Archive of 2003 Announcements

Variables Database Now Online

Through funding from the National Science Foundation, ICPSR has created a Social Science Variables Database (SSVD) that enables searching across studies at the variable level:

The SSVD contains over 33,000 discrete variables. In addition, variable-level searches are enabled from the study descriptions of each of the SSVD component studies, which currently number about 70. For those variables that are also available for online analysis through the Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) utility, the SSVD provides links to SDA.

I-Lin Kuo, Programmer Analyst at ICPSR, designed and built the SSVD. Research Associate Sanda Ionescu performed the bulk of the DDI markup for the database. Matthew Richardson, ICPSR's Web developer, assisted with the Web interface. Additional programming support was provided by Peggy Overcashier and Steve Burling.

2003-12-15

Research Scientist Position Available for the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data

A summary of the official job posting is provided below.

Duties

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan seeks to appoint a senior social scientist to direct the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/). NACJD is a broadly-based public service activity that archives and disseminates research and public policy data pertinent to crime and the criminal justice system. Responsibilities include directing an extensive data processing operation with a large staff of professional and technical employees; developing and implementing strategies to make data in the field well known and easy to use; planning and executing outreach to the professional criminal justice community; working closely with federal agencies that fund the activity; developing grant proposals and renewals; organizing training activities for students, researchers, and other professionals in the criminal justice field; and conducting research in the field. A faculty appointment at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor or Dearborn campus is possible.

Specific duties include but are not limited to: direct professional and technical staff; review data and requests for access to data to ensure that the privacy of research subjects is protected; write articles and reports pertaining to the activities of NACJD; comply with sponsor reporting requirements; travel to conferences and professional meetings to represent NACJD and ICPSR, including the oversight of project exhibits and displays; organize specialized training and research conference activities on behalf of ICPSR and of federal agencies; conduct and publish research findings in the field of criminal justice studies; and participate in the ICPSR management team. Duties also include participating in other research and infrastructure activities at ICPSR as needed; collaboration with other researchers to design and report on other research activities; and preparation of new proposals and applications to support future research.

NOTE: Faculty may hold Primary Research Scientist Appointments (PRS) such as: Senior Research Scientist, Senior Associate Research Scientist, Research Scientist, Associate Research Scientist or Assistant Research Scientist. The selected candidate's qualifications will determine the level.

Department Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications: Ph.D. in relevant field of study with specialization in research on crime and criminal justice. Minimum five to eight years post-doctoral professional experience in the field with two years of experience in the management of research projects in an appropriate area. Demonstrated scholarly productivity, along with the proven ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Demonstrated expertise in the creation, management, and statistical analysis of research data about crime and criminal justice. Knowledge of procedures for ensuring the privacy and protection of research subjects. Excellent writing and oral communication skills. Experience managing web-based data and knowledge dissemination activities.

Desired Qualifications

Experience in teaching or training in the field of interest; familiarity and experience with archived data and the secondary analysis of those data. Experience in writing grant proposals and applications and in serving as a principal investigator.

Applicants should submit a letter of application, a CV, three letters of reference, and relevant writing samples to: Myron P. Gutmann, Director, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, P.O. Box 1248, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248. Screening of applications will begin shortly and continue until the position is filled.

2003-09-12

IASSIST 2004 Conference Announcement / Call for Papers

Data Futures: Building on Thirty Years of Advocacy

The International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) annual conference will be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on May 25-28, 2004. This year's conference, Data Futures: Building on Thirty Years of Advocacy, examines new issues and trends and links them to principles that have emerged during the past thirty years.

Social science data producers, users, and support specialists have long understood and promoted responsibility for preservation, quality, stewardship, responsible use, and literacy. Juxtaposed against these guiding principles are pervasive and innovative national and international trends in data availability, access, and usage. New frontiers in data include the globalization of data and its commodification; integration of multimedia in research; and common concerns across nations and disciplines that confidentiality is an issue that requires constant attention.

