Finding, Evaluating, and Using Numeric Data

1. This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation • In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button • Select “Meeting Minder” • Select the “Action Items” tab • Type in action items as they come up • Click OK to dismiss this box • This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered. Finding, Evaluating, and Using Numeric Data [IMS 201, Statistical Literacy] [Electronic Data Center]

2. What are social science statistical data files? • Numeric data produced through polls, surveys, censuses, administrative records, commerce, health administration, etc. • Vital resources for research and education in a variety of disciplines concerned with advancing the study of individuals and society. • For decades, these data have been encoded, stored, and used primarily in digital form.

3. Data is everywhere … • Watch this video clip at – http://elearn.lib.muohio.edu/~jyu/datalit/ims201cd.mov • Write down three keywords that you hear from the video

4. Quick facts • A single number or a handful of numbers • Use: • Transcribe or print • May want to put into spreadsheet • May want to generate a simple map • Process: find source, locate data items, interpret adequacy, work through selection process. Little emphasis on use. • Example: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu

5. Summary data • A profile, a snapshot • Use: • Summary statistics, map or graph • Integrate multiple sources • Composites • Comparisons • Process: find sources, locate data items, interpret adequacy, work through selection process, integrate potentially disparate sources. • Example: American FactFinder by U.S. Census Bureau http://factfinder.census.gov/

6. Finding Getting Using • Sometimes those three components are very integrated; sometimes those three components are very separate

7. Finding data • Overview of study-level and question-level searching • May combine both types of searches while looking for resources. • Tour of best catalogs and Web sites for finding data • There is no single place to search for data

8. Question-level searching • Compare public opinion of George H.W. Bush’s during the Gulf War and George W. Bush’s during the war on terrorism. • What do people think is the most important issue facing the country? • Will you vote for Bush or Kerry?

9. Study-level searching • I want the most recent data that describes characteristics of prison inmates in the U.S. • What do people in EU countries think about the European Union? • I need the March Current Population Survey, as many as possible.

10. What’s needed to evaluate and use data • Data • Software to manipulate the data • Metadata / codebook • Sometimes those three components are very integrated; sometimes those three components are very separate

11. Evaluating and using data • Metadata and codebooks • Data quality issues • Review of options for using data

12. Codebook • Information on structure, contents, and layout of data file. • Column locations and widths for each variable • Definitions of different records types • Response codes for each variable • Codes use to indicate non-response and missing data • Exact questions and skip patterns used in a survey • Other indications of the content of each variable • Many also include frequencies of response (Adapted from Glossary of Social Science Computer and Social Science Data Terms, http://odwin.ucsd.edu/glossary)

13. Overview of using data • User’s level of expertise • Institutional support for statistical analysis • Keep track of where data came from! example

14. Statistical Information Resources at Miami • LexisNexis Statistical • Polls & Surveys Question Database • Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center

15. Easy-to-use data on the Web • Perhaps found through Google or list of Internet sites • Example: Census American FactFinder, White house Social Statistics Briefing Room • Many different types of data on the Web • Some include tools for manipulating data • Others simply allow downloading for local manipulation

16. Online Exercises http://elearn.lib.muohio.edu/~jyu/datalit/exercises.htm Please fill out the feedback form, which is linked at the bottom of the exercise page