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ESDS Government: added value for large-scale government datasets

ESDS Government: added value for large-scale government datasets. Vanessa Higgins, Economic and Social Data Service CCSR, University of Manchester MOF July 2003. Summary of talk. Introduction to the large-scale government surveys ESDS government plans for next 4.5 years

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ESDS Government: added value for large-scale government datasets

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  1. ESDS Government: added value for large-scale government datasets Vanessa Higgins,Economic and Social Data ServiceCCSR, University of Manchester MOF July 2003

  2. Summary of talk • Introduction to the large-scale government surveys • ESDS government plans for next 4.5 years • highlighting the research potential of datasets • providing help for new users • and promoting the research use of datasets • Karen Dennison (UKDA) demo of NESSTAR.

  3. The Aim of ESDS Government To promote and facilitate increased and more effective use of large-scale government survey datasets in research, and learning and teaching across a range of disciplines.

  4. The large-scale government surveys • General Household Survey • Labour Force Survey • Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland • Family Expenditure Survey • British Crime Survey • Family Resources Survey • National Food Survey/Expenditure and Food Survey • ONS Omnibus Survey • Survey of English Housing • British Social Attitudes • National Travel Survey • Time Use Survey

  5. Benefits of the large-scale government datasets • Good quality data • Produced by experienced research organisations • Usually nationally representative with large samples • Good response rates • Well documented • Continuous data • Allows comparison over time • Data is largely cross-sectional • Hierarchical data • Intra-household differences • Household effects on individuals

  6. Percentage of women aged 18-49 cohabiting General Household Survey

  7. Source: Richard Dickens, Paul Gregg and Jonathan Wadsworth (2000) ‘New Labour and the Labour Market, CMPO Working Paper Series 00/19 Table 5

  8. ESDS Government • Led by CCSR and working closely with the UKDA • UKDA will continue to be responsible for acquisition of data and dissemination • dissemination mainly on-line/ much via NESSTAR • CCSR will cover added value: • Promotion, user guides, training materials, workshops, teaching datasets etc

  9. ONS and user interaction • Developments at ONS • increase in metadata • improved web-site • research on quality, e.g LFS • Benefit and influence • Interaction with research community • Annual ‘themed’ research conference

  10. So, what are our initial plans? • Theme based approach • Year 1: Employment and labour market • Year 2: Health • Year 3: Social exclusion • Inform user guides, teaching datasets etc • Other activities will continue across all areas

  11. Highlighting research potential • Generating new users, • especially PhD students, younger researchers • Awareness raising, e.g. PhD supervisors • Conference presentations, talks to graduate schools, articles in newsletters and journals • Twice yearly newsletters

  12. Workshops and short courses • A number of half-day/1-day courses including: • theme-based • methods related • E.g. hierarchical data • SPSS/ STATA • data analysis methods • new methods/opportunities

  13. Workshops for new users • Survey suggested need for workshops on how to get started, e.g: • which dataset do I need? • How do I register? • How do I get the data? • How do I set about analysis? • Oxford 12th June; Manchester 21st July; planning others • Convert to on-line resource

  14. Web-based user guides • Themed introductory guides • Year 1, employment and labour market • Guides on methodological topics • hierarchical data • linking records in QLF • weighting • harmonization • Link to ONS publications and other sources • Web-based FAQs

  15. Searchable indexes • Creating searchable indexes of variables • common across datasets & consistent over time • harmonisation • geographically referenced variables • Linked to Common GIS: interactive web-based exploration and visualization tool for data with sub-regional geography.

  16. Key derived variables • Key derived variables for annual theme • database of contextual variables for each year • (e.g. 1975-1995) regional/national rates of unemployment, RPI, interest rate • dvs to provide comparability with 2001 census

  17. Opportunities and threats • Registration and Access • faster, easier access important • use of web to register and download datasets • Exploring data • use of NESSTAR to allow web-based browsing • need better web-based documentation • Confidentiality concerns • ONS: absolute safety of their data • cut against easier access but ONS supportive

  18. National user support and discussion lists • ESDS Government helpdesk • govsurveys@esds.ac.uk • (0161) 275 1980 • ESDS Government JISCmail • send the following message to listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk ‘subscribe esds-govsurveys <name>’ • Join the mailing list • http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/join/

  19. Coming up………. • Friday July 11th Health Surveys meeting, RSS • Monday 21st July Introductory workshop, Manchester • Tuesday October 21st, LFS User Group, RSS • www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/

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