Finding survey data for your research: An introductory webinar

Monday 10 December 2012, 11am - 11.50am GMT

NB. This is a repeat of the webinar given on 27 November

This fifty minute webinar will show how to find, explore and access survey data relevant to your research that are available through the Economic and Social Data Service website: www.esds.ac.uk.

The website provides access and support for an extensive range of key economic and social data, including data from large scale social surveys like the British Social Attitudes Survey or the longitudinal survey Understanding Society.

Starting within an overview of the types of survey data available, the webinar will cover searching the data catalogue, navigating data documentation, exploring data online and accessing data files, including special licence and secure data.

This webinar is ideal for new postgraduate research students looking for survey data to answer their research question but is useful for anyone new to social research who wants to know more about survey data.

You can register, and find Information and tips about attending webinars and using GoToWebinar, at http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-12-10-2/

Crime surveys user meeting

Thursday 13 December 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for data users and producers to meet and discuss new developments and exchange information about the UK crime surveys.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch will be provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-12-13/

Labour Force Survey/Annual Population Survey user meeting

Monday 10 December 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for data users and producers to meet and discuss new developments and exchange information about the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS).

The meeting is free to attend and lunch will be provided. To view the draft programme and book a place please go to www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-12-10/

Introduction to UK Survey Data for studying Attitudes

Thursday 6 December 2012
Basement Lab, Humanities Bridgeford Street building, University of Manchester

This one-day workshop introduces the UK survey data that are available for re-analysis and teaching via the Economic and Social Data Service website. The focus of the workshop will be on data related to attitudes but many of the issues covered are applicable to other areas. The day is appropriate for those with little or no experience of the data.

Participants will learn about the data available, considerations when using the data, the research potential of the data, how to register for and access data and where to go for help. There will also be hands-on computing sessions in SPSS to explore and start analysis using the British Social Attitudes Survey and the British Household Panel Survey.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch will be provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-12-06/

Finding survey data for your research: An introductory webinar

Tuesday 27 November 2012, 11am - 11.50am GMT

This fifty minute webinar will show how to find, explore and access survey data relevant to your research that are available through the Economic and Social Data Service website: www.esds.ac.uk.

The website provides access and support for an extensive range of key economic and social data, including data from large scale social surveys like the British Social Attitudes Survey or the longitudinal survey Understanding Society.

Starting within an overview of the types of survey data available, the webinar will cover searching the data catalogue, navigating data documentation, exploring data online and accessing data files, including special licence and secure data.

This webinar is ideal for new postgraduate research students looking for survey data to answer their research question but is useful for anyone new to social research who wants to know more about survey data.

You can register, and find Information and tips about attending webinars and using GoToWebinar, at www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-11-27/

This webinar is now fully booked but they may repeat it if there is enough interest. If you would like to attend the repeated webinar please register your interest at www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/webinar/.

A new way to search for data: Discovery is released in beta

Visitors to the ESDS website will now find a new way to search and browse for data collections and other materials.

Discovery, a new faceted search and browse interface, has been released in beta form so it can be improved and refined with user interaction and feedback. It will run alongside the existing Data Catalogue search while it is still in beta; links to Discovery can be found from the Data Catalogue.

The aim of Discovery is to make data discovery easier and more streamlined for all users of the new UK Data Service. Discovery expands not only the ways in which users can search, but also the types of things that they can search for.

It offers visitors the chance to search and browse for a variety of data-related materials:

·         data collections disseminated via the UK Data Service
·         the contents of ESRC Data Store
·         case studies showing how the data have been used
·         support guides showing how to use the data
·         publications and outputs associated with the data

Discovery allows users to browse using filters and offers some new and interesting functions, such as suggestions of other data collections that may be of interest and the ability to move from related data to case studies and support guides. Of course, it is still possible to search in more traditional ways as well.

 

Discovery is still in development and UKDS are very keen to improve it. All comments on any aspect of its functionality or content will be warmly welcomed. Please do tell them what you think, either by email to comms@data-archive.ac.uk or using the feedback form on the Discovery page.

