DDI Controlled Vocabulary for Data Source Type

Code List
Value of the Code	Descriptive Term of the Code	Definition of the Code
RegistersRecordsAccounts	Registers/Records/Accounts	Official, formal, or semi-formal documents listing for example items, names, occurences, actions, or results, and preserved in writing or some other permanent form for later reference.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.Administrative	Registers/Records/Accounts: Administrative	Information collected on individuals or groups as part of the routine administrative procedures of an agency, business, or institution. Such data are not usually collected with research purposes in mind, may be voluminous, and may require preparation such as coding in order to be usable by researchers. Examples: income tax forms, population registers, naturalization records, birth/death certificates, patent applications, etc.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.Historical	Registers/Records/Accounts: Historical	Historical records preserve information and constitute evidence about past events. They may be produced by individuals, groups, or organizations. Administrative records become historical when they are no longer retained, or actively used by the issuing agency for their original purpose. Examples include parish registers, estate records, wills, chronicles, etc.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.Legal	Registers/Records/Accounts: Legal	Records pertaining to law and its administration, for example records related to cases that have been brought to court or to a tribunal.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.MedicalClinical	Registers/Records/Accounts: Medical/Clinical	Health-related data created or collected by health care professionals about a patient. Usually include the results of medical tests or measurements, findings from consultations or clinical trial programs, etc.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.AcademicAptitude	Registers/Records/Accounts: Academic/Aptitude	Information gathered during an evaluation process and presented as results. Examples include educational tests, IQ tests, verbal or logical reasoning tests, competence tests for professional occupations, etc.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.EconomicFinancial	Registers/Records/Accounts: Economic/Financial	Records of the financial activities of a business, person, state institution or other organizations or entities. Examples are statements of retained earnings, cash flow, income statements, a company's balance sheet and tax return.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.Personal	Registers/Records/Accounts: Personal	Records or accounts created unofficially by individuals or families for other purposes than research. Examples may include private diaries or memoirs, family record books or Bibles, collections of personal documents, photographs, etc.
RegistersRecordsAccounts.VotingResults	Registers/Records/Accounts: Voting results	Details of votes cast for candidates in an election (also known as "election returns/results"), parliamentary or organizational votes on policies, motions or proposals, public referendums, etc.
EventsInteractions	Events/Interactions	Events are usually one-time, individual occurrences, with a limited or short duration. An event may be listed as data source when it is directly observed or recorded for research. Interactions are events in which two or more people, groups, objects or systems act upon one another having reciprocal influence, or effect. Examples: types of gatherings (ceremonies, competitions, festivals, meetings), riots, terrorist attacks, computing events (i.e., actions or occurrences detected by computer programs), etc.
Processes	Processes	Processes are sequences of occurrences, events, activities, actions or operations that take place over time and bring about changes or transformations in organisms, objects, ideas or social phenomena. For example, a business process may include receiving orders, invoicing, shipping the products, or setting a marketing budget.
Processes.Workflows	Processes: Workflow(s)	Sequence of steps and processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion (adapted from the Oxford dictionary online: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/workflow). Examples from data life cycle: data collection, data processing, data analysis, data archiving, etc.
Communications	Communications	Messages resulting from the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to convey or exchange information, ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. (adapted from www.merriam-webster.com).
Communications.Public	Communications: Public	Communications addressed directly to a public audience, for example, in person (public gatherings, political rallies, etc.), by means of broadcast, print or Internet mass media (radio, television, print or online newspapers/journals), by means of billboards, banners or other signage placed in public view, or social media (public postings on Facebook, Twitter, and others).
Communications.Interpersonal	Communications: Interpersonal	Communications made by an individual to another individual or a private group of persons, for purposes other than research. For example emails, letters, telephone conversations, social media postings with limited access.
ResearchData	Research data	Pre-existing data; data that have already been collected and/or used for a different research project.
ResearchData.Published	Research data: Published	Pre-existing data that have been made available to the general public, or sections thereof.
ResearchData.Unpublished	Research data: Unpublished	Pre-existing data that have not been made available to the general public, or sections thereof.
PopulationGroup	Population group	Group of individuals that can be defined by one or several common characteristics: ethnicity, race, gender, age range, geographic location or distribution, level of education, income level or economic status, professional status, state of health or medical conditions, or belonging to specific communities (e.g., special interest groups, or social media), or networks, etc.
GeographicArea	Geographic area	An area of the Earth, demarcated for the purposes of administration, politics, environment, etc. The demarcation is identifiable via coordinates or other systems used to identify position precisely..
PhysicalObjects	Physical objects	Natural or man-made entities with spatial locations. For instance, works of art, constructions, rock samples, machines, etc. These are considered data sources if the data describe the physical characteristics of the given object rather than any information encoded in it.
BiologicalSamples	Biological samples	Biological materials collected from living organisms, including, for example, biological specimens of human or animal organs, cells or tissues such as hair, muscle or tumor tissue, bodily fluids such as blood, urine, saliva, extracted material such as DNA and RNA, microorganisms, plant matter, etc. The source of the data are the samples themselves, not measurements and/or other tests applied to them.
Other	Other	Use when the data source is known, but not found in the list.

DDI Controlled Vocabulary for Data Source Type

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