COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Version 1.1

这个协作项目将扩展、增强和促进数据文档计划（DDI）规范。DDI旨在成为社会和行为科学中有关数据集的元数据的内容、表示、传输和保存的公开可用标准。DDI规范的1.0版是用万维网的通用语言XML编写的，于2000年3月发布。规范1.1版计划进行的更改和扩展包括更健壮的机制，用于描述聚合/表格数据和复杂的文件类型，如层次文件和关系文件。此外，该项目将在专业协会会议上进行培训，使研究人员和其他人员熟悉该项目，并鼓励他们采用这种方法记录社会科学数据集。该项目还将侧重于细化使用标准的说明，并提供一组最佳实践来演示最佳使用。最后，项目参与者将探索一种新的文档编制方法。这种方法的核心可能是一个定义元素之间关系的图。它还将具有社会科学密码本的属性。这个项目有可能在几个方面改善社会科学研究的行为。首先，DDI模型提供了一组全面的代码本元素，这些代码本元素被设计成包含潜在的数据分析人员准确有效地进行分析所必须具备的所有信息。拟议的改进将使该标准适用于所有类型的社会科学数据。对研究界的培训和外联将有助于确保内容标准得到广泛应用，最佳实践活动将促进统一元素的使用。其次，该规范的结构使得单个核心文档可以用于生成其他几个文档，包括主要统计软件包的数据定义声明、书目记录、研究摘要等。文档作者只需要在一个地方进行更改。第三，该项目通过创建基于web的非专有文档标准来促进数据互操作性，该标准允许数据用户和数据提供者之间无缝交换文件。最后，共享规范为将数据移植到在线分析系统提供了必要的基础设施，从而将更多的社会科学数据放在更广泛的用户社区的桌面上。

This collaborative project will extend, enhance, and promote the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) specification. The DDI is intended to be a Publicly Available Standard for the content, presentation, transport, and preservation of metadata about data sets in the social and behavioral sciences. Written in XML, the lingua franca of the World Wide Web, Version 1.0 of the DDI specification was published in March 2000. Among the changes and extensions planned for Version 1.1 of the specification are more robust mechanisms for describing aggregate/tabular data and complex file types, such as hierarchical and relational files. In addition, the project will conduct training at meetings of professional associations to familiarize researchers and others with the project and to encourage them to adopt this method for documenting social science datasets. The project also will focus on refining the instructions for employing the standard and providing a set of best practices to demonstrate optimal usage. Finally, project participants will explore a new approach to documentation. This approach likely will have at its core a diagram that defines the relationships among elements. It also will have attributes of a social science codebook.This project has the potential to improve the conduct of social science research in several ways. First, the DDI model provides a comprehensive set of codebook elements designed to incorporate all of the information a potential data analyst must have to conduct analysis accurately and efficiently. The proposed refinements will render the standard applicable to all types of social science data. Training and outreach to the research community will help to ensure that the content standard is widely applied, and best practice activities will promote uniform element usage. Second, the specification is structured in such a way that a single core document can be adapted to produce several other documents, including data definition statements for the major statistical software packages, bibliographic records, study abstracts, etc. The documentation author need only make changes in one place. Third, the project promotes data interoperability by creating a Web-based nonproprietary documentation standard that permits seamless exchange of files among data users and data providers. Finally, the shared specification provides the necessary infrastructure for porting data into online analysis systems, thus putting more social science data on the desktops of a wider community of users.