IASSIST has been on the leading edge of data dissemination and access issues, critically examining developments in electronic delivery and privacy/confidentiality concerns. "Data advocacy" has included promoting statistical literacy among data professionals and the public; participating in the development of metadata standards for data; and working on solutions for preservation and archiving. The 2004 conference will build on this work with sessions that address various aspects of data advocacy. We seek submissions of papers, poster/demonstration sessions, and panel sessions on the following topics:

Data services in physical and virtual spaces
Applying metadata standards for data; exploring geospatial metadata, DDI, Dublin Core, etc.
Archival challenges of the digital government
Bringing numeric and spatial data into the classroom
Collaborative data dissemination and integration projects
Data Documentation Initiative (DDI): developments and implementations
Data lifespan and integrity in web environments
Promotion of data and statistical literacy
Data quality and authentication
Future of data warehousing and data mining
GIS and data access
Impact of Internet technology on social science research methods
Infrastructure for data access and preservation
Innovations in data delivery and access methods
Data in institutional repositories
Legal barriers to Internet-based data access
Library subscriptions, licensing and data acquisition policies
Metrics for assessing the value and impact of data in the knowledge economy
New research/archive networks
Preparation and dissemination of complex data for multiple user audiences
Privacy, confidentiality, disclosure control issues
Qualitative data issues: metadata, access, preservation, linking with quantitative data
Relationships among archives and the social science research community
The life cycle of research data and issues of preservation
Universal access to public data
User interfaces for data dissemination: best practices, innovations
History and future of IASSIST

The deadline for paper, session, and poster/demonstration proposals is January 16, 2004.

The Conference Program Committee will send notification of the acceptance of proposals by February 6, 2004.

Session proposals should contain information on the focus of the session, the organizer or moderator, and possible session participants. It will be the responsibility of the session organizer or moderator to secure session participants.

Please send submission, including proposed title and an abstract (recommended length 150 words), to: julie.linden@yale.edu.

For the most current information about the conference, check the IASSIST 2004 conference Web site at: http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/iassist2004/. More information about IASSIST is available at http://www.iassistdata.org/.

2003-12-19

ICPSR Receives New Grants

In recent months, ICPSR has received notification of several new awards, including the following:

Archiving and Enhancing Research Materials from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods
MacArthur Foundation
October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2006

This is a proposal to provide wide access to the rich research materials being collected by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN).
Center for African American Urban Health
National Institutes of Health
September 30, 2003 - September 29, 2008

This project investigates racial health disparities and the mechanisms operating at multiple levels (environment, lifestyle, physiology, genetics) mediating known disparate chronic conditions and their precursors.
Child Care Research Collaboration and Archive (CCRCA)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2004

The goals of CCRCA are to increase the role of research in child care policymaking and to promote collaboration among child care researchers. ICPSR is a subcontractor on the CCRCA project; the lead institution is the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.
Clean Process Data -- The Lillard Method Using the PSID
National Institute on Aging
July 1, 2003 - June 30, 2004

This project will formalize the work initiated by University of Michigan economist Lee Lillard in the development of Clean Process Data methodologies for archiving complex data collections.
Demography and Environment in Grassland Settlement
National Institutes of Health/NICHD
September 1, 2003 - August 31, 2007

This project will study the relationship between population and environment in Kansas during its settlement and conversion from grassland to staple grain cultivation and rangeland.
Grammars of Death: 19th-Century Literal Cause of Death
National Institutes of Health
January 1, 2004 - December 31, 2006

This project examines death records, medical practices, and social history of industrial towns in Massachusetts to gain a better understanding of cause-specific mortality trends and their contribution to 19th mortality levels.
National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) -- Bibliography Supplement
National Institute on Aging
October 1, 2003 - August 31, 2004

The goal for this supplement is to perform a pilot evaluation of the top two or three journals that deal with aging to assess the frequency with which NIA-supported research appears in these journals; the consistency of citing data resources used; and the consistency of citing the source of funding for the research.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA)
Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
October 1, 2003 - December 31, 2004

This is a continuation of ongoing activities, including the distribution of archival and DAS versions of SAMHDA studies and the provision of technical assistance to users.
Sun Academic Excellence Grant
Sun Microsystems
2003

Through this award, ICPSR will obtain a SunFire V480 server and four StorEdge WorkGroup RAID systems.
Transformation of Agrarian Landscapes and Life Ways
National Science Foundation
January 1, 2003 - December 31, 2006

This interdisciplinary project traces the effects of the introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture at six U.S. long-term ecological research (LTER) sites, with cross comparisons in Mexico and France.