UK Data Service Discovery - beta:  http://beta-discovery.data-service.ac.uk/

Millenium Cohort Study Workshop

Bookings are now open for a workshop to introduce the Millennium Cohort Study. The workshop will be held at the Institute of Education, University of London on 28 November 2012 and will focus on the data from the survey carried out when the study children were aged seven years.

The taught component includes presentations on the MCS survey; the MCS sample and issues of weights, response, non-response and attrition; and how to access data.

The hands-on component will cover a range of topics, including: linking data from all four sweeps; recoding variables; deriving new variables; examining frequencies and percentages; correlation and regression; how issues of weighting affect results; how to measure attrition and the implications this may have for research.

 

THIS IS NOT A FREE EVENT for more details and booking:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/longitudinal/news/eventdetail.asp?id=3356

Call for papers - Crime surveys user meeting

Thursday 13 December 2012

Royal Statistical Society, London

The next crime surveys user meeting is being organised by ESDS Government for Thursday 13 December 2012. ESDS Government are inviting offers of presentations based on analysis of the UK crime surveys, e.g. the Crime Survey for England and Wales (formerly the British Crime Survey), Offending, Crime and Justice Survey or the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey. Presenters will have 20 minutes for their talk followed by 10 minutes for questions.

Details of previous user meetings are available at www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/types/user/.

Please send offers of a paper, including a 200-word abstract, to gillian.meadows@manchester.ac.ukas soon as possible but by 21 September 2012 at the latest.

 

Call for papers - Labour Force Survey/Annual Population Survey user meeting

Dealine for papers extended to the 30th September

Monday 10 December 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

The next LFS/APS user meeting is being organised by ESDS Government for Monday 10 December 2012. The programme will contain a mixture of papers from data producers and researchers. ESDS Government would like to invite offers of presentations based on analysis of the LFS or APS. Presenters will have 20 minutes for their talk followed by 10 minutes for questions.

Details of previous user meetings are available at www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/types/user/.

Please send offers of a paper, including a 200-word abstract, to gillian.meadows@manchester.ac.uk as soon as possible but by 30th September 2012 at the latest.

Help define the UK Data Service identity: User Survey

The ESRC are establishing a new UK Data Service which integrates several existing services including the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), the Census Programme and the Secure Data Service.

 

Work is now underway to establish an identity for the new service. To make it a cohesive and meaningful brand, we’d like to hear from data users – those who currently use digital research data, and those who might use it in the future.

 

Below is a link to a short survey designed just for data users. It’s a quick and fun questionnaire – not a research study, but a way to get some initial indications of what you think should characterise the UK Data Service’s ‘brand’. It should take less than 10 minutes of your time, and all responses are anonymous.

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/UKdataservice_users

 

Please complete the questionnaire by Sunday evening, 16^thSeptember.

 

Webinar - Employment and the Labour Market Data: A Brief Tour

Monday 24 September 2012
Online, 15:00-16:00

Short on time but want to know more about data available to research employment and the labour market?

This free hour-long webinar on individual-level data from government surveys and censuses will introduce you to the main datasets and their use. The session will be presented by Jen Buckley and Jo Wathan of ESDS Government, it will cover basic issues for new users and provide an opportunity to ask questions from your own desk.

The webinar is free to attend but registration is required. Please book a place at www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-09-24/booking.html. Queries are welcome at govsurvey@esds.ac.uk

Teaching Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data: a workshop for qualitative methods teachers.

On 18 September the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) is hosting a half-day workshop at the UK Data Archive aimed at best practices in teaching qualitative analysis of secondary data.

ESDS Qualidata has pioneered archiving, sharing and methods of reuse of qualitative research data, and is incorporating some of the great materials for secondary analysis advanced by the Timescapes team.

The workshop is aimed at those with and without experience in teaching in this area and provides an opportunity for participants to share current strategies and ideas on how to promote skills in reusing data. This event is free of charge, but numbers are limited and booking is essential.

http://www.esds.ac.uk/qualidata/news/eventdetail.asp?id=3306

Consultation on the Health Survey for England

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has launched a public consultation to seek feedback from users of the Health Survey for England (HSE) on the proposed changes to the smoking module.

