Colectica

New Stata feature

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:32:00 -0600

New Stata feature in Colectica:

📜 The Stata .dta format can change across releases. Between Stata 12 and 13, an internal/never released dta 116 format was used during development!

🪄 We’ve found data using this never released format and now support dta 116 for import!

New SAS deleted row option

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:10:00 -0600

New SAS import option in Colectica Datasets: 🪄Control importing and converting hidden rows that have previously been marked deleted in a sas7bdat file!

Colectica 7.7

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:38:00 -0600

We are happy to announce that Colectica 7.7 is now available! This release includes (preview) support for DDIAlliance Codebook 2.6!

A list of new features is available in the changelog: 📜 https://docs.colectica.com/changelog/7.7/

View release announcement: 📰 https://colectica.com/news/Colectica

Colectica Announces Release of Version 7.7

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica, a leading provider of data documentation and management solutions, is thrilled to announce the release of Colectica 7.7. This latest version delivers major advancements across the Colectica Repository, Portal, Designer, Questionnaires, Workflow, and SDK, further strengthening metadata management, interoperability, and usability for researchers and data professionals worldwide.

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards-compliant, and enterprise-ready research data documentation software available. Colectica 7.7 builds on research community best practices and introduces full support for the DDI Codebook 2.6 schema, expanded localization in German and French, powerful new metadata mapping tools, and enhanced export capabilities.

ISO/PAS 25955:2026

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:08:00 -0500

Happy to share that the DD IAlliance is now an ISO standard! ISO/PAS 25955:2026 is now available at:

DDI Lifecycle 4.0 Beta 4

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:06:00 -0600

📢 DDI Lifecycle 4.0 Beta 4 is available!

DDI Hack-A-Thon IV

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 07:03:00 -0600

The DDI Alliance Hack-A-Thon is happening now at #EDDI2025 in Budapest, Hungry!

EDDI 2025 day two

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 07:03:00 -0600

Day two of the European DDI Alliance conference is getting underway! Budapest #EDDI2025

EDDI 2025 Day One

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 01:59:00 -0600

Excited for the start of the European DDI Alliance conference in Budapest!

Colectica in Budapest Hungary for the 2025 European DDI Users Conference

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will host a workshop presenting the new Colectica Catalog and Curation tools and give presentations about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give a workshop and several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Budapest, Hungary. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers, a lightning talk, host a workshop, and attend a two day DDI hackathon.

EDDI 2025 Colectica Workshop

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:19:00 -0600

Join us for a Colectica workshop on December 1st at the European DDI conference in Budapest to learn about our new RDF-based web editors and data engine! https://events.geant.org/event/1879/timetable/#19-colectica-collaborative-dat

World Statistics Day 2025

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0600

Excited to celebrate World Statistics Day 2025! Lets create quality statistics with in depth metadata context! #WSD2025 #StatsDay #metadata

Colectica Announces Release of Version 7.6

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica, a leading provider of data documentation and management solutions, is thrilled to announce the release of Colectica 7.6. This latest version introduces powerful enhancements to the Colectica Repository, Portal, Designer, Questionnaires, Workflow, and SDK, reinforcing our commitment to streamlining metadata management, improving interoperability, and enhancing user experience for researchers and data professionals worldwide.

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 7.6 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica 7.5 Is Now Available

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 7.5, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on Open Standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative.

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 7.5 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Chur Switzerland for the 2024 European DDI Users Conference

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will host a workshop presenting the new Colectica Datasets tool and give presentations about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give a workshop and several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Chur, Switzerland. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers, host a workshop, and attend a two day DDI hackathon.

Colectica 7.4 Is Now Available

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 7.4, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on Open Standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative.

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 7.4 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Paris for the 2024 Conference on Smart Metadata for Official Statistics

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will present about DDI-Lifecycle Quality Statements and Parquet Smart Metadata in Paris, France April 11th and 12th for COSMOS 2024.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming Conference on Smart Metadata for Official Statistics (COSMOS) in Paris, France. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to various conferences to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. At COSMOS, Colectica staff will present one paper, one poster, and attend a DDI and SDMX technical workshop.

Colectica 7.3 Is Now Available

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 7.3, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative.

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 7.3 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Ljubljana for the 2023 European DDI Users Conference

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give presentations about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Ljubljana Slovenia November 27th to December 1st for EDDI 2023.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers and attend a two day DDI technical workshop.

Colectica Awarded an NIH Grant for variable harmonization and concordance

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica, a Minneapolis-based leader in standards based data documentation, has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute on Aging (National Institutes of Health).

The goal of the grant is to develop human-in-the-loop algorithms to operate as a “recommendation engine” to guide the concordance of potentially equivalent or similar variables among multiple datasets.

“The current research data environment provides many opportunities for linking similar topical datasets and harmonizing extant common variables, but few software tools are available to facilitate this resource-intensive task.,” said Dan Smith, the project PI and a co-founder at Colectica. “This project will use an open-standards framework to assemble richly-described datasets that are mapped against the NIH Common Data Elements (CDE) library to identify equivalent concepts and variables. Machine learning will guide data managers through the process and produce variable crosswalks that will aid harmonization and discoverability both within and across studies and datasets.”

Colectica 7.2 Advances Open Standards Metadata

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 7.2, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 7.2 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Philadelphia for the IASSIST 2023 Conference

Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will discuss DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Philadelphia May 29th to June 2nd for IASSSIT 2023.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to participate at the upcoming International Associateion for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST) conference in Philadelphia, USA. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the IASSIST conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will participate in a round table regarding longitudinal data.

Colectica 7.1 Enables Data Documentation Using Open Standards Metadata

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 7.1, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 6.2 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Paris for the 2022 European DDI Users Conference

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give three presentations about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Paris France November 29th to December 1st for EDDI 2022.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Paris, France. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present three papers and attend a two day DDI technical workshop.

Colectica 6.2 Enables Data Documentation Using Open Standards Metadata

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 6.2, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 6.2 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica 6.1 Introduces New Enterprise Features

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 6.1, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 6.1 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica powers ICPSR-NACDA Cross Series Cognitive Comparisons

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), located within ICPSR, has made available a new Cross Series Cognitive Comparisons utilizing Colectica and the DDI Lifecycle standard. Within the NACDA Colectica Portal, users can view variable metadata across longitudinal datasets side-by-side, allowing for convenient discovery of data collected over time on aging populations.

Users can explore comparable variables related to cognition, health, and other topics across both NSHAP and NHATS studies. That means looking across three waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) and eight rounds of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). Both NSHAP and NHATS already use the DDI Lifecycle metadata standard, which allow each study to maintain their own metadata. NACDA staff were able to incorporate their own metadata annotations to allow the cross study comparision. For the NSHAP data within the portal, users can even create custom datasets and documentation with only the variables they wish to use.

Colectica 6.0 Introduces DDI 3.3 support

Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 6.0, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 6.0 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica 2020 Roadmap Released

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Exciting new products and standards-based initiatives are coming this year.

It was a great year for Colectica and open metadata standards in 2019. We are planning many amazing things in 2020, here is what we are working on for this coming year!

Colectica version 6 Already In Preview

Colectica version 6 is already in preview, and is based on the upcoming DDI Lifecycle 3.3 standard for data documentation.

DDI 3.3 Review

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The DDI Alliance DDI Lifecycle 3.3 metadata standard is now under final review from now until Feb. 21st!

Major new features and changes include:

Classification management (based on GSIM/Neuchatel)
Non-survey data collection (Measurements)
Sampling
Weighting
Questionnaire Design
Support for DDI as a Property Graph (properties on items and references)
Quality Statement improvements (useful for Eurostat reporting)

The review period for DDI Lifecycle version 3.3 will take place Friday, January 25 through Friday, February 21, after which the DDI Alliance will vote on the new specification.

Colectica at IBUC 2020

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will be presenting at the 19th International Blaise Users Conference will be in Cyprus, Mar 31st - Apr 2nd, 2020. Join the Statistical Service of Cyprus for all things Blaise with a Mediterranean atmosphere graced by ancient Greek and Cyprian history! See you at IBUC 2020!

About Colectica

Launched in 2010, Colectica® is the fastest way to design, document, and publish statistical research using Open Data standards. The Colectica Platform is an ideal solution for statistical agencies, survey research groups, public opinion research, data archivists, and other data centric collection operations that are looking to increase the expressiveness and longevity of the data collected through standards based metadata documentation. The company offers a range of highly specific products and services designed to give power to people through easy integration and access to data.

New Version of Blaise Colectica Questionnaires

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A new version of Blaise Colectica Questionnaires is now available. This major update includes new item types and collaboration functionality.

Survey Design Improvements

Choice Grids

A choice grid prompts the respondent to answer a series of questions that all have the same multiple choice response options.

Question Grids

A question grid is used to collect the same types of responses to several questions.

Rosters

Questions can be asked about members of a list. For example, a set of questions can be asked about all members of a household.

