ESDS Government Resources for Government Crime Surveys ESDS Government Centre for Census and Survey Research University of Manchester
Mar 28, 2015
ESDS Government Resources for Government Crime Surveys
ESDS Government Centre for Census and Survey Research
University of Manchester
ESDS Government
• Funded by ESRC, part of larger ESDS since 2003• Supports major UK data series
– Large surveys conducted, usually by government, e.g: • British Crime Survey • Labour Force Survey• General Household Survey• Health Survey for England • etc
– 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
• Promoting the use of the data • Navigating users through the right
materials• Creating additional materials to help users
discover datasets and supporting materials• Encouraging good practice• Bridging the gap between data collector
and users
A Good Place to start...Crime Theme
• Crime guide provides an overview of data sources including crime
• Theme page provides links to– Crime guide– Data pages– Relevant other sites and
resources
What do our users use the data for?
2 online searchable databases:• Current Usage: Registration
information records the research use to which data is put. We share registration information on our web site if the user permits
• Publications: Users are requested to inform ESDS of publications, but we also harvest information from the ISI WOK bibliographic database
Variable search • Variable search based on
the names and labels of variables
Other web-based resources to support users
• Guiding new users through specific datasets e.g. BCS– Survey pages, FAQs, Starting Analysis, Variables search, Publications
database, Data usage search
• Methodological Guides• SPSS• Stata• Guide to weighting• Analysing Change Over Time• Working with survey files: using hierarchical data, matching files and pooling data
• Thematic Guides to using the government surveys
• Teaching datasets
• Links to other useful web resources
Outreach events
Introductory workshops Joint workshops with other ESDS servicesMethods workshopsResearch conferencesDataset user meetingsOther presentationsPosters
Help-desk
• Several hundred a year• Range of different ranges of complexity:
– How do I get access to the BCS?– Which weight should I use?– What level of geography can I get?– Why does my analysis show high levels of
missing data?– The documentation says variable X is in the data
but I can’t find it
• Help desk involves collaboration with UKDA, HO, ONS, NatCen etc
Keeping in touch
• Biannual newsletter
• Join our email list for [email protected]
• Home page contains news– Our news– New data
And in ESDS as a whole...
For Further info:
Helpdesk: [email protected]
(0161) 275 1980
Website:http://www.esds.ac.uk/government
JISCmail: [email protected]
Friends of ours...
http://surveynet.ac.ukhttp://jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/survey-
resources-network.html
Survey pages
Guiding new users through...
What do our users use the data for?
2 online searchable databases:• Current Usage: Registration
information records the research use to which data is put. We share registration information on our web site if the user permits
• Publications: Users are requested to inform ESDS of publications, but we also harvest information from the ISI WOK bibliographic database
Variable search • Variable search based on
the names and labels of variables
Statistical/analysis guides
• Introduction to SPSS (uses HSE)
• Introduction to STATA (uses LFS)
• Weighting the social surveys
• Analysing Change Over Time
• Working with survey files: using hierarchical data, matching files and pooling data
Teaching datasets
• Cut-down data for teaching• 2000 data – core sample• Excludes boosts• Includes weights for individual
and household analysis • 55 variables • User guide