International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO)

About the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO)

International collaboration to promote the replicability of research findings and the sharing of research data has never been more important. For decades, IFDO – the International Federation of Data Organizations – www.ifdo.org has been at the center of these conversations in the social science community. IFDO was founded in the mid 1970’s in response to evolving research needs of the international social science community. The founders felt it would be beneficial to coordinate worldwide data services and thus enhance social science research. Through the foresight and planning of the late Stein Rokkan, IFDO became a reality in November 1977. In the decades that followed, IFDO was led by Ekkehard Mochmann, who retired as president in 2009. IFDO maintains associate memberships in the International Social Science Council of UNESCO and participates regularly in the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST). IFDO’s membership spans the globe, and it currently has 35 social science archives on its roster.

The International Federation of Data Organizations & RDA

As research communities in disciplines outside the social sciences are beginning to recognize the need for global coordination, they see the same needs that the founders of IFDO recognized years ago. To meet this growing need across the academy, organizations like Research Data Alliance (RDA) have prospered. Its mission is to build the social and technical infrastructure that would enable open sharing of data. By many measures RDA has been a success and is helping many disciplines. IFDO’s goal in RDA is to energize and amplify the voice of diverse social science archives around the globe. IFDO has much to offer emerging groups like the Research Data Alliance, and exposure within RDA would greatly enhance IFDO’s visibility around the world. RDA members would learn from the vast knowledge acquired over nearly 40 years of collaboration within IFDO, and IFDO will have a voice in this new community doing wonderful things for research data collaboration. Smaller archives around the world will have a voice in the field and enhance the discovery, sharing, and archiving of valuable social science research data. IFDO members offer wonderful application sites for products of RDA working groups