On-Site Research to Improve the Government-Generated Social Science Data Base

对美国统计协会与美国人口普查局和国家科学基金会合作运营的具有里程碑意义的现场研究和访问研究奖学金项目的支持正在延长。该方案成功地将主要大学教职员工的高度专业、久负盛名的统计学家和社会科学家带到了人口普查局，人口普查局是美国的一线数据收集机构，他们在那里从事旨在改善政府生产和传播的社会经济信息的充分性的研究。访问研究员与人口普查工作人员合作，解决数据处理和分析中的特别困难的问题。这些努力的结果正在累积成更有效率和效力的机构程序、更可靠和可解释的数据产品，以及在访问科学家返回本国机构后在基础研究和教学议程中引入更真实的内容。一项特别安排允许研究员竞争继续支持在该局开始的研究，这是根据这一方案创造的进一步创新。除了其他好处外，政府数据生产者和学术研究人员之间专业知识和知识的更自由流动正在打破量化数据在政策上有用的障碍，并通过增加他们的科学研究潜力，帮助摊销国家每年在他们的数据收集上进行的巨额投资。

Support is being renewed for a landmark program of on-site research and visiting research fellowships operated by the American Statistical Association in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the National Science Foundation. The program has been successful in bringing highly expert, well- established statisticians and social scientists on the faculties of major universities to the Census Bureau, the nation's front- line data collection agency, where they engage in research aimed at improving the adequacy of governmentally produced and disseminated socioeconomic information. Visiting fellows work with Census staff to tackle especially difficult problems in the handling and analysis of data. The results of these efforts are cumulating into more efficient and effective agency procedures, more reliable and interpretable data products, and the introduction of more real-worldliness into the basic research and teaching agenda of visiting scientists once they return to their home institutions. A special arrangement allowing fellows to compete for continued support of research begun at the Bureau represents a further innovation created under this program. Among other benefits, the freer flow of expertise and knowledge between governmental data producers and academic researchers is breaking down obstructions to the policy usefulness of quantitative data and, by increasing their scientific research potential, helping to amortize the huge annual investment this nation makes in their collection.