FW: Help make survey data re-usable - endorse our universal questionnaire metadata standards here

[John F Hall]

This message from Louise Corti is important enough to circulate as widely as
possible.

John F Hall (Mr)
[Retired academic survey researcher]

Email:   [hidden email]  
Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com  
SPSS start page:  www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/1-survey-analysis-workshop





-----Original Message-----
From: RSS Social Statistics Section [mailto:[hidden email]]
On Behalf Of Corti, Louise
Sent: 17 November 2014 12:32
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Help make survey data re-usable - endorse our universal
questionnaire metadata standards here

Dear Colleagues,

Making survey metadata reusable across the lifecycle - please endorse the
shared principles

We are asking our colleagues and organisations who produce and utilise
survey data to endorse some new principles which will make it easier to
re-use survey metadata across the data lifecycle.

Currently there are obstacles to creating re-suable documentation for data.
In particular, the metadata journey from owner to producer back to owner and
to archive still uses relatively old-fashioned processes, which rely on
manual intervention and some replication of activities.

We need to reduce the inefficiency of the current processes of questionnaire
specification, capture of its implementation using Computer Assisted
Interviewing (CAI) software, and delivery of data to owners and archives.
These processes can be assisted by using interoperable standards,
particularly for questionnaire metadata.

At the UK Data Service and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, (Institute
of Education) we agree that the best approach is to use a recognised
international metadata standard, such as the Data Documentation Initiative
(DDI). This is already used by most international survey data archives. At
the Survey Metadata: Barriers and Opportunities meeting held on in June
2014, survey owners, producers, CAI suppliers, and archives from the UK
discussed, and agreed to support, a set of principles and a minimal subset
of the DDI metadata standard for questionnaire description.

The emphasis is very much on a pragmatic solution, so we're asking those
organisations working in this area to read and endorse the final set of
principles hosted on the DDI community site and, optionally, view the
questionnaire metadata profile. Further details can be found here, as well
as the link to endorse the recommended standard.

Survey Metadata Reusability and Exchange: A Call to Action for Questionnaire
Documentation:
http://www.ddialliance.org/survey-metadata-reusability-and-exchange

Many thanks!
Louise
___________________________________
Louise Corti
Functional Director, Collections Development and Producer Relations
___________________________________
T [phone]
E [hidden email]
W ukdataservice.ac.uk
___________________________________
UK Data Service
UK Data Archive
University of Essex
___________________________________
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