Collaborative Research: Metadata Portal for the Social Sciences

这是一个试点项目，旨在通过创建结构化的、可由机器操作的元数据和一个包含新的数据发现和分析工具的门户网站，增强对两个开创性社会科学数据资源（美国国家选举研究（ANES）和一般社会调查（GSS））的访问。该项目还将分析当前生成ANES和GSS数据的工作流程，并为过渡到元数据驱动的流程提出建议，以简化数据生成并防止当前发生的元数据丢失。一个包括ANES、GSS和ICPSR代表的团队将在数据文档计划（DDI）XML中开发丰富的元数据，DDI是一个定义明确的社会科学标准。这项工作将需要将目前以不同格式存在的所有现有文件更新为统一的XML结构。ANES和GSS文档的样本将通过关于起源、范围和在数据生命周期中积累的其他上下文信息的详细信息来丰富。这一样本还将包括便利比较和统一的信息。社会科学元数据门户网站将展示基于DDI的开放源代码工具，用于高级搜索、动态代码簿、问题库、协调和其他功能。该门户网站还将提供两项调查的参考书目链接，并为研究人员和其他人提供发表评论和互动的机会。该项目的一个重要方面将是重新设想目前用于编制ANES和GSS的工作流程，并为新的元数据驱动的工作流程奠定基础，以实现基于DDI和通用统计业务流程模型（GSBPM）的更加无缝的“互联网访谈”流程。对ANES和GSS的友好访问，使专家能够使用数据以及更多的新手用户进行探索。就数据如何产生而言，生产透明度至关重要，该项目将提供关于变量来源的结构化元数据以及详细的全域说明，使用户能够了解具体答复者和缺失数据的路径模式。许多研究人员对确定数据项目和问题随时间的可比性感兴趣，本项目将展示评估这些关键时间序列可比性的方法。总的来说，该项目将提供更多关于ANES和GSS数据的信息，而不是研究人员过去所能获得的。改进ANES和GSS工作流程将导致自动捕获更多的“上游”元数据，这些元数据可在整个生命周期中提供，通过更好的搜索、提取和分析工具改善数据访问，将使对民主进程和社会趋势感兴趣的社会各阶层能够更多地参与。示范门户及其工具将说明使用结构化文件作为工具开发基础的潜力，并可扩展到其他调查，从而改善其他社会科学数据资源的可访问性。为该项目开发的大量元数据和开源应用程序将鼓励软件开发人员创建访问ANES，GSS和其他数据的新方法。新的工作流程将侧重于在整个生命周期中重复使用元数据，从而提高为所有社会科学数据项目创建DDI元数据的效率和节省成本。

This is a pilot project to provide enhanced access to two seminal social science data resources - the American National Election Studies (ANES) and General Social Survey (GSS) - by creating structured, machine-actionable metadata and a portal populated with new tools for data discovery and analysis. The project will also analyze the current workflows that produce the ANES and GSS data and make recommendations for transitioning to metadata-driven processes to streamline data production and guard against the metadata loss that currently occurs.A team including representatives from the ANES, GSS, and ICPSR will develop rich metadata in Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) XML, a well-defined standard for the social sciences. This work will entail retrofitting all existing documentation, which currently exists in disparate formats, to a uniform XML structure. A sample of the ANES and GSS documentation will be enriched with detailed information on provenance, universe, and other contextual information that accumulates across the data lifecycle. This sample will also include information to facilitate comparison and harmonization. All documentation created for the project will be freely available.The Metadata Portal for the Social Sciences will demonstrate DDI-based open-source tools for advanced searching, dynamic codebooks, question banks, harmonization, and other functions. The portal will also feature links to bibliographic citations for both surveys and will provide opportunities for researchers and others to comment and interact. An important aspect of the project will be to re-envision the workflows currently used to produce the ANES and the GSS and to lay the groundwork for new metadata-driven workflows to realize a more seamless "interview to internet" process based on DDI and the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM).This project will facilitate transparent and user-friendly access to the ANES and the GSS to enable expert use of the data as well as exploration by more novice users. Production transparency in terms of how data came into being is essential, and this project will provide structured metadata on provenance of variables as well as detailed universe statements to permit users to understand the routing patterns for specific respondents and missing data. Many researchers are interested in determining comparability of data items and questions over time, and this project will demonstrate ways to assess comparability for these key time series. In general the project will provide more information about the ANES and the GSS data than researchers have had access to in the past. Improving the ANES and GSS workflows will lead to the automated capture of more metadata "upstream" that can be made available across the life cycle.Improved access to data through better search, extraction, and analysis tools will enable greater participation across all segments of society interested in democratic process and social trends. The demonstration portal and its tools will illustrate the potential of using structured documentation as a foundation for tools development and will be extensible to other surveys, leading to improved accessibility for other social science data resources. The large base of metadata and the open source applications developed for this project will encourage software developers to create new ways to access ANES, GSS, and other data. New workflows will focus on metadata re-use over the life cycle, leading to greater efficiencies and cost-savings in creating DDI metadata for all social science data projects.