Colectica 5.4 Introduces New Tools

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 5.4, the latest enhancement to the world’s most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 5.4 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Lausanne for the 2017 European DDI Users Conference

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give five presentations and a workshop about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Lausanne, Switzerland December 5th to 8th for EDDI 2016.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present five papers and teach a whole day workshop.

Colectica in Ithaca for the 2017 North American DDI Users Conference

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give two presentations and a workshop about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Ithaca, NY April 4th to 7th for NADDI 2017.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming North American DDI Users Conference (NADDI) in Ithaca, New York. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the NADDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers and teach a half day workshop.

Colectica 5.3 Introduces SAS support

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 5.3, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 5.3 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica in Cologne for the 2016 European DDI Users Conference

Sun, 30 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give two presentations and a workshop about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Cologne, Germany December 5th to 8th for EDDI 2016.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Cologne, Germany. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers, teach a whole day workshop, and participate in the Colectica User's Group meeting.

The International Colectica Users Conference (ICUC) is coming to Cologne, Dec. 8th 2016

Sun, 28 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN August 28, 2016

Colectica will be hosting The International Colectica Users Conference (ICUC)

Colectica and Gesis will host a users meeting featuring a day of DDI and Colectica related discussion focusing on practical approaches to DDI metadata management, innovative research, successful implementations and lessons learned, and Colectica extensions and tools developed by and for the community.

The program targets data producers, managers, and users who are interested in either DDI, recent DDI implementations, or Colectica tools. More information including registration and program information is available at the ICUC 2016 website.

Colectica and Statistics Netherlands Announce Partnership to Build Standards-based Survey Design Software

Wed, 25 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN and Heerlen/The Hague, Netherlands May 25, 2016

Colectica and Statistics Netherlands have agreed to enter into a long term partnership starting with building two software products. These products will allow survey researchers to build surveys faster, to leverage metadata standards, and to generate rich documentation and reports. The tools will improve transparency into the data capture process.

Blaise Colectica Visual Survey Designer will offer an intuitive survey design surface and questionnaire palette, allowing survey designers to build questionnaires without learning a domain specific language. Surveys designed with this tool can be fielded using Blaise 5 on the desktop, on the Web, and on mobile devices. The software will store questionnaire specifications using open standards, and can connect to metadata repositories and question banks powered by Colectica software.

Colectica Introduces the Colectica Metadata Management Platform

Wed, 06 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 6 Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, will roll out a new collection of modern metadata management tools compatible with leading open standards including the DDI3 and ISO 11179. The Colectica platform showcases an array of compelling products, all of which feature fresh ways to generate, organize, and automatically document survey, census, and other public use datasets. Colectica is once again offering unmatched enterprise solutions for organizations wishing to embrace the open standards and open data movements.

Colectica 5.2 Introduces New Versions of Colectica Designer, Repository, and Portal

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 5.2, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, ISO 11179, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 5.2 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica Will Present at the 2015 European DDI Users Conference

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give three presentations about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Copenhagen, Denmark December 1st to 4th for EDDI 2015.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming European DDI Users Conference (EDDI) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the EDDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers, teach a whole day workshop, and participate in the Colectica User's Group meeting.

The International Colectica Users Conference (ICUC) is coming to Copenhagen, Dec. 4th 2015

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN August 28, 2015

Colectica and Statistics Denmark will be hosting The International Colectica Users Conference (ICUC)

Statistics Denmark and Colectica will host a users meeting featuring a day of DDI and Colectica related discussion focusing on practical approaches to DDI metadata management, innovative research, successful implementations and lessons learned, and Colectica extensions and tools developed by and for the community.

Colectica Introduces Latest Release of Colectica Designer, Repository, and Portal 5.1

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 5.1, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 5.1 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica for Excel Version 5

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica is pleased to announce that version 5 of Colectica for Excel is now available for Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. Colectica for Microsoft Excel Standard Edition is a free tool to document your spreadsheet data using the open standard for data documentation.

Version 5 contains many many features including:

Support for DDI 3.2, the premier metadata standard for data documentation
Documenting Variables, Code Lists, and Datasets
Support for importing Stata versions up to 13 into Excel
Support for importing SPSS versions up to 23 into Excel
Saving embedded metadata in an Excel file
Generating PDF and Html Codebooks

Colectica for Excel is an easy to use tool that meets researchers in the tools they already use.

Colectica Announces 14 Milestone Moments in 2014 for Data Documentation

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

As 2015 begins, here are some moments highlighting how Colectica has advocated and advanced open standards based data documentation in the past year.

If the Colectica twitter feed reveals anything about the advancement of open standards, then it has been a pretty epic year. Take a look at what made the list to be reminded what a momentous 12 months it has been for standards based data documentation.

Colectica 5 is Now Available to Enable Research Data Management Using Open Standards Metadata

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 5, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready research data documentation software available. The support for DDI, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 5 are based on research community best practices from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica Fellowship - A Free Registration to the North American DDI User Conference

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica is happy to announce the Colectica Fellowship, a free registration to the North American DDI User Conference.

The North American Data Documentation Initiative Conference (NADDI) is an opportunity for those using metadata standards and those interested in learning more to come together and learn from each other. NADDI 2015 is coming to Madison, Wisconsin April 8, 9, and 10th. Next week, Colectica is giving away a free conference registration to one lucky person!

The International Colectica Users Conference (ICUC) is coming to London, Dec. 4th!

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN August 28, 2014

Colectica and the Institute for Education, University of London will be hosting The International Colectica Users Conference (ICUC)

The Institute of Education, University of London and Colectica will host a users meeting featuring a day of DDI and Colectica related discussion focusing on practical approaches to DDI metadata management, innovative research, successful implementations and lessons learned, and Colectica extensions and tools developed by and for the community.

Colectica To Develop Data Curation Software With Yale ISPS and Innovations for Poverty Action

Mon, 24 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will be developing an open source data curation software package to manage the data intake, cleaning, and publication processes that occur in data archives.

Colectica is partnering with the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) at Yale University and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) to develop a repository for research data from randomized controlled trials in the social sciences. The repository will be an expansion – and major upgrade – of the existing ISPS Data Archive. The main objective of this project is the technical integration of the various curation processes with inventory management, metadata workflow, and Web access.

Colectica 4.2 is Now Available to Enable Data Documentation Using Open Standards Metadata

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready data documentation software available. The support for DDI, GSIM, and the GSBPM found in Colectica 4.2 are based on user feedback from Colectica users in countries around the world.

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 4.2, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The new release builds on previous versions by adding features such as support for SDMX based international quality frameworks, translated user interfaces, REDCap and queXML survey import and export, and a new customizable task-based user interface mode.

Colectica Announces a Data Extraction and Transform System for Longitudinal Data Based on Open Standards Metadata

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will be working on an NIH funded grant with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to enhance a data extract system for longitudinal data. The system will allow researchers to quickly locate comparable data across time periods.

Colectica is pleased to announce that a new data extract and transform system is being created for longitudinal datasets. Unlike many current ETL systems, the new system will be based on the Data Documentation Initiative's DDI Lifecycle standard. DDI Lifecycle is an open standard that understands longitudinal data, and its inclusion in the system will benefit many research institutions and national statistics offices who already have adopted the format.

Colectica Announces Localizable User Interfaces for its Desktop Metadata Software

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica's desktop applications including Colectica Designer, Express, and Reader are now available for localization. Colectica has always supported multilingual metadata, and with this release now supports multilingual user interfaces as well.

Colectica is pleased to announce that the user interfaces for its desktop software are now being offered in multiple languages. Colectica has always supported the ability to create metadata in multiple languages, but the user interface itself has so far been limited to English. Colectica is happy to announce that customers who would prefer to use the software in their native language now have that option.

Colectica Workflow Services Now Available on Oracle Databases

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN September 30, 2013

Colectica Workflow Services, the leading enterprise solution for ISO 11179 metadata repository and registry replication, adds a new supported database platform. Oracle users can now manage creation, filtering, and publishing open standards based metadata using Colectica Workflow Services.

Colectica, a trusted leader in metadata management and data documentation, today announced support for Oracle Databases for Colectica Workflow Services. Colectica Workflow Services allows customers to manage sensitive metadata internally and publish filtered content externally using publication filters, multiple repositories, approvals, user access controls, and user requests and assignments. This series of publication steps allows both an internal and external view for sensitive metadata.

Colectica Releases Open Source Tool for the Data Documentation Initiative's Metadata Schema Development Efforts

Sat, 31 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN August 31, 2013

The Data Documentation Initiative will soon be releasing version 3.2 of its DDI metadata standard for statistical data. Colectica has created and released an Open Source tool to detect inconsistencies in the XML schemas of the developing DDI 3.2 metadata format.

Colectica is pleased to announce the release of a new software tool to perform consistency checks on the developing DDI 3.2 metadata standard. Colectica staff members have been working with the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) for several years in drafting the updated version of the standard. Their work on the DDI Technical Committee has directly influenced the tools development.

