RCN: Building an Interdisciplinary Community of Big Microdata Researchers

该研究奖将支持大微数据网络的创建。通过多次收集，研究人员现在可以访问20亿人口普查记录，描述从世纪中期到现在的整个美国人口。虽然这些数据集具有丰富的研究潜力，但数据的庞大规模和范围对研究人员提出了新的挑战。该网络将通过建立一个开放的跨学科研究人员社区来应对这些挑战。它将通过在线交流和面对面会议，包括四次年度研究会议，将这些研究人员联系起来。它将通过建立工作组提供培训和指导来降低研究的障碍。该网络还将向新的社区成员开展外联活动，包括举办年度培训讲习班。外联工作将侧重于代表性不足群体的学者、早期职业学者和主要研究机构以外的学者。该网络将通过参加该机构的夏季多样性奖学金方案，直接为代表性不足的研究生和本科生的培训做出贡献。该网络将利用研究界的广泛经验和专门知识，吸引新学者使用这些宝贵的数据资源，从而开展新的研究，大微数据网络将利用描述从世纪中期至今美国人口的大量人口普查微数据，支持一个新兴的跨学科科学家群体。它将利用以前联邦在描述美国人口的大规模人口普查数据收集方面的投资。IPUMS全计数人口普查收集提供了从1850年到1940年的一致编码数据，这些数据来自根据72年要求公开发布的人口普查记录。联邦统计研究数据中心提供1960年至2010年十年一次的人口普查数据，并采取适当的数据安全措施。然而，一些研究人员缺乏利用这些数据所需的计算能力，即使是那些拥有足够资源的研究人员也仍然需要新的编程策略来操作和分析这种规模的数据。记录链接带来了一系列问题，从分析决策到计算能力。致力于利用地理细节的调查人员还面临着相当大的启动成本，用于地理编码，开发GIS边界文件，以及概念化邻居和社区的新地理测量。围绕数据访问的限制对共享资源造成了限制，并给数据复制和保存带来了困难。通过增加访问和降低使用这些数据的障碍，该网络将帮助研究人员克服这些挑战。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research award will support the creation of the Big Microdata Network. Through multiple collections, researchers now have access to two billion census records describing the entire American population from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Although these data collections have rich research potential, the massive scale and scope of the data poses new challenges for researchers. The Network will address these challenges by building an open interdisciplinary community of researchers. It will connect these researchers through online communication and in-person meetings, including four annual research conferences. It will lower barriers to research by creating working groups to provide training and guidance. The Network also will conduct outreach to new community members, including annual training workshops. Outreach efforts will focus on scholars from underrepresented groups, early career scholars, and those outside major research institutions. The Network will directly contribute to the training of underrepresented graduate and undergraduate students through participation in the institution's Summer Diversity Fellowship program. Leveraging the broad experiences and expertise of the research community, the Network will attract new scholars to these valuable data resources, enabling new research.The Big Microdata Network will support an emerging interdisciplinary community of scientists using vast collections of census microdata describing the American population from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It will leverage previous federal investment in massive census data collections which describe the American population. The IPUMS full-count census collection provides consistently coded data from 1850 to 1940 from census records that have been released publicly following the 72-year requirement. The Federal Statistical Research Data Centers provide access to decennial census data for 1960 to 2010 under appropriate data security measures. Some researchers, however, lack the computing power necessary to take advantage of these data, and even those with sufficient resources still require new programming strategies to manipulate and analyze data of this scale. Record linkage poses a host of problems, from analytic decisions to computational capacity. Investigators working to exploit geographic detail also face considerable startup costs for geocoding, developing GIS boundary files, and conceptualizing new geographic measures of neighbors and neighborhoods. Restrictions around data access pose constraints for sharing resources and present difficulties for data replication and preservation. By increasing access and lowering barriers to using these data, the Network will help researchers overcome these challenges. It will advance scholarship across a range of fields, including economics, sociology, demography, statistics, geography, epidemiology, urban planning, and public policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.