Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM)

从1851年起，英国十年一次的人口普查报告包含了该国每个家庭和个人的大量可比信息，是我们了解这一时期社会和经济结构变化的大部分知识的基础。然而，传统上，对这些来源的分析是耗时的，涉及将手稿普查报告的数据输入计算机系统进行分析。多年来，这限制了可以使用个人一级的普查资料进行研究的地理范围和时间周期，限制了可以提出的问题的种类，增加了研究成本，同时也严重限制了提供给教学的机会。2009-2013年由ESRC资助的综合人口普查微数据(I-CEM)项目，由Schürer领导，通过汇集1851年至1911年期间英国人口普查的计算机化版本，彻底改变了这种情况。该项目的基本数据是通过公共/私人伙伴关系创建的，主要用于家谱目的，费用约为900万GB，但已提供给Schürer，以生成供学术使用的新版人口普查数据。为了最大限度地提高这些数字化普查报告的质量、可比性和实用性，早期的人口普查项目开展了若干关键任务，包括重新格式化、检查和清理数据；为职业和其他数据制定标准编码方案；对数据进行编码；对所涉时期的行政边界进行标准化；以及创建一系列主要侧重于家庭成员、结构和构成的派生变量。此外，还创建了教区级的地理信息系统文件，以便能够绘制人口普查数据。由于早先的i-CEM项目而创建的数据文件随后由联合王国发展局通过两个平台进行整理和传播，这两个平台是根据ESRC最初资金的规定开发的。一种基本上是在线互动下载工具，另一种是在线数据制表工具。还创建了一个专门的项目网站，为研究人员提供了280页的综合用户指南和一系列相关的元数据，从而进一步支持了这些数据。现有的i-CEM数据收集已经产生了涉及广泛学科的大量研究出版物，包括人口学、地理学、历史学、经济学、社会学、管理学和健康研究--以及支持许多博士、硕士和本科生论文。此外，除了学术界，这些数据还可以使用Nesstar系统的一个版本在线制表，该系统允许家庭和当地历史学家、学童和其他人根据底层的原始数据生成定制的表格。重要的是，由于i-CEM数据集是完整的人口普查而不是样本，除了能够进行多项详细的小规模地方研究外，i-CEM的发布还允许在以前不可能的范围内对新的主题进行研究，进而导致由UKRI资助的一些重大项目。该项目将把最近发布的1921年人口普查添加到I-CEM中--额外的4280万条个人记录。与早先的I-CEM项目一样，1921年的抄本将重新格式化、检查、清理，重要的是通过一系列标准化代码和派生变量进行增强，没有这些代码和派生变量，数据基本上无法用于研究目的。新的数据，连同1851年至1911年的现有数据的增强和更新版本，将被转移到英国库务署，以供管理和今后查阅。该项目的一个重要内容将是升级和改进现有的数据传播平台，这些平台现在已有大约10年的历史。将通过创建新的《用户指南》和相关元数据来支持数据访问，这些元数据可通过升级后的i-CEM项目网站获得。

From 1851 onwards the decennial British census returns contain vast amounts of comparable information on every household and individual in the country, and are the basis of much of our knowledge of changing social and economic structures in the period. Traditionally, however, the analysis of these sources was time-consuming, involving inputting data from the manuscript census returns into computer systems for analysis. For many years this limited the geographical scale and time periods of the research that could be undertaken using individual-level census materials, constrained the sorts of questions that could be asked, and added to the costs of research, while also severely limiting the opportunities offered for teaching. The 2009-2013 ESRC-funded Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) project, led by Schürer, completely transformed this situation by bringing together computerised versions of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1911. The underlying data for that project had been created via a public/private partnership, mainly for genealogical purposes, at a cost of c.£9 million, but were made available to Schürer to generate a new version of the census data for academic use. In order to maximise the quality, comparability, and usefulness of these digitised census returns, the earlier I-CeM project undertook a number of key tasks, including reformatting, checking and cleaning the data; developing standard coding schemes for occupational and other data; coding the data; standardising administrative boundaries for the periods covered; and the creation of a range of derived variables mainly focused on household membership, structure and composition. In addition, parish-level GIS files were created to enable the resulting census data to be mapped. The data files created as a result of the earlier I-CeM project have subsequently been curated and disseminated by the UKDS via two platforms developed under the provisions of the initial ESRC funding. One is, essentially, an online interactive download tool and the other an online data tabulation tool. The data were further supported by the creation of a dedicated project website providing researchers with a comprehensive 280-page user guide and a range of associated meta-data. The existing I-CeM data collection has already generated numerous research publications across a wide range of disciplines, including, demography, geography, history, economics, sociology, management and health studies - as well as supporting numerous Ph.D., Masters and undergraduate dissertations. In addition, reaching beyond academia, the data can be tabulated online using a version of the Nesstar system allowing family and local historians, school children and others to generate bespoke tables from the underlying raw data. Importantly, because the I-CeM datasets are complete censuses rather than samples, in addition to enabling multiple detailed small scale local studies, the release of I-CeM has allowed research on new subjects and on a scale not previously possible, in turn leading to a number of major UKRI-funded projects. This project will add the recently-released 1921 censuses to I-CeM - an additional 42.8 million individual records. As in the earlier I-CeM project, the 1921 transcriptions will be reformatted, checked, cleaned and importantly enhanced with a series of standardised codes and derived variables, without which the data are largely unusable for research purposes. The new data, together with an enhanced and up-dated version of the existing data for 1851 to 1911 will then be transferred to the UKDS for curation and future access. An important element of this project will be to upgrade and improve the existing data dissemination platforms, which are now some 10 years old. The data access will be supported by the creation of a new User Guide and associated metadata, made available via an upgraded I-CeM project website.