Colectica Announces Availability of DDI 3.2 Training Courses and Workshops

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN July 31, 2013

The Data Documentation Initiative will soon be releasing version 3.2 of its DDI metadata standard for statistical data. Colectica is now offering training opportunities that cover the new DDI 3.2 metadata format and its new features.

Colectica is pleased to announce that training courses and workshops focused on DDI 3.2 are now being offered. Colectica staff members have been working with the Data Documentation Initiative for several years in drafting the updated version of the standard. Their experience is now available to all DDI users interested in the new update.

Colectica Announces queXML and LimeSurvey Import and Export from DDI Lifecycle Metadata

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN July 31, 2013

Colectica has mapped the DDI Lifecycle metadata standard's questionnaire descriptions to the LimeSurvey queXML format. This mapping enables complex surveys designed in DDI version 3 to be loaded as LimeSurvey surveys.

Colectica today announced that its Colectica Designer metadata software now supports interoperability with LimeSurvey, an open source system for online surveys. The Colectica Designer software allows for two way interoperability between the LimeSurvey queXML format and the DDI 3 Lifecycle standard on which Colectica is based.

Colectica Announces Support for REDCap Survey Import and Export Using DDI Lifecycle Metadata

Fri, 31 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN May 31, 2013

Colectica has mapped the DDI Lifecycle metadata standard's questionnaire descriptions to the REDCap Data Dictionary format. This mapping enables complex surveys designed in DDI version 3 to be automatically converted into a format for REDCap surveys.

Colectica today announced that its Colectica Designer metadata software now supports interoperability with the REDCap system for online surveys. The Colectica Designer software allows for two way interoperability between the REDCap data dictionary format and the DDI 3 Lifecycle standard on which Colectica is based.

Colectica to Present Tools for Metadata Standards at AAPOR<80><99>s 68th Annual Conference in Boston

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Boston, MA April 30, 2013

Colectica will present advances in survey metadata and data documentation at the annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

Colectica researchers Dan Smith and Jeremy Iverson will present at the annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and will also be located in the exhibition hall at booth 309 during the conference. AAPOR’s 68th Annual Conference, Asking Critical Questions: Toward a Sustainable Future for Public Opinion and Social Research, will focus on approaches that provide new analytic utility, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and address current methodological limitations.

Colectica Will Present Metadata Software at the IASSIST 2013 Conference

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will give three presentations about DDI-Lifecycle metadata software in Cologne, Germany May 28 to 31st for IASSIST 2013.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST) conference in Cologne, Germany. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the IASSIST conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will present two papers and participate in a poster session.

Colectica to Present at the 2013 North American Data Documentation Initiative Conference

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica will be at the University of Kansas the first week of April to present papers about the latest software for data documentation and discuss metadata standards.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming North American Data Documentation Initiative (NADDI) conference hosted by the Institute for Policy & Social Research (IPSR) and the University of Kansas. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the numerous DDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff are happy to attend the inaugural North American conference and will present three papers and conduct one workshop following the conference.

Statistics Denmark Adopts Colectica's Data Documentation Software Platform

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - March 27, 2013

Statistics Denmark has adopted Colectica software and the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata standard for describing its statistical processes and data quality declarations.

Colectica today announced that Statistics Denmark is adopting Colectica metadata software to support managing and describing their data using open standards. Additionally, Colectica and Statistics Denmark are announcing a set of collaborations for new metadata management user interfaces and integration of several metadata standards.

Colectica Unveils New Version of Data Documentation Software Using Open Standards Metadata

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The new release of Colectica provides the most stable, accurate, standards compliant, and enterprise ready data documentation software available. The additions and updates found in Colectica 4.1 are based on user feedback from the hundreds of daily Colectica users from countries across the world.

Colectica today announced the availability of Colectica 4.1, the latest enhancement to the world's most popular data documentation software based on open standards metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative. The maintenance release builds on previous versions by adding new features such as Oracle database support, a new survey designer interface, and fine grained repository selection.

Colectica Announces Upcoming Support for the European Statistical System Standard for Quality Reports (ESQR)

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN January 31, 2013

Colectica is implementing the ESS Standard for Quality Reports with a model that combines Open Standards including DDI 3 Lifecycle, ISO 11179, and ESQR. The model also enables support for the SDMX based ESS Standard for Quality Report Structure (ESQRS).

Colectica, a trusted leader in metadata management and data documentation, today announced upcoming support for the European Statistical System Standard for Quality Reports (ESQR). The ESQR support enables Colectica users to create comprehensive quality reporting for all of their statistical processes and outputs. Combining ESQR with DDI Lifecycle allows for quality reporting to be more detailed and managed in compliance with ISO 11179.

Colectica is Undertaking a Review of the Proposed 3.2 Version of the Open Standard for Data Documentation

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN January 31, 2013

Colectica will review the proposed DDI Lifecycle 3.2 standard and offer feedback to the standard's technical committee. Colectica has committed to implementing the new version of the XML based DDI Lifecycle metadata standard for data documentation when it is released.

Colectica, a trusted leader in metadata management and data documentation, today announced a review of the upcoming DDI 3.2 open standard for data documentation. The data documentation standard is a metadata specification used to document data collection and statistical datasets in a machine actionable way. DDI 3.2 has been under development for over 3 years, and members of the Colectica staff participate in the standard's technical committee.

Colectica Announces 12 Milestone Moments of 2012 for Open Standards

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

As 2012 winds down, here are some moments highlighting how Colectica has advocated and advanced open standards based data documentation in the past year.

Colectica Announces Upcoming Support for Oracle Database 11g in the Colectica Metadata Repository

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN December 31, 2012

Colectica Repository, the leading enterprise solution for ISO 11179 metadata repositories and registries, adds a new supported database platform. Oracle users can now manage open standards based metadata using Colectica Repository.

Colectica, a trusted leader in metadata management and data documentation, today announced upcoming support for Oracle Database 11g for the Colectica Repository system.

Customers can now leverage Colectica Repository to run real-time transactional and analytical applications with Oracle Database 11g. Colectica customers using the Oracle In-Memory Database Cache can also accelerate response time for performance critical repository operations.

Colectica to Present at the 2012 European Data Documentation Initiative Conference

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN - November 30, 2012

Colectica will be in Bergen, Norway the first week of December to present papers about the latest software for data documentation.

Colectica is pleased to announce that its staff were selected to give several presentations at the upcoming European Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) conference in Bergen, Norway. Each year, Colectica sends representatives to the European DDI conference to share ideas and consult with other users of standardized data documentation. This year, Colectica staff will conduct one workshop, present two papers, and participate in a poster session.

Colectica for Excel has been Released, a New Free Tool to Add Standardized Open Data Documentation to Spreadsheets

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica for Excel is a new free Excel Addin that describes data files, variables, and code lists directly within the Microsoft Excel application using open standards. Importing SPSS and Stata data into Excel, along with metadata, is also included in the software release.

Colectica for Excel has been released today by Colectica. It is a new free tool that allows researchers to document their data directly in Microsoft Excel. Variables, code lists, and the datasets can be globally identified and described in a metadata format based on open standards. Data can also be directly imported into Excel and documented from SPSS and Stata files. The standardized metadata is stored within the Excel files so it will be available to anyone receiving the documented file. Code books can also be customized and generated by the tool, and output in PDF, Word, Html, and XSL-FO formats.

Colectica Releases a New Tool To Import Stata and SPSS Data into Microsoft Excel

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN - November 30, 2012

Today Colectica released an addin for Microsoft Excel that imports SPSS .sav and Stata .dta files directly into Excel, along with additional metadata.

Colectica is happy to announce the release of Colectica for Excel today. Colectica for Excel is a free addin for Microsoft Excel and works with Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. It allows users who do not have Stata or SPSS installed on their machines to open files saved in .sav and .dta formats directly in Microsoft Excel. In addition to data import, Colectica for Excel also imports additional metadata that may be contained in the file such as variable data types and code lists. This additional metadata information is stored natively inside the workbook using open standards for data documentation.

Colectica Version 4 Improves Documentation of Big Data in Research

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN - October 31, 2012

Documentation is a key aspect of understanding both public and private datasets. The new Colectica software is built to describe these statistical data using open standards metadata.

Colectica® is a suite of modern metadata management software that is used to document statistical datasets, along with the research methodologies used during their collection and aggregation. When datasets are disseminated there is often inadequate transparency of research methods. Colectica allows organizations to increase their data’s openness and credibility through standardized documentation of their data collection, research process and resulting data. The software is compatible with leading open standards including the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Lifecycle version 3 and ISO 11179. Using this software allows data producing organizations to both better describe their resultant data and increases the organization’s reputation for performing credible scientific research by also documenting methodology.

Colectica invited to participate in the Data Documentation Initiative<80><99>s planning workshop.

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Wadern, Germany - October 26, 2012

Colectica is helping plan the next generation of the Data Documentation Initiative’s metadata standard and has committed to implementing the forthcoming version.

Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, was invited to attend the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Standard’s Working Meeting, titled “DDI Lifecycle: Moving Forward”, focusing on the next version of the DDI metadata standard at Schloss Dagstuhl in Wadern, Germany. The company leveraged both the experience gained from participating in the development of the DDI 3 standard and the creation of its Colectica platform as it contributed to a set of roadmaps produced at the workshop. Colectica hopes this roadmap propels the standard’s further development and allow for greater interoperability of business processes and software applications that can process the DDI Lifecycle Standard.

Colectica Version 4 Brings Greater Transparency to Public Opinion and Survey Research

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - October 8th, 2012

A new version of Colectica uses open standards metadata to describe research processes and statistical data.

Colectica® is a suite of modern metadata management software that is used to document public opinion and survey research methodologies and data. There is often inadequate transparency of research methods when results of opinion polls and behavioral science research are disseminated. Colectica allows organizations to increase their openness and credibility through standardized documentation of their data collection, research process and resulting data. The software is compatible with leading open standards including the Data Documentation Initiative version 3 and ISO 11179. Using this software allows survey organizations to both better educate survey sponsors and the public on their methodology and increases the organization’s reputation for performing credible scientific research.

Colectica Releases Open Source Blaise to DDI Metadata Converter

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - July 2, 2012

Colectica has launched an open source metadata converter project on github, featuring a Blaise survey to Data Documentation Initiative (DDI3) converter

Colectica is proud to announce the launch of new open source metadata converter project hosted on GitHub. The first released component of the project is a Blaise survey system to Data Documentation Initiative (DDI-Lifecycle) converter. The Blaise to DDI utlity can produce standardized metadata documentation about the questions, codelists, and survey flow contained in a Blaise survey. This standardized metadata allows for greater transparency, harmonization, and discovery of the questions and codelists contained in the survey. Blaise is a computer-assisted interviewing system that is popular amongst national statistical institutes, market research companies, and university research centers. DDI is an open metadata standard supported by a consortium of national statistical institutes, universities, and data archives.

Colectica presents at the IASSIST 2012 conference

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - June 12, 2012

Colectica presents DDI 3 metadata software at IASSIST 2012

News Facts

Colectica preceded the conference with a workshop titled "Hands on DDI 3 with Colectica". This training course covered introductions to Colectica, DDI 3, and ingesting existing resources.
Colectica RDF Services, a software package to publish statistical data onto the semantic web, was presented in the "Accessing DDI 3 as Linked Data - Colectica RDF Services". Colectica RDF Services is available today to publish DDI 3 and statistical metadata into the linked data cloud.
Metadata production tools for use with DDI and other open standards were presented in "Keeping up with Colectica". The new Enterprise features of Colectica 4 were presented including new authentication, fine grained role based permission, and a new user interface for browsing Colectica Repository.
A joint presentation with the Swedish National Data Service outlined the interoperability achieved with Colectica and the DDI 3 standard. The session "Integrating DDI 3-based tools with Web Services: connecting Colectica and eXist-db" detailed connecting Colectica Designer the the SND data archive using Colectica's Addin framework.
The panel talk "Shopping for Data: Variable Baskets on the Web" described Colectica's NIH grant for work on Open Standards based tools for Longitudinal Data.

Supporting Quotes

"IASSIST is filled with data professionals who are excited about the proper management and curation of both data and metadata. Colectica is a perfect fit for these tasks, and we are happy to share what we have learned developing these systems with those attending the conference." said Dan Smith, a partner at Colectica.

Supporting Resources

About Colectica

Launched in 2010, Colectica® is the fastest way to design, document, and publish statistical research using open data standards. The Colectica Platform is an ideal solution for statistical agencies, survey research groups, public opinion research, data archivists, and other data centric collection operations that are looking to increase the expressiveness and longevity of the data collected through standards based metadata documentation. The company offers a range of highly specific products and services designed to give power to people through easy integration and access to data.

Trademark

Colectica is a registered trademark of Colectica and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. ###

Colectica Awarded an NIH Grant for DDI 3 based Data Extraction Tools

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - March 30, 2011

DDI 3 based Online Data Extraction System Receives NIH Funding

News Facts

Colectica announced that it has recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health - National Institute on Aging, under the National Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
The award is a Phase I grant that provides supplemental support of Colectica’s research on an “Open Standards-Based Data Extraction Web Tool for Complex Longitudinal Datasets”.
The SBIR program is designed to stimulate technological innovation among private-sector businesses while providing the government new, cost-effective, technical and scientific solutions to challenging problems.
This Phase I feasibility study aims to analyze the data preparation and metadata creation workflow needed to prepare a study for online data extraction, to validate the use of the Data Documentation Initiative’s DDI 3 standard for the basis of such a tool, and to create prototype web-based data extraction software.
While the focus is on longitudinal surveys, the proposed system would also handle cross-sectional, time-series, and non-repeated studies.
The aim is to improve research methodologies through a simplification of the process used for discovering, retrieving, and analyzing data relevant to a researcher’s investigation and to improve data citations, aiding in reproducible research.
The research includes consultation with researchers from ICPSR at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the Mid-Life in the United States Longitudinal Study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Supporting Quotes

"We appreciate the continued support of the NIH-NIA, and their recognition of the significance of the research we are conducting," said Dan Smith, a partner at Colectica, and the principal investigator on the project.

Supporting Resources

About Colectica

Trademark

Colectica is a registered trademark of Colectica and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. ###

Colectica announces availability of Colectica R5

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - December 20, 2010

News Facts

Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, today announced an update to Colectica®, its suite of modern metadata management tools compatible with leading open standards including the DDI3 and ISO 11179.
Colectica R5 adds new features to more easily generate, organize, and automatically document survey, census, and other public use datasets. Colectica is once again offering unmatched enterprise solutions for organizations wishing to embrace the open standards and open data movements.
The new Colectica Express Edition lets individual researchers begin managing statistical data using open standards today. It provides an attractive entry point to open data management along with a well defined upgrade path to more advanced Colectica Repository-based data management in the future.
Colectica Designer has been updated in Colectica R5 to provide more workflow options in conjunction with Colectica Repository. The Colectica Designer is a rich desktop application that integrates many tasks performed by survey researchers and statistical agencies. It encompasses survey design, survey development, and data documentation driven using open data standards.
The Colectica Repository included in Colectica R5 now features relationship tracking among registered items. The Repository allows for organization wide management of metadata following an ISO 11179 model using its built in version control, provenance tracking, role based authentication, and new relationship and state management.
Colectica Web, a Web 2.0 application, has been updated in the Colectica R5 release. Colectica Web can be used to disseminate an organizations published metadata or used by authenticated researchers working on a study. Colectica Web also allows data users to interact socially to enhance the data discovery process.

Supporting Quotes

"The Colectica Platform is an ideal solution for statistical agencies, survey research groups, public opinion research, data archivists, and other data centric collection operations that are looking to increase the expressiveness and longevity of the data collected through standards based metadata documentation. Colectica products, training, and customized solutions are available through www.colectica.com ."

Supporting Resources

About Colectica

Trademark

Colectica is a registered trademark of Colectica and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. ###

DDI4RDC Showcases Open Source Tools to Produce Metadata Products Based on the DDI

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

DDI4RDC, a consortium of companies comprised of Breckenhill, Colectica, Metadata Technology and Ideas2Evidence, today showcased open source tools that produce metadata products based on the DDI Foundation Tools Program, the DDI Editing Suite Framework and in line with the Open Data Foundation recommendations. The showing occurred at the annual conference of the international organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences whose 300 members work in a variety of settings, including data archives, statistical agencies, research centers, libraries, academic departments, government departments, and non-profit and commercial organizations.

Colectica Announces the Immediate Availability of Free Colectica Resolution Services

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis, MN December 21, 2009

Introducing Colectica DDI Resolver. Designed to quickly locate authoritative sources of metadata.

Colectica, a leading provider of metadata creation, documentation, management, distribution, and discovery tools, today announced the immediate availability of Colectica Resolver, the newest member of the Colectica family of programs and services. The Colectica DDI Resolver enables discovery of web services and data services provided by an agency. Once a client has discovered the location of one of these services, it can query and interact with the service.

Colectica at IASSIST 2009

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Tampere, Finland, May 28 2009

Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, will be presenting the initial beta version of Colectica Designer at IASSIST 2009 in Tampere, Finland. Colectica Designer is a DDI3 based questionnaire design tool that can also be used to create Blaise, CASES, and CSPro survey instruments.

About Colectica Colectica® is the fastest way to design, document, and publish statistical research using Open Data standards. The Colectica Platform is an ideal solution for statistical agencies, survey research groups, public opinion research, data archivists, and other data centric collection operations that are looking to increase the expressiveness and longevity of the data collected through standards based metadata documentation. The company offers a range of highly specific products and services designed to give power to people through easy integration and access to data.

Colectica Invited to participate in DDI 3 Advanced Topics workshop

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Nov. 15 2008

Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, was invited to attend the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Standard’s Working Meeting on Advanced Topics in Usability and Interoperability – Best Practices meeting at Schloss Dagstuhl in Wadern, Germany. Colectica leveraged the experience gained during the development of DDI 3 standard and its Colectica platform when contributing to a set of best practice papers produced at the conference. Mary Vardigan, Director of the DDI Alliance stated the conference was “a major step in providing instructional materials for application of DDI 3.0 in real life situations”. Colectica hopes these papers will help adopters of the standard and allow for greater interoperability of software applications that can process DDI3.