2003-10-27

New Deadline for Application to MCRDC Announced

To benefit its members, ICPSR is purchasing a "seat" in the Michigan Census Research Data Center (MCRDC), and researchers from ICPSR member institutions may apply to use the seat without paying MCRDC laboratory fees. The MCRDC enables qualified researchers with approved projects to conduct research using unpublished data from the Census Bureau's economic and demographic programs. All MCRDC research is conducted within its secure laboratory facility located in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Researchers are invited to submit proposals to use the MCRDC. All research in MCRDC must have a Census Bureau purpose. Please refer to the MCRDC and the Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies (CES) Web pages (see below) for information about the proposal process and about available datasets. Researchers with projects in the MCRDC must have special sworn status with the Census Bureau. The MCRDC assists researchers in obtaining this status.

The next deadline for proposal submission is January 15, 2004. Subsequent deadlines are in mid-May and mid-September.

To apply to use the ICPSR-supported seat, researchers should submit a copy of their MCRDC research proposal, together with a brief letter requesting use of the ICPSR seat, to Erik Austin, ICPSR Assistant Director and Director of Archival Development, at least one week before submission of a proposal to the MCRDC. Note that ICPSR's role in the application process is only to verify ICPSR membership and does not involve proposal review. More detailed information about the MCRDC as well as tips on writing successful proposals can be found on the MCRDC Web site.

To contact staff at the center, send email to mcrdc@umich.edu. For more information about ICPSR support for research at the MDRDC, contact Erik Austin at erik@icpsr.umich.edu.

For more information, see:

MCRDC brochure: http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/mcrdc/brochure.pdf
MCRDC Web page: http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/mcrdc/
CES Web page: http://www.ces.census.gov/
email: mcrdc@umich.edu
phone: 734 615-2535

2003-09-24

MAPS Conference & Call for Papers

The National Institute of Justice's Mapping & Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS) program is pleased to announce its annual Call for Papers. This years theme, "Crime Mapping & Public Safety: Identify the Direction, Explore the Connection, Engage the Future , " is designed to expand the realm of crime mapping to include public safety mapping. As part of our continuing effort to stay abreast of recent innovations in these fields, the MAPS program solicits presentations, professional development workshops, student papers, and showcase sessions to be delivered at its annual conference. Please visit our Web site (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/) for more information about the conference, general guidelines, and to download forms for proposal submissions.

The MAPS Seventh Annual International Crime Mapping Research Conference will be held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, 64 Arlington Street Boston, MA, March 31 to April 3, 2004. The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers is offering a special single room rate of $149 single/double occupancy (per night, plus tax) for conference attendees that register by Friday March 12, 2004. To make your reservations, please call the hotel directly at 617-426-2000. Advise the reservation staff that you are part of the "DOJ Crime Mapping Conference."

Please check the MAPS Web site, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/conferences.html, for the latest conference information. If you have any questions, please contact the Institute for Law and Justice at 703-684-5300 or nijpcs@ilj.org.

2003-08-26

ICPSR Biennial Meeting to Feature Symposium on Privacy Issues

As part of the Biennial Meeting of ICPSR Official Representatives (ORs), which will take place October 9-12, 2003, in Ann Arbor, a special symposium will be held to commemorate ICPSR's 40th anniversary. The theme of the symposium is "Privacy in the Information Age" The symposium is intended to stimulate a conversation about the tension between providing broad and equitable access to data and protecting individual privacy, a tension that affects all of us involved in the research enterprise.

The Keynote Speaker for the event will be Dr. Kenneth Prewitt, Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and former Director of the United States Bureau of the Census. