November 21, 2022 | News | Relaunch

The Human Fertility Database Renewed its Website

A newly designed website for the Human Fertility Database (HFD) has been launched in early November. Along with the launch, the HFD now provides its data under a CC-BY 4.0 license.

“We are proud and extremely happy about the launch of the new HFD website. After several months of developing, revising, and testing, the website became officially live on November 2,” says Aiva Jasilioniene, coordinator of the HFD project

Along with the improved website design, the HFD switched to a CC-BY 4.0 license, which grants its users more freedom and flexibility as far as the copying, modifying and distributing of HFD data are concerned. Due to the changes in the user agreement, not only the new but also the current HFD users are requested to (re-)register in order to access the new HFD website.

“We hope that the HFD users will enjoy the improved website and will appreciate the greater amount of flexibility and freedom offered by the new user agreement,” says Aiva Jasilioniene.

The HFD will continue to adhere to the standards of a scientific database and thus to the commitment to provide its users high-quality, high-detail, well documented, internationally comparable, and freely accessible data on period and cohort fertility in developed countries.

The Short-Term Fertility Fluctuations (STFF) data series, which is the most recent addition to the HFD and provides up-to-date indicators on monthly fertility trends in selected countries, is being developed following the same principles. STFF data can also be explored using the online STFF visualization toolkit. Although the STFF was created in response to the great interest in examining the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, its long-term aim is to become a data resource facilitating research on fertility responses to various events, producing marked shifts in the fertility trends.