The HSE is a series of annual surveys about the health of people living in England. It is a major study in the ESDS (recently refunded as UKDS) catalogue, sponsored by the Department of Health to provide better and more reliable information about various aspects of people's health and to monitor selected health targets.

The modules and questions within the HSE are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they are of most benefit to users. As part of this process, the smoking module was reviewed in 2012, with a view to making changes for the HSE 2013.

The consultation will run for 6 weeks and close on Wednesday 3 October 2012.

Following the consultation period, all comments received by the HSCIC will be considered and decisions will be made on the content of the Smoking Module for HSE 2013 onwards.

·         Full details of the consultation

Economic Impact Evaluation of ESDS

ESDS generates value for money

An economic evaluation of the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) reveals that for every pound currently invested in data and infrastructure, the service returns £5.40 in net economic value to users and other stakeholders. This compares favourably with the return on investment previously demonstrated for the British Library and for UK academic libraries in general.

The report, commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and prepared by external consultants, aimed to not only evaluate the economic benefits and impact of ESDS, but also to further develop impact evaluation methods that can provide the research council with robust and consistent estimates for all its investments in data service infrastructure.

The newly announced UK Data Service will draw on these strengths, as ESDS will be a key partner in the integrated service, providing users with a unified point of access to an increasingly extensive collection of research data including census data.

Full news story:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/news/newsdetail.asp?id=3291

ESRC link to full report:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/impacts-and-findings/impact-assessment/economic-impact-evaluation.aspx

Announcing the UK Data Service

Continuing access to the most valuable collection of social and economic data in the UK has been secured with a £17 million investment over five years for the UK Data Service.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the new service is structured to support researchers in academia, business, third sector and all levels of government.

The new service, starting on 1 October 2012, will integrate the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), the Census Programme, the Secure Data Service and other elements of the data service infrastructure currently provided by the ESRC, including the UK Data Archive.

The UK Data Service will provide a unified point of access to the extensive range of high quality economic and social data, including valuable census data. It is designed to provide seamless access and support to meet the current and future research demands of both academic and non-academic users, and to help them maximise the impact of their work.

Full news story:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/news/newsdetail.asp?id=3290

ESRC press release:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/press-releases/22231/new-national-digital-repository-for-social-and-economic-data.aspx

ESDS R Guide to Large-Scale Government Surveys

ESDS Government has produced a new guide, The R Guide to ESDS Large-Scale Government Surveys. The aim of this guide is to provide an introduction to analysing large scale government surveys with the help of the R statistical software package. This document is targeted at two categories of users:

1. Those outside higher education, or who do not have access to one of the commonly used statistical packages such as Stata, SPSS or SAS (as R is free of charge) but who would like to conduct their own analysis beyond what is usually published by data producers such as the Office for National Statistics (for example statistics for specific groups of the population).

2. More advanced users who are already familiar with one of the aforementioned packages but would like to learn how to carry out their analyses in R. The guide, therefore, focuses on providing step-by-step examples of common operations most users carry out in the course of their research: how to open data sets, do basic data manipulation operations, produce simple descriptive statistics or weighted contingency tables. This is meant to provide the first category of users with a range of procedures that will help them produce straightforward and robust analyses tailored to their needs without spending too much time on learning the inner workings of R. The second category of users will find a number of familiar operations from which they will be able to further expand their R skills.

It should be noted however that this guide is not an introduction to R. Beginners should use it in conjunction with one of the more comprehensive guides available online. Links and information about R resources are available at the end of the guide, which is available from http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/resources/analysis/

Secure Data Service: One year celebration

27 June 2012

Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Central London

A day of celebration for the Secure Data Service community of stakeholders, members, data owners and staff. Hear about new research already emerging from secure use of SDS microdata. Learn how the service is growing and improving. Meet and mingle with other researchers and data.

