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、机器可操作的元数据和一个填充了新的数据发现和分析工具的门户，提供对两个开创性的社会科学数据资源--美国国家选举研究(ANES)和一般社会调查(GSS)--的改进访问。该项目还将分析目前产生ANES和GSS数据的工作流程，并就过渡到元数据驱动的过程提出建议，以简化数据生产并防止目前发生的元数据丢失。一个由ANES、GSS和ICPSR的代表组成的团队将在数据文档倡议(DDI)XML中开发丰富的元数据，这是一种明确定义的社会科学标准。这项工作将需要将目前以不同格式存在的所有现有文档改造为统一的XML结构。ANES和GSS文档的样本将包含有关来源、领域和在整个数据生命周期中积累的其他上下文信息的详细信息。该样本还将包括便于比较和协调的信息。为该项目创建的所有文件都将免费提供。社会科学元数据门户将展示基于DDI的开放源码工具，用于高级搜索、动态码本、题库、协调和其他功能。该门户还将提供两项调查的书目引用链接，并将为研究人员和其他人提供评论和互动的机会。该项目的一个重要方面将是重新设想目前用于编制国家统计数据和全球统计系统的工作流程，并为以元数据为导向的新工作流程奠定基础，以便根据统计数据倡议和通用统计业务流程模型实现更加无缝的“与互联网的面谈”过程。该项目将促进对国家统计数据和全球数据系统的透明和用户友好的访问，使更多的新手用户能够专业地使用数据和进行探索。数据如何形成的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通用说明，以使用户能够了解特定答复者和丢失数据的路径模式。许多研究人员对确定随时间推移的数据项和问题的可比性感兴趣，本项目将展示评估这些关键时间序列的可比性的方法。总体而言，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能够获得的信息。改进ANES和GSS工作流程将导致在整个生命周期中“上游”自动获取更多元数据。通过更好的搜索、提取和分析工具改进对数据的获取，将使所有对民主进程和社会趋势感兴趣的社会阶层能够更多地参与。示范门户及其工具将说明利用结构化文件作为工具开发基础的潜力，并将扩展到其他调查，从而改善对其他社会科学数据资源的获取。为该项目开发的大量元数据和开放源码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元数据在整个生命周期中的重复使用，从而提高为所有社会科学数据项目创建DDI元数据的效率和节约成本。

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.