
SEEDS Workshop I

17. Sharing Data
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18. Sharing Data
respondents acknowledge the importance of data sharing (86%)
willingness to sharing data, 49% of the case.
the only ones that have access to these data usually are co- workers or other friend researchers. (Research team members 52.83%)
even individuals who have access to this data do not usually use it.
SEEDS Workshop I

19. Draft Conclusions
Acknowledgement of interest for data archiving by researcher
Lack of infrastructure and poor documentation of data
Need for further advocacy by research policy and funding bodies
SEEDS Workshop I

20.
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