Colectica Early Preview at IASSIST 2008

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

PALO ALTO, CA, May. 28 2008

Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, will be presenting an early preview of the Colectica Designer at IASSIST 2008. Colectica Designer is a DDI3 based questionnaire design tool that can also be used to create Blaise, CASES, and CSPro survey instruments.

The software will be demonstrated in the “Next Generation Tools for Converting, Displaying, and Visualizing Data” session in the Fisher Center at Stanford.

Finalizing of DDI 3 at Schloss Dagstuhl

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

WADERN, GERMANY, Nov. 1 2007

Colectica, a leading data management consultancy, is assisting the DDI Technical Implementation Committee in finalizing version 3 of the DDI standard. The workshop titled “Further Development of the DDI XML Standard: Technical Implementation Committee Meeting”, was held at Scholl Dagstuhl, the world’s premier venue for informatics research and collaboration. Jeremy Iverson, a Senior Technical Staff Member at Colectica, said “After working for three years to add data collection documentation to DDI3, I look forward to offering my input related to other areas of the standard, as well”. The final version of the DDI3 standard should be available in the spring.

Colectica Invited to Attend DDI Expert Committee Meeting

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

October 10, 2006

Colectica Lends its Expertise and Technical Understanding of Survey Instruments to the DDI

Representatives of Colectica will visit The Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) in Mannheim, Germany to participate in the Data Documentation Initiative’s expert committee meeting.

“We have been working with the DDI’s Data Collection working group for the past two years,” stated Dan Smith, a Senior Technical Staff Member at Colectica, adding “It is exciting to see our work come together with the other contributions, helping to create a metadata model that encompasses the entire data lifecycle.” Version 3 of the DDI metadata standard is scheduled for public release in 2007. Colectica has committed to supporting the standard in its survey instrument and survey data product lines.

Colectica to Attend DDI Meeting in Edinburgh

Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

May 18, 2005

Colectica to Address Role of Structural Flow in Survey Instrument Documentation

Representatives of Colectica will visit Edinburgh, Scotland to participate in the renovation of the Data Documentation Initiative’s metadata standard.

“There is a wealth of knowledge created during the data collection process,” stated Dan Smith, adding that “Colectica’s goal is to capture more of this information in a standardized way.” Colectica sees the meeting as an important occasion to address the serious lack of routing and correspondent path information in the current version of the DDI standard.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

ABS Codeplay was a Gov2.0 Competition run by Australian Bureau of Statistics (@ABSStats) to encourage Australian students to develop tools for working with open data standards.

As part of the competition, free licenses to Colectica products were given to the students to help them utilize Open Standards metadata for data documentation.

This contest has been concluded. The winners were

1st prize: ($1000 plus an iPad)

Mr James Gardner for his SDMX Metamap Utility

AI Ready Data with ISO/PAS 25955 DDI Metadata

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Make your data understandable to humans and machines

Modern analytics and AI systems depend on more than just data. They depend on context.

AI-ready metadata provides that context in a structured, standards-based, and machine-actionable way. It ensures your data can be discovered, interpreted, and used correctly without manual effort or guesswork.

At Colectica, AI-readiness starts with open standards metadata that describes not only your data, but the full research lifecycle behind it.

Census 2010 in DDI 3 metadata

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The 2010 Census is one of the most recognizable research questionnaires in the United States. The US Census is advertised on talk shows, in the media, and is mailed to every current home address. This familiarity makes the 2010 Census a great questionnaire to demonstrate some features of the DDI 3 metadata standard and its Data Collection component.

The 2010 Census is a collection of 11 questions:

Colectica Administrator Training Course

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica Administrator Training Course is designed to give system administrators the information they need to deploy, configure, and manage the Colectica Repository and the Colectica Designer.

The half day add-on to the Colectica End User Training Course covers the following topics:

Deploying the Colectica Repository
Configuring the Colectica Repository
Deploying the Colectica Repository’s dependencies
Maintaining the repository’s database
Deploying Colectica Designer
Configuring Colectica Designer for repository access
Security considerations
Deploying the Colectica Repository using a resolution service

Colectica Curation Tools

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica Curation Tools allow data archives to leverage the DDI standard for data documentation and to structure the curation workflow. The platform enables open access to data resources that have been fully reviewed and enhanced for long term usability and analysis.

	OSS	Pro	Enterprise
Audience	Hobbyists	Small Data Archives	Institutional Archives
Deposit
Online file deposit
Basic record and file metadata
Variable-level metadata extraction from SAS, SPSS, and Stata
Curation
Code review
Manually create preservation formats
Statistical data review
Publication
Basic record publication
Persistent identifier assignment (Handle)
Automated preservation format creation for statistical data files
Integration
Colectica Repository and Portal
Colectica SDK
Support and licensing
Support	None	Email	Email, Onboarding session
License	AGPL	Commercial no custom terms	Commercial with custom terms
Pricing	Free	$###/year up to X curators	$###/year
Purchasing	N/A	Credit Card	Credit card, purchase order, bank transfer, check
Learn more		Contact us	Contact us

Colectica Customers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Case Studies

Real Solutions. Tangible Impact.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The Midlife in the United States Longitudinal Study uses Colectica to record the collection methods and dissemination of their data.

Download

Statistics New Zealand

Deployed Colectica to power official statistics with Open Standards. Centrally manage metadata and catalog statistical datasets.

Download

Social Science Data Archive at UCLA

The Social Science Data Archive catalogs their data holdings using Open Standards and Colectica.

Colectica Customization

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

While the Colectica platform contains many features, you may require additional functionality in order to get the most out of Colectica. The Colectica development team can add specific features or create a customized edition of the Colectica platform for your organization.

Integration with Existing Systems

If your organization has existing data and metadata systems, we can create custom bridges that enable Colectica to work with your existing data and for your existing systems to make use of data and metadata generated through Colectica. We can work with other DDI-based systems, other standards, or proprietary formats.

Colectica Datasets

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

View, convert, improve, and publish data files.

Beta Signup!

Colectica DDI Resolver

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

About

Colectica DDI Resolver was a free DNS SRV record-based resolution service for DDI agency identifiers, DDI URNs, and ISO/IEC 11179 Part 6 International Registration Data Identifiers (11179 IRDIs). The Colectica DDI Resolver enabled discovery of web services and data services provided by an agency. Once a client had discovered the location of one of these services, it could query and interact with the service.

Adoption by DDI Alliance

The DDI Alliance has adopted the previous Colectica DDI Resolver system to create the DDI Agency Registry. The registry software and client libraries are all available under an open source license. You can find more information and register agency identifiers at registry.ddialliance.org

Agency Management

An agency is an organization responsible for maintaining data or metadata. The Colectica DDI Resolver, now the DDI Registry, enables discovery of data-related services provided by an agency, including:

Location of the Colectica Repository instance containing the agency’s information
Location of other repositories containing the agency’s information
Location of the agency’s web site

Free Service

For more detailed information and to use Colectica Resolver, now hosted by the DDI Alliance as the DDI Registry, simply visit registry.ddialliance.org.

Colectica Designer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Designer allows documenting data collection, survey specification, and dataset descriptions. It can be used with Colectica Repository in large organizations to provide advanced data management functionality. Colectica Designer complements existing systems by importing and generating various forms of data, documentation, and source code.

Manage Statistical Metadata

Manage Statistical Studies - Track everything related to your study from start to finish
Document and Disseminate Data - One canonical source of metadata, multiple outputs
Manage Classifications - Create and re-use code lists
Multilingual Support - work with multiple languages

Design Surveys and Questionnaires

Manage Questions - Create, share, and re-use questions
Design Questionnaires - Use an intuitive, visual questionnaire designer
Analyze Questionnaires - Gain insight and detect mistakes before you field your survey
Import Existing Survey Instruments - Already have a survey? No need to start from scratch
Generate Computer-assisted Interviewing Source Code - No need to type questions twice: once in a specification and once in your CAI system
Generate paper questionnaires - Create and print paper forms to gather data

Publish Documentation

Create Dataset Documentation - Easily create electronic and paper codebooks
Publish Metadata to the Web - Make your dataset documentation interactive and social
Generate Statistical Source Sode - Make assigning variable and value labels simple in R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata

Import

Export to Open Standards

Export to Open Standards - Using Colectica means your data is open data. No vendor lock-in
Work with DDI 3 the Easy Way - No need to wrestle with XML

Metadata Repository and Version Management

Synchronize with Metadata Repositories - Smooth collaboration for small and large teams
Search and Re-use Items from Metadata Repositories - Share your questions, code lists, variables, and anything else
Manage Metadata Versions Automatically - Versioning just got easy

Security

Security - Learn about security in Colectica

Colectica Desktop applications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Feature	Colectica Reader	Colectica Express (discontinued)	Colectica Designer
View DDI 3 metadata
Multilevel metadata validation
Create and edit study metadata
Create and edit classifications
Create and edit dataset metadata
Create and edit survey questions
Questionnaire designer
Generate paper questionnaires
Analyze questionnaires
Import metadata (DDI 3, DDI 2/Nesstar)
Import from SPSS, Stata, SAS
Generate statistical source code
Generate publishable documentation (PDF, RTF)
Export to open standards (DDI 3, DDI 2)
Import from Blaise® and CASES
Generate computer assisted interviewing system source code
Synchronize with Colectica Repository
Search metadata repositories
Automatic version management

Colectica End User Training Course

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica End User Training Course is designed to give new Colectica users the information they need to use Colectica effectively. The course provides training for both the Colectica Designer and for the Colectica Web Repository.

