Session 27: Resources for Data Management and Handling Social Science Data
| Abstract | This session will explore approaches to, and resources for, improving standards of ‘data management’ in the social science research process. Here, ‘data management’ is taken to refer to operations which are typically conducted by social researchers themselves, and which involve handling and manipulating micro-datasets. These sort of operations, often referred to as ‘data handling’, ‘data cleaning’, or ‘matching’ datasets together, prove in many instances to be a major component of a social research project, yet they are often underestimated by social researchers themselves, and they are rarely the subject of extended methodological attention. This session will be largely, but not exclusively, directed towards data management operations relevant to quantitative research using social survey data. This will include discussion of using mainstream statistical software packages in order to match together different data files, and exploiting information resources relevant to coding and operationalising variables and measures. Many of the sessions will be related to the activities of a National Centre for e-Social Science research node on ‘Data Management through e-Social Science’ (www.dames.org.uk) , but materials will also cover more general issues in social science data management, and include contributions from social and data scientists from other perspectives. |
| Programme | The workshop will feature a mixture of pedagogical presentations on approaches to data management, and case studies describing particular issues and concerns |
| 14.00 | Data management and handling social science data: Key issues, concerns, and the relevance of e-Science (Dr Paul Lambert, Dept. Applied Social Science, University of Stirling) |
| 14.30 | Metadata: What is it and why does it matter? (Jesse Blum, Dept. Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling) |
| 15.00 | Software for data management: The contribution of Stata (Dr Karen Robson, Geary Institute, University College Dublin) |
| 15.30 | Refreshment break |
| 16.00 | Helping users see the wood from the trees: ESDS resources for managing and analysing data (Beate Lichtwardt, UK Data Archive, University of Essex) |
| 16.30 | Case study: Accessing and managing data on social care and health (Dr Alison Dawson, Dept. Applied Social Science, University of Stirling) |
| 17.00 | Case study: Handling data on occupations, educational qualifications, and ethnicity (Dr Paul Lambert, Dept. Applied Social Science, University of Stirling) |
| Organiser | Paul Lambert (Applied Social Science, University of Stirling) |
Available downloadsFlyer for talk 5: Data on social careby Alison Dawson, Alison Bowes, David Bell Slides for talk 5: Social care data: Exploring issues by Alison Dawson, Alison Bowes, David Bell Slides for talk 4: ESDS Resources by Beate Lichtwardt Flyer for talk 4: ESDS Resources by Beate Lichtwardt Flyer for talk 2: Metadata by Jesse Blum Slides for talk 2: Metadata, say what? by Jesse Blum Slides for talk 3: The contribution of Stata by Karen Robson Flyer for talk 3: Contribution of Stata by Karen Robson Slides for talk 1: Key issues, concerns, and the relevance of e-Science by Paul Lambert Slides for talk 6: Handling data on occupations, educational qualifications and ethnicity by Paul Lambert Flyer for talk 6: Data on occupations, education and ethnicity by Paul Lambert Flyer for talk 1: Data Management by Paul Lambert |