esds resources anthony rafferty esds government centre for census and survey research university of...

ESDS Resources

Anthony RaffertyESDS Government

Centre for Census and Survey ResearchUniversity of Manchester

ESDS Government

• Supports major UK data series– Large surveys conducted, usually by government– Eg:

• Labour Force Survey• General Household Survey• British Crime Survey • Health Survey for England

– Repeated cross-sections, often continuous– Important, widely used microdata

• Joint service– Team at UK Data Archive ingest and archive data– Team at Manchester deal with users– Registration for the data managed by ESDS

centrally

Role

• Too much stuff? – Navigating users through the right materials– Creating additional materials to help users

discover datasets and supporting materials

• Promoting the use of the data• Encouraging good practice• Bridging the gap between data collector

and users

Annual themes• Workshops and other materials are

related to an annual substantive theme– Year 1: Employment and the

Labour Market– Year 2: Health– Year 3: Social capital– Year 4: Ethnicity

• Ensures that work has an emphasis on substantive research

• Each year a thematic guide is produced which looks at how to explore the research theme with the data

Web-based resources to support users

• Thematic Guides• FAQs & Starting Analysis• Methodological Guides

– SPSS, Stata– Guide to weighting

• Publications database• Data usage search• Links to other web resourceshttp://www.esds.ac.uk/government/resources

Outreach events

Introductory workshops Joint workshops with other ESDS servicesMethodsResearch conferencesDataset user meetingsOther presentationsPosters

Improving the usability of data• Creating annual themed teaching

datasets• Change over time – comparison of

variables, LFS, GHS– Generating syntax to enable

comparability

• Harmonising Vital Statistics access and formatting

Keeping in touch

• Biannual newsletter• Email newslist• Home page contains news

– Our news– New data

• Helpdesk

Data developments

• Website contains news about major developments

• GHS(L) response to the design– Impact for secondary analysts with respect to

continuity and merging datasets to increase sample size

• IHS: next meeting 29th March 07

The important last slide…

Helpdesk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk

(0161) 275 4722

Website:http://www.esds.ac.uk/government

JISCmail: esds-govsurveys@jiscmail.ac.uk