The two day course covers the following topics:

Introduction to Colectica
Configuring repository access
Using a repository for collaboration and version control
Documenting concepts and general study design
Designing data collection instruments
Analyzing instruments
Generating source code for Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI) systems
Importing, visualizing, and analyzing existing CAI source code
Documenting data products
Publishing documentation to repositories accessible within an organization or worldwide
In depth walkthrough: using Colectica to manage a study chosen by your organization

Colectica Evaluation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We will be happy to help you evaluate the Colectica Platform. Just let us know which parts you are interested in and we will get you set up with the appropriate software.

Features

Document Longitudinal Studies

Visually design surveys

Generate computer assisted survey instrument source code

Generate metadata from existing computer assisted survey instruments

Create publishable metadata

Import DDI3

Export DDI3

Import or export other data standards

Metadata Repository

Training

Repository-Centric Data Management

DDI Developer Workshop

Colectica End User Training Course

Colectica Administrator Training Course

Colectica Interoperability Workshop

Services

Colectica Maintenance Plans

Colectica Deployment

Colectica Customization

DDI Consulting

Survey Development

Metadata Preparation

Name

Organization

Telephone

Comments

Submit

Colectica for Excel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Your Dataset Deserves More than a First Row Header

Colectica for Microsoft Excel Standard Edition is a free tool to document your spreadsheet data using the open standard for data documentation.

Colectica Fusion

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Fusion is a customized package of Colectica platform components, software customizations and integration, and metadata system architecture consulting.

Colectica Customization

Colectica is designed as a drop in commercial off the shelf package for statistical metadata management. Institutions that have specific collection requirements or processes that must be adhered to can receive customized versions of Colectica that implement or enforce these requirements.

Colectica Interoperability Workshop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica Interoperability Workshop is aimed at developers who wish to develop applications that interact with the Colectica Repository. The workshop consists of an in-depth description of the Colectica Repository’s design, followed by hands on development.

The length of the workshop is dependent on the goals of the participants, and will be determined on an individual basis. This workshop covers the following topics:

Accessing the Colectica Repository through web services

Searching for items
Retrieving items
Committing items

Repository item identification and versioning
Repository item serialization
DDI3 extensions
Hands-on development

Colectica Named Official Blaise Survey System Licensor for the United States

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Named Official Blaise Survey System Licensor for the United States

Colectica is thrilled to announce that we have been selected by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) as the official licensor of the Blaise Survey System in the United States, effective mid-2026.

This milestone builds on our longstanding partnership with CBS and reinforces our shared commitment to advancing high-quality and standards-based survey research tools for organizations worldwide, including the established Blaise community in the United States.

Colectica Portal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Portal is a web application, powered by Colectica Repository, which enables data and metadata publication and discovery.

To see several live portals available to the public, please see our Longitudinal and Repeated Data Portal examples.

Publish

Colectica Portal is populated with metadata by using the publish feature in Colectica Designer. Once published, a study's documentation is instantly available on through the web application.

Browse

Colectica Portal’s home page contains links to one or more studies contained in the Colectica Repository. When visiting a study’s main page the user can browse all the information in the study, including general information, data collection instruments, logical data products, and all schemes included in the study.

Search

By entering a search query, a user is presented with a list of matching items. Each search result is linked to the item’s page, where detailed information is available.

View Items

Every item maintained by the Colectica Repository has a dedicated page. The page displays all information about the item, along with a version history.

Colectica Privacy Policy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica End User License Agreement

Effective April 30, 2018

This is an agreement between You and Colectica or its affiliates (“Colectica”) and governs your Use of Colectica Software.

“You” and “Your” means the individual or legal entity licensing the Software under this EULA.
“Use” or “Using” means to download, install, activate, access or otherwise use the Software.
“Software” means the Colectica computer programs and any Upgrades made available to You by an Approved Source and licensed to You by Colectica.
“Documentation” is the Colectica user or technical manuals, training materials, specifications or other documentation applicable to the Software and made available to You by an Approved Source.
“Approved Source” means (i) Colectica or (ii) the Colectica authorized reseller, distributor or systems integrator from whom you acquired the Software.
“Entitlement” means the license detail; including license metric, duration, and quantity provided in a product description published on Colectica’s price list or website.
“Upgrades” means all updates, upgrades, bug fixes, error corrections, enhancements and other modifications to the Software and backup copies thereof.

This agreement, any supplemental license terms and any specific product terms at www.colectica.com/legal/eula (collectively, the “EULA”) govern Your Use of the Software.

Colectica Privacy Policy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Privacy Policy

What this policy covers

Your privacy is important to us, and so is being transparent about how we collect, use, and share information about you. This policy is intended to help you understand:

What information we collect about you
How we use information we collect
How we share information we collect
How we store and secure information we collect
How to access and control your information
How we transfer information we collect internationally
Other important privacy information

This Privacy Policy covers the information we collect about you when you use our products or services, or otherwise interact with us (for example, by attending our events), unless a different policy is displayed. Colectica, we and us refers to Colectica, Algenta Technologies, LLC dba Colectica and any of our corporate affiliates. We offer a wide range of software products, including our cloud, server and data center products. We refer to all of these products, together with our other services and websites as “Services” in this policy.

Colectica Questionnaires

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

One Survey Specification. Many Outputs.

Colectica Questionnaires is a survey specification creator. Surveys designed with Colectica Questionnaires can be published in multiple formats.

Colectica RDF Services

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica RDF Services is an addin that allows querying DDI 3 as RDF using a SPARQL endpoint on top of Colectica Repository and Colectica Portal.

Colectica Reader

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Reader - The Free DDI 3 Viewer

Colectica Reader is a free tool to view DDI 3 metadata.

Download Colectica Reader

Colectica Reader runs on Microsoft Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 v1607 and above.
Privacy Policy and End User Licence Agreement

View DDI 3 Metadata

Use Colectica Reader to view your DDI 3 metadata from Colectica Designer, Colectica Questionnaires, or other DDI applications.

Validate DDI 3 Files

Colectica Reader performs multiple levels of validation on your DDI 3 metadata.

Ensure your metadata validates against the DDI 3 XML schema
Ensure all references point to items that exist

Learn more about Colectica Reader’s DDI validation tools.

Colectica Repository

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Repository is a centralized storage system for managing data resources, enabling collaborative workflows, and providing automatic version control.

Client applications such as Colectica Designer and Colectica Portal interact with Colectica Repository using standard communications protocols. Although Colectica Repository is not accessed directly by end-users, it is the backbone of the Colectica platform.

Storage

Repository items can be submitted by authorized clients. Items are submitted by sending the DDI3 serialization of the item along with some identifying information. Items can be retrieved by authorized clients by querying for the object by its unique identifier. In order to provide complete versioning and audit functionality, repository items may not be deleted. If an item is no longer needed it may be deprecated. Search requests can indicate whether they wish to include deprecated items in the results.

Versioning

The Colectica Repository provides full support for item versioning.

History

Every version of an item committed to the repository is saved, allowing clients to retrieve a full version history of any item in the repository. Each version includes additional information:

the authenticated user who committed the version
the date and time the version was committed
an optional message describing the reason for the version

Tagging

A specific version of any item or set of items may be tagged. A tag is simply a name given to the version so it can be easily referenced in the future. Tagging can be used to mark milestones such as publication.

Search

The Colectica Repository offers advanced faceted search functionality. Items may be queried through a fast full text search.

Annotations

Users with the appropriate role may annotate items stored in the Colectica Repository in a number of ways. Plaintext comments may be added to repository items. Users may indicate their approval of a repository item.

Agency Management

The Colectica Repository may be designated as the authoritative source for one or more agencies. An agency is an entity responsible for a particular piece of data or metadata. Colectica DDI Resolver can be used to discover the authoritative repository for a particular agency.

Security

User Authentication

The Colectica Repository supports user profiles. Users must provide username and password credentials in order to access the repository.

Role-based Access Control

Users may be assigned one or more roles. The roles determine whether the user may search, submit, retrieve, and annotate items in the repository.

Encryption

The Colectica Repository communicates over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.

Colectica Resolver

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica DDI Resolver is a DNS-based resolution service for DDI 3 agency identifiers and related metadata.

