These materials are intended to describe the workflows IPUMS follows in relation to our archival activities and describe our conformance with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) as well as the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) and Generic Longitudinal Business Process Model (GLBPM). These workflows do not describe the full range of IPUMS activities, because IPUMS is not strictly an archive. Rather than primarily ingesting, preserving, and providing access to depositors' data, the primary contents of the IPUMS archive are data packages produced by IPUMS projects. Furthermore, users primarily access IPUMS data through our live data access systems rather than through the IPUMS archive.
IPUMS Workflows
The IPUMS Workflows document provides an overview of IPUMS data processes. It covers data acquisition, processing by IPUMS projects, dissemination through our live data access systems, versioning, and archiving. In general, data are sought from national statistical agencies and other archives and data producers to fulfill data collection objectives defined in IPUMS projects' grants and contracts. In some cases, in accordance with agreements with data producers, the source data are archived for preservation purposes. IPUMS projects harmonize and standardize data and prepare comprehensive metadata to support comparative research. Data and metadata produced by IPUMS projects are disseminated to users through our live data access systems. Snapshots of these data and metadata are preserved in the IPUMS archive. Users may access data and metadata from past versions of IPUMS data access systems via the archive.
The IPUMS Workflows document illustrates how our workflow relates and conforms to the OAIS standard with reference to fulfilling Mandatory Responsibilities defined by OAIS and describing our workflow in terms of submission, archival, and dissemination information packages. The Workflows document also introduces the IPUMS Business Process Model, which is based on the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) and the Generic Longitudinal Business Process Model (GLBPM). The IPUMS Business Process Model is further detailed in the documents below.
IPUMS Business Process Model
Following the GSBPM, the IPUMS BPM consists of nine general process areas, each of which are broken down into 4-9 sub-steps.
IPUMS BPM Outline - Describes each of the first-level sub-steps in the IPUMS context.
IPUMS BPM Listing - Provides additional levels of detailed sub-steps in the areas of Evaluate/Specify Needs, Collect, Process/Analyse, Archive/Preserve/Curate, and Research/Publish.