Finnish Social Science Data Archive provides access to a wide range of digital research data

Read more about our services. They are all free of charge.

A closer look at FSD services

FSD’s basic operations include archiving and dissemination of research data for reuse, but we also offer several other types of services for researchers, students and everyone else interested in issues regarding research data.

  • Aila Data Service

    The Aila Data Service provides access to data archived at FSD, in accordance with the conditions set for each dataset. On Aila, there are both quantitative and qualitative datasets. Registered Aila users include students, teachers and researchers from all Finnish universities and universites of applied sciences.

  • Data Management Guidelines

    The online guidelines written by FSD’s experts contain practical instructions on managing digital research data in all stages of the data lifecycle. In the guidelines you will find, among others, detailed advice on preparing a data management plan.

  • Information service

    Our user services will be glad to help you with any questions relating to research data. Need help with planning data collection, managing your data or long-term preservation? Cannot find suitable data for your research? Contact us and we will help.

  • Penna

    Penna is a data collection tool created to facilitate collection and streamlined archiving of qualitative textual data. It handles the technical implementation of data collection as well as the participants’ archiving permissions. Penna is available only in Finnish.

  • Pohtiva

    Pohtiva is the Finnish Party Agenda Database containing current and past agendas of Finnish political parties as well as other significant political documents. Pohtiva is only available in Finnish.

  • Research Methods Guidebook

    The Research Methods Guidebook consists of sections on qualitative and quantitative research methods. Up-to-date methodological texts, exercises and datasets are suitable for studying and teaching in the higher education institutions or self-study, especially in the field of social sciences and humanities. The Guidebook is only available in Finnish.

  • MOTV - Research Methods Web Resource

    Research methods web resource (MOTV in Finnish) is FSD’s older environment for teaching and learning quantitative and qualitative research methods of the social and behavioural sciences. MOTV is only available in Finnish.

  • Services of CESSDA

    CESSDA is a pan-European research infrastructure consisting of data archives across Europe. CESSDA provides training and data services free of charge. Finland is a member of and FSD is a national service provider for CESSDA. The CESSDA Data Catalogue contains metadata of all data in the holdings of CESSDA’s service providers.

  • Loda

    The Loda longitudinal study metadata portal provides openly available variable-level information on longitudinal data series archived at FSD. Currently, the portal contains metadata for five studies in the Finnish National Election Study series, conducted between 2003 and 2019.

  • Archiving

    FSD is a reliable partner in sharing your digital research data and preserving them long term. We create a version of your data suitable for reuse, describe the data for you and make sure that the data can be easily found and reused according to the agreed conditions of use.