researchers. Using its website (http://fdz.iab.de), the documentation and working tools
available online such as the FDZ Datenreport and FDZ Methodenreport, and its workshops
and users’ conferences, the FDZ-BA makes it easier for external researchers to work with
datasets.
The FDZ-BA micro datasets include the IAB Establishment Panel, die IAB Employment
Samples (IABS), the BA Employment Panel (BAP), the Integrated Employment Biographies
Sample (IEBS), the Establishment History Panel (BHP), the Linked-Employer-Employee
Dataset from the IAB (LIAB), the cross-sectional survey “Life Situation and Social Security
2005” (LSS 2005) and the first wave of the panel study “Labour Market and Social Security'”
(PASS).10
Before the FDZ-BA data can be used for the first time, researchers must submit a request
to use the data. Following approval by the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs, a
use agreement is concluded between the scientist and the IAB. The number of approvals for
dataset and data access has increased continuously from 81 (in 2005) to 116 (in 2007). It
should also be noted that the projects normally last for over a year and thus projects from
2005 and 2006 were also continued in 2007. Two other very important parameters are the
number of cases of remote data access and the number of guest stays (normally lasting several
days) at the FDZ-BA for on-site use. Both figures have approximately quadrupled or almost
quintupled as compared to 2005 (on-site use rising from 22 in 2005 to 133 in 2007; remote
data access from 359 in 2005 to 1328 in 2007). Up to 2007, researchers had published, for
example, 246 articles or papers on the basis of the IAB Employment Sample, 82 using the
LIAB and 1,999 using the IAB Establishment Panel, within and outside the IAB11.
The FDZ-BA serves not only the national but also the international market. One important
step towards internationalisation in 2007 was releasing web pages in English and having
nearly every data documentation translated. The use of the FDZ-BA by researchers abroad
has thus increased.12 In 2006, the FDZ-BA had 16 contractual partners based abroad,
including two who visited as guest researchers. In 2007, the FDZ-BA counted 34 contractual
partners based abroad and welcomed nine guest researchers from abroad. Guest researchers
from abroad can access FDZ-BA data relatively easily. It is no more difficult for them than
for researchers from Germany. Since the cost of a stay in Nuremberg for visitors from abroad
is higher than it is for locals, the FDZ-BA set up a grant in 2007. In 2007, four guests made
10 There is an English documentation on the web page for nearly every dataset and a publication in the data watch section of Schmollers
Jahrbuch.
11 The figures refer to all publications with the relevant dataset since the dataset first became available in the IAB. Some of the datasets
were already available within and outside the IAB long before the existence of the FDZ.
12 The categorisation of researchers abroad refers to their place of work, not to their nationality.