Accessing and Using ESDS Government surveys

1. Accessing and Using ESDS Government surveys Vanessa Higgins ESDS Government Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR) University of Manchester

2. My mission… • Intro to Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) and how we can help you • What data is available and what it is like • Registration and access • Issues when using the data

3. ESDS Government • ESDS began in Jan 03 and comprises 4 specialist services • ESDS Government • ESDS Longitudinal • ESDS Qualidata • ESDS International • ESDS Government services are split between too organisations: UKDA and CCSR at University of Manchester (headed by Prof Angela Dale) • ESDS Government provides: • access to the key large-scale government surveys such as Labour Force Survey, Expenditure and Food Survey (UKDA) • user support for the key large-scale government surveys (CCSR)

4. User support- some of the things we do! • Helpdesk (FAQs and notes) • Survey pages incl. how to get started, news etc • User Group seminars • Workshops and events • Publications Database • Usage details • Teaching datasets • Derived variables • Online guides – SPSS, STATA, Weighting, Employment Research, Health Research, Social Capital, Data Sources for Scotland • Newsletter and Jisclist • Theme each year • Employment (2003) • Health (2004) • Social capital (2005) • Ethnicity (2006)

5. Which surveys do we support? • General Household Survey • Labour Force Survey • Annual Population Survey • Family Resources Survey • Expenditure and Food Survey (previously the National Food Survey and Family Expenditure Survey) • ONS Omnibus Survey • National Travel Survey • Time Use Survey • Survey of English Housing (England only) • Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland • British Crime Survey/Scottish Crime Survey • British Social Attitudes/Scottish Social Attitudes/Northern Ireland Life & Times/Young People’s Social Attitudes

6. Integrated Household Survey (Continuous Population Survey) • Will bring together • Labour Force Survey • Annual Population Survey • General Household Survey • Expenditure and Food Survey • Omnibus Survey • Expected to start c. 2008 • Materials on our website • IHS Consultation Meeting 23rd January 2006

7. ESDS Government Surveys • Microdata • Sample data (large samples) • Nationally representative within the UK (some files cover only part of UK) • Most focus in-depth on a topic (exception GHS) • Mainly cross-sectional (exceptions GHSL, LFS, IHS) • Mainly face to face (some telephone) • Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) • Some are household surveys, some one person • Many are continuous • Good quality data (ONS, NatCen) • Good response rates • Many have hierarchical data • Important for policy makers • Excellent sources for secondary analysts • Free!

8. Hierarchical data • Other levels – benefit unit, event

9. Choosing a dataset for research • Is secondary analysis appropriate? • And has someone already done the analysis for you? • Check published reports. • Which datasets cover your main topic? • Which other topics are you interested in? • Measurement over time • Geography • Respondents – whole household, children? • Sample size • This information will be in the documentation • To help with the decision • ESDS Getting Started guides • ESDS topic guides

10. Registration • All users can access study descriptions, online documentation, including questionnaires, free of charge without registering with ESDS • In order to access the datasets you need to register with ESDS • Register online using your ATHENS username and password • Simple online form, takes about 10 minutes • You need to register a usage of the data as part of this process • Non-commercial users: free of charge • Commercial users: £500 Charge for per study and will need to apply for ATHENs username and password • You need to agree to the End User Licence when you register

11. The End User Licence • We need to know who you are, how to contact you and what you are using the data for • Agree not to attempt to identify individuals • Only use the data for your stated purpose (you can re-register if you want to use the data for another use) • Do not pass the data to unregistered parties (that includes deleting the data before passing on PCs!) • Tell us if you publish using the data • Some more sensitive or detailed datasets require more stringent licensing procedures • Special conditions: British Crime Survey • Special licences: Annual Population Survey and Labour Force Survey at the moment

12. Special Licences • Agreement between ONS and ESDS • Data where the disclosure risk is deemed too high for standard dissemination methods. E.g.: • Local authority level microdata • Month of birth • Paper application procedure • Need to agree to stringent data stewardship conditions • Required to read the guide to good practice • Application has to be approved by ONS • Annual Population Survey and Labour Force Survey at the moment but hope to roll out to other surveys

13. Registering the data for teaching • If all students are registered ESDS users, you should register a new use of data, tick ‘teaching only’ and add the name of each student to the usage details • If students are not registered ESDS users a paper form can be used for teaching • Lecturer takes responsibility for the class • Students simply fill their details in on a paper form • Return form to the UK Data Archive

14. Obtaining data once registered • Choice of downloading entire files: • SPSS, Stata, tab delimited formats for most files • Comes zipped up with documentation • Or explore the data and download subsets in Nesstar (c. 200 files in this format – including most of the Government surveys) • Allows you to explore metadata without being registered • Can do basic exploratory analyses (including OLS) online without downloading files • Can define subsets to download in a wider range of formats including SAS

15. NESSTAR

25. Good practice: some pointers • Irresponsible use threatens future access; keep data secure • You won’t understand the data unless you consult the documentation! • Using the correct files • Preparing the variable for analysis • Consider the impact of the sample design • Sample data has sample error; small cell counts are likely to be unreliable • Will the sampling design affect the standard errors? • Does weighting need to be applied to avoid bias? • Do you need to combining datasets for larger sample? • Getting started guides, stats guides and topic guides are available on the ESDS site • Contact helpdesk if you have any problems or find errors in the data • User groups and news lists can help keep you informed • Published results from surveys and published articles that have used the surveys • Survey Link Scheme – can attend an interview http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sls.htm

26. Some other useful resources • Question Bank • Linked to from ESDS • Contains searchable questionnaires for major surveys • Contains articles about major topics/concepts • Runs the survey link scheme • http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk • PEAS (Practical Exemplars on the Analysis of Surveys) • Contains learning materials on the impact of survey design on analysis (e.g. weighting and complex sample designs) • Uses the government surveys as exemplars • http://www.napier.ac.uk/depts/fhls/peas • ONS website contains published reports, methodology etc. • http://www.statistics.gov.uk

27. The important last slide… Helpdesk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk (0161)275 1980 Website: http://www.esds.ac.uk/government JISCmail: esds-govsurveys@jiscmail.ac.uk