DDI agency resolution
Metadata resolution
Powered by DNS Max, a managed DNS service with over 10 years of high availability operations

An agency is an organization responsible for maintaining data or metadata. The Colectica DDI Resolver enables discovery of data-related services provided by an agency, including:

Location of the Colectica Repository instance containing the agency’s information
Location of other repositories containing the agency’s information
Location of the agency’s web site

Colectica Resolver is a free service.

Colectica SDK

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica SDK is a Software Developer's Kit that allows developers to create and process metadata with minimal effort.

Colectica SDK is a set of .NET 4 class libraries
Content model based on the DDI 3 standard
Read, write, and validate DDI 3 XML
Interact with Web Services provided by Colectica Repository

DDI 3 Model

The Colectica DDI model allows programmatic access to the content model of the DDI standard. It is written to provide a familiar appearance to other class libraries a programmer would be familiar with using the Microsoft Design Guidelines for Developing Class Libraries.

Colectica Toolkit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Toolkit is a collection of command line tools designed to help your organization create and process metadata in an automated manner.

Import metadata into a repository
Convert among metadata formats
Generate publishable documentation

Available Tools

MetadataConverter: Convert DDI 3 files to DDI 2, or vice versa.
SPSSToDDI3: Extract DDI 3 metadata from SPSS data files.
BlaiseToDDI3: Convert existing Blaise® survey instruments to DDI 3.
CASESToDDI3: Convert CASES survey instruments to DDI 3.
DocumentationGenerator: Create PDFs and Rich Text documents for printing and publication.
Validator (Free Download): Validate DDI 3 metadata.
RepositoryImport: Import metadata into the Colectica Repository from DDI 3 files. Once the information is in the repository it can be instantly available through Colectica Portal.

Download Validator

Download the free Colectica Toolkit Validator.

Additional Automated Functionality

Need to do more? Our goal is to make all of Colectica's functionality available through command line tools. To help us prioritize what comes first, let us know which features you need.

If you are interested in custom tools, possibly to migrate between your own data formats and various standards, please learn about our customization services.

Colectica Training Group Registration

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Videos

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

For videos about Colectica, please visit https://www.youtube.com/colectica

Colectica Videos

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Videos

DDI metadata - Introduction to FAIR Open Data Standards

Learn about DDI metadata, and how it is used to help make data more FAIR.

Managing metadata using open data standards - introduction to Colectica

Colectica provides modernised, sustainable solutions that manage a broad range of documentation / metadata while leveraging open data standards. Solutions include: software tools, metadata training, DDI open data standards training, and custom software development for your unique needs. Colectica makes your data more functional and expressive so it’s easy to discover data across your datasets. Your documentation is then well structured for helping to make sense of the data, and ensures your data’s longevity.

Colectica Workflow Services

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica Workflow Services provides a publication workflow for data documentation.

The Colectica Workflow Services allows you to manage your data publication process by providing a publication workflow for DDI metadata. Users may submit publication requests and Administrators may optionally approve publications.

Filters can be applied as whole sets of information is moved from one Repository to another, such as between a private and public repository view. The Workflow Service can apply filters to specific item and even individual fields, as configured by an Administrator, to prevent the disclosure of non-public information in the public metadata.

Contact Us

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Contact us

https://colectica.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Custom Development

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica team is available for custom programming projects. Types of projects include:

Programmatic metadata creation from existing sources
Data collection systems
Data processing systems
Data and metadata storage and query systems
Data dissemination and visualization systems

The Colectica team can work with your data and metadata in many formats, including DDI, other standards-based formats, or proprietary formats.

DDI

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bring Data Documentation Standards to your Organization

The DDI Workshop enables you to start using the DDI standard for documenting statistical data.

Request a DDI Training Workshop »

The Data Standard

Participants learn about the types of data DDI is built to document, the origin of the standard, and the standard's relationship with other standards.

Storing DDI

Learn different ways of storing, indexing, and finding standardized data documentation.

DDI Metadata - Data Documentation Initiative Standard

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

DDI Standard

The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an international open standard for describing research data, surveys, questionnaires, statistical files, and study-level metadata. Maintained by the DDI Alliance, DDI provides a structured, machine-readable way to document data so it can be discovered, understood, reused, and preserved across its entire lifecycle.

Open, free standard used worldwide
First published in 1996
Formally recognized as the international standard ISO/PAS 25955:2026 (published March 2026)

Why DDI Matters

High-quality metadata is essential for trustworthy and AI-ready data. DDI makes metadata:

Deployment

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you prefer not to deploy the Colectica Repository or client applications yourself, the Colectica team and its affiliates can deploy it for you. Our deployment services include installation, configuration, and testing of the selected Colectica components as well as all dependencies.

In some cases we are able to provide deployment services remotely.

Features

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica: Software for Statistical Data Documentation

The Colectica Platform provides features for statistical agencies, survey research groups, public opinion researchers, data archivists, and other data intensive operations. Colectica can increase the expressiveness and longevity of the data collected through standards-based metadata documentation.

AI ready metadata

Utilize ISO/PAS 25955 DDI-Lifecycle and ISO 11179 standards to provide the semantic "ground truth" that allows AI agents to understand your data

Document the complete data lifecycle

Your study is more than the datasets you distribute. Provide your researchers with rich information about your data, with details about everything from the study concept to data collection and data processing.

Disseminate data

Once you have documented your data, easily publish it online and provide powerful search and browsing tools to your researchers.

Publish your data in multiple languages

Most text fields in Colectica Designer allow you to enter text in multiple languages, allowing you to provide information to your researchers around the world.

Manage and reuse classifications

Colectica allows you to manage, search, and re-use your category and code lists in multiple surveys and datasets.

Annotations and Custom Fields

Sometimes the default metadata fields do not provide the correct semantics required to describe an item. Colectica allows you to add additional information about items in the form of annotations and custom fields.

Design Surveys and Questionnaires

Manage and re-use survey questions

Colectica allows you to create, discover, and re-use survey questions.

Design questionnaires

Colectica provides a visual survey instrument designer. Using a structured designer enables simple re-use of questions and other instrument constructs. The questionnaire designer also makes it easy to track the versions of your survey and questions.

Analyze questionnaires

Colectica can analyze survey questionnaires and produce reports showing the estimated time to complete a survey, which items may be unreachable, and other useful diagnostic information.

Import existing survey instruments

If you use Blaise® or CASES, Colectica Designer can import your source code and allow you to document and re-use your existing questions and surveys.

Generate computer-assisted interviewing source code

Based on the survey you designed, Colectica can automatically generate source code for your Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI) system.

Generate paper questionnaires

Colectica can generate paper questionnaires in PDF, HTML, and Rich Text formats.

Publish Documentation

Create electronic and paper codebooks

Colectica can automatically generate documentation for your study in PDF, HTML, and Rich Text formats.

Publish metadata to the Web

Colectica Portal is a web application, powered by Colectica Repository, which enables data and metadata publication and discovery.

Generate statistical source code

Colectica Designer can automatically generate statistical command files consisting of variable definitions and labels, for R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata.

Import

Import metadata from standard formats

Colectica can import metadata from several formats, including DDI 3, DDI 2/Nesstar, Excel, and delimited text formats.

Import datasets

Colectica can import data from SPSS and Stata datasets.

Export to Open Standards

Export to open standards

All data managed by Colectica is stored internally using open data standards. This means you do not have any worries about vendor lock-in or about losing your information. You can always access your data in a well-defined format.

Work with DDI 3 the easy way

Colectica uses DDI 3 as its native storage format. This means everything you manage or view in Colectica can be exported as DDI 3, an open data format. Colectica also provides several tools that make it easier to work with DDI 3.

Metadata Repository and Version Management

Synchronize with metadata repositories

Colectica Designer allows you to synchronize your work with Colectica Repository. This allows you to collaborate with multiple people while working on the same project.

Search and re-use items from metadata repositories

Colectica allows you to search for items located in a repository. Colectica can search your local repository, or one or more remote repositories.

Manage metadata versions automatically

Colectica's repository-based approach means that all changes to any item are automatically tracked. Colectica provides an easily-accessible, full version history.

Security

User Authentication

The Colectica Repository supports user profiles via its built-in user system, or it can connect to your ActiveDirectory or other authentication system.

Role-based Access Control

Users may be assigned one or more roles. The roles determine whether the user may search, submit, retrieve, and annotate items in the repository.

Item-based Permissions

Any item in Colectica an have read and write permissions assigned for particular users or roles.

Encryption

Colectica Repository communicates over an industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.

Intermittent Abnormal Behavior when Creating Items or Changing Views

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Applicable Products

Colectica Express
Colectica Designer

Problem Description

On an infrequent and unpredictable basis, versions of Colectica Express and Colectica Designer prior to 3.0.1832 may show the following symptoms when creating new items or navigating through elements.

Items disappear from lists (e.g., previously created categories may disappear).
Attempts to navigate to different item types do not work.

Immediate Workaround

If you are currently experiencing this problem, be assured that no data loss has taken place. Simply exit Colectica. Your data, even though not currently visible, will be saved.