Schedule of events

• 14.30 – 17.00 Research presentations
• 17.00 – 19.00 Toast and reception

Come for the entire celebration, or just the evening toast and reception. Simply book your place at the link below.

Toast and reception
A toast to the first year! Brief comments at 17.30 highlighting the Service’s successes and planned future developments, followed by a reception where you can meet and mingle with staff, researchers and data owners.

Research presentations
Choose from a series of presentations focusing on research resulting from Secure Data Service data and projects, organised in three concurrent themes. For more details see the programme http://securedata.data-archive.ac.uk/media/28771/sds_anniversary_programme.pdf

Booking information
Building security requires all attendees to register in advance. Kindly book your place by Monday 25 June 2012 using the link below.

http://securedata.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=C

Note: Bookings for these events are handled through Eventbrite.co.uk. Please refer to their separate privacy policy. If questions or concerns, contact the Secure Data Service directly.

Call for Applications: Chair of Governing Board, UK Data Service

THe ESRC are establishing the UK Data Service. The new Service will unify and extend what is offered by a number of ESRC data service providers, including the Economic and Social Data Service, the Secure Data Service, the ESRC Census Programme and others. It will become a cornerstone of the UK data infrastructure providing easier access to data resources to help maximise their academic and non-academic use and impact. The UK Data Service will be operational from October 2012. It will be directed and managed by the Director and the Strategic Leadership Team.

A Governing Board will be established to co-ordinate and manage the demands that will be placed in the Service, together with stakeholder expectations and interests. The UK Data Service Governing Board will have the responsibility and authority to ensure that the Service is developed, managed and maintained in a manner that maximises its benefit as a long-term world class data resource.

The ESRC are seeking an independent Chair for the Governing Board. This is a senior, part-time appointment (up to 15 days per annum) and will be remunerated accordingly.
Candidates should:

• have a strategic understanding of the complex environment the Service operates in including stakeholder perspectives
• demonstrate strong leadership, negotiation and influencing skills
• demonstrate experience of liaising and networking within the social science community and associated bodies at a national and international level.

The term of appointment, commencing 1 October 2012, will be three years initially with the possibility of renewal for a further two years up to a maximums of five years.

Further information

• Specification for the Chair of the UK Data Service Governing Board (PDF, 114Kb)

Applications should arrive no later than 16.00 on 15 June 2012. Interviews with shortlisted applicants are planned in the end of June 2012.

Contact

If you have any queries about the application process please contact:

• Kristine Doronenkova
  Email: kristine.doronenkova@esrc.ac.uk
  Telephone: 01793 444303 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01793 444303 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Using multilevel models and MCMC methods and applying them to the Health Survey for England using the new STAT-JR package

Wednesday 11 - Friday 13 July 2012
Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

This workshop is jointly organised by ESDS Government and e-Stat, a quantitative node for the ESRC Digital Social Research programme which brings together academics working in statistics and computer science.

Prerequisites: a working knowledge of multiple regression and the basics of sample design. Some previous knowledge of multilevel modelling, for example attendance at our workshop in 2010, would be beneficial.

Cost: the workshop fee is £95. Bookings will not be confirmed until payment is received.

The focus of this three day workshop is on the use of new statistical software, STAT-JR for fitting complex statistical models. We will focus on multilevel modelling where the multilevel structure is determined by the sample design, in particular on the way the methods can be applied to the Health Survey for England. This structure will then be used to examine the extent to which variables such as height, weight and BMI are clustered by household and area and whether any of this variability can be accounted for by background variables such as social class and educational qualifications.

The first day will provide a general introduction to the dataset and the STAT-JR software package. On the second day we will give sessions on Bayesian statistics and MCMC methods that the package uses and then describe its application to continuous multilevel models. On the third day we will finish by describing its use on binary response models and give a brief demonstration of an alternative E-book interface to the software. The workshop will be a mixture of lectures and practical sessions using the software on the datasets provided.

To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-11/

Health surveys user meeting

Tuesday 10 July 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the UK health surveys. It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata. The programme contains a mixture of papers from data producers and researchers and a poster session at lunchtime.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to  http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-10/