International Colectica User Conference (ICUC)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

ICUC 2014Co-located with EDDI

International Colectica User Conference (ICUC)

Hosted by the Institute of Education, University of London

December 4th, 2014, London, England

What is ICUC 2014?

The Institute of Education, University of London and Colectica will host a users meeting featuring a day of DDI and Colectica related discussion focusing on practical approaches to DDI metadata management, innovative research, successful implementations and lessons learned, and Colectica extensions and tools developed by and for the community.

Who should attend?

The program targets data producers, managers, and users who are interested in either DDI, recent DDI implementations, or Colectica tools.

When?

ICUC is co-located with the annual European Data Documentation conference.
This provides four days of exciting content around the DDI metadata standard!

December 2014 - Conference Days

Workshops
DDI Training

<eddi>

ICUC 2014

Program

ICUC 2014 Schedule

Time	Session
8:30-9:00am	Registration
9:00-10:00am	Opening Remarks Welcome Keynote Address
10:00-10:30am	Break
10:30-11:45am	Presentation Session 1: User Case Studies - "How we use DDI and Colectica"
11:45-1:00pm	Lunch
1:00-2:30pm	Presentation Session 2: User Case Studies - "Our Addins and Extensions"
2:30-3:00pm	Break
3:00-4:00pm	DDI and Colectica Product Roadmaps
4:00-5:00pm	User Round Table User needs Product suggestions Feature brainstorming
6:00pm	Social Event

Registration

You can register for ICUC 2014 at EventBrite. You can attend ICUC even if you are not attending the DDI training on the 1st or the EDDI conference on the 2nd and 3rd of December.

International Colectica User Conference(ICUC) 2015

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

ICUC 2015Co-located with EDDI

International Colectica User Conference (ICUC)

Hosted by Statistics Denmark

December 4th, 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark

What is ICUC 2015?

Statistics Denmark and Colectica will host a users meeting featuring a day of DDI and Colectica related discussion focusing on practical approaches to DDI metadata management, innovative research, successful implementations and lessons learned, and Colectica extensions and tools developed by and for the community.

What is ICUC 2015 Theme?

The theme for 2015 is Colectica and DDI in Official Statistics

Who should attend?

The program targets statistical agencies, data producers, managers, and users who are interested in either DDI, recent DDI implementations, or Colectica tools.

When?

ICUC is co-located with the annual European Data Documentation conference.
This provides four days of exciting content around the DDI metadata standard!

December 2015 - Conference Days

Workshops
DDI Training

<eddi>

ICUC 2015

Where?

ICUC 2015 will take place at
Royal School of Library and Information Science
University of Copenhagen
Birketinget 6, DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Fredrik Bajers Vej 7K, DK-9220 Aalborg Øst

International Colectica User Conference(ICUC) 2016

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

ICUC 2015Co-located with EDDI

International Colectica User Conference (ICUC)

Hosted by Statistics Denmark

December 4th, 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark

What is ICUC 2015?

What is ICUC 2015 Theme?

The theme for 2015 is Colectica and DDI in Official Statistics

Who should attend?

The program targets statistical agencies, data producers, managers, and users who are interested in either DDI, recent DDI implementations, or Colectica tools.

When?

ICUC is co-located with the annual European Data Documentation conference.
This provides four days of exciting content around the DDI metadata standard!

December 2015 - Conference Days

Workshops
DDI Training

<eddi>

ICUC 2015

Where?

ICUC 2015 will take place at
Royal School of Library and Information Science
University of Copenhagen
Birketinget 6, DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Fredrik Bajers Vej 7K, DK-9220 Aalborg Øst

Longitudinal Data Portals

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Longitudinal and Repeated Data Portals

Colectica Portal is built to search and display data documentation for longitudinal and repeated data collections. Variables can be harmonized and linked across study waves, and changes in measurements, coding, and descriptions are encoded using open data documentation standards such as DDI. Questionnaires from multiple waves can be documented, including sections, routing and filter questions, and linked to the data which was collected.

Colectica Portal uses Colectica Repository to store and index the graph of information used to describe these complex studies. For more information, please reach out and contact us.

Maintenance Plans

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A Colectica Maintenance Plan helps you to protect your software investment. Customers receive priority product support for a designated number of support contacts, as well as all product upgrades that are released during the period of the maintenance contract.

	Standard Maintenance	Premier Maintenance
Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes
Patches	Yes	Yes
Upgrades	Yes	Yes
Number of support incidents	3	9
Number of customer contacts	1	3
Guaranteed response time	1 business day	2 business hours
Invitation to participate in product planning	No	Yes

Metadata Consulting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica developers have been creating and managing large amounts of metadata for years. We are happy to share our experience.

If you have questions about how to generate standards-based metadata in an efficient manner, get in touch with us today.

Metadata Driven Survey Design

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

In current survey practice, the creation of a data collection instrument involves two distinct steps. The first is survey design, in which a researcher defines the questions and flow of a survey. The second is survey implementation, in which a researcher or programmer turns the design into an electronic or paper survey instrument.

The Colectica platform enables an alternative approach to survey development. Metadata-driven survey design means that the actions taken to define a survey are the same actions that create the survey instrument. Using a metadata-driven approach to survey design provides several benefits, including:

Metadata Preparation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Large metadata preparation projects are labor intensive. Since these projects are often done infrequently, it can be a burden for organizations to hire and train staff who will only be employed for a short period of time. Colectica’s metadata preparation services can solve this problem.

In most cases, Colectica will develop tools to parse your existing data from its source form and publish it to a Colectica Repository from which you have full access to your metadata over the web, through the Colectica Designer, or in standards-based formats. In situations where automatic data migration is not possible, Colectica can manually process your data.

Open Source Metadata Management Software

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica provides several Open Source software packages
for working with open standards based metadata.

Metadata Converters

The Metadata Converters project provides open source utilities that convert among various metadata formats. The first utility converts Blaise(r) source code to DDI 3. Thank you to the National Institutes of Health and the Canada Research Data Centre Network for their support in developing this utility.

Blaise to DDI Converter

The Blaise to DDI Converter creates DDI 3 metadata from Blaise source code.

Open SPSS.sav Data Files in Excel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Colectica for Excel addin for Microsoft Excel allows you to open SPSS (.sav) data files in Microsoft Excel. The addin imports and converts all data, as well as metadata including variable and value labels. This information can be saved as an Excel workbook, and you can use any of Excel's features to work with your SPSS data.

Watch the video above to see the addin in action.

Get Colectica for Microsoft Excel »

Purchase

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Online Store

Colectica for Excel and Colectica Designer are available for instant purchase via our online store.

Request a Quote

For our other Colectica software, training workshops, custom development, or larger purchases, please contact us. You can indicate which products you are interested in purchasing and describe your planned use cases in your message, and we will send you a quote or schedule a web conference to discuss your options.

Repository-Centric Data Management

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Repository-Centric Data Management course is designed to give participants an introduction to metadata repositories and how they can be used to manage an organization’s data. The focus is on how using a repository-based approach to data management can enable data to be shared and reused by researchers in order to maximize the research value of data.

Throughout the course, instructors will discuss and demonstrate how the Colectica platform implements the concepts being described. This course offers an opportunity for those evaluating the Colectica platform to determine how it may integrate with their existing systems and workflows.

Standards

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colectica is built on open standards

Colectica’s DDI tools are built on the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), which is formally certified as the international standard ISO/PAS 25955.

The core foundation of all Colectica tools is DDI Lifecycle, the broadest and most comprehensive standard in the entire DDI family. DDI Lifecycle is specifically designed to document and manage metadata across the complete research data lifecycle, from initial planning and conceptualization through data collection, processing, storage, discovery, dissemination, and long-term archiving. It provides unmatched depth and flexibility for complex, longitudinal, linked, and multi-study projects.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) microdata documented in DDI 3 metadata

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Public-Use Microdata File contains an extract of data fields from the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Supplemental Security Record file. This dataset is used to demonstrate how to document variables and datasets in DDI 3.

The SSI dataset consists of a 5 percent random, representative sample of persons who received a federal SSI benefit in December 2001. This file contains approximately 320,000 records, with 13 data fields on each record. The SSI Public-Use Microdata file is distributed by data.gov and the Social Security Administration.

Support

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Documentation and Support for Colectica

User Guides

Visit the Colectica Documentation Site

Manage subscriptions

Customer Online Portal

Support

Survey Development

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Creating survey instruments for Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI) systems often requires knowledge of specialized computer languages. For organizations that do not specialize in this type of development, the burden of learning the intricacies of a CAI system may not prove cost-effective.

The Colectica team will create a CAI instrument to your specifications. We have experience working with many CAI systems, including Blaise®, CASES™, CS Pro, and others.

In addition to receiving the executable source code, you will receive full documentation in the form of diagrams, codebooks, and DDI3 metadata.

Thank You

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thank You

Thank you for your submission. You should shortly receive an email confirmation from our Zendesk help desk, and a team member will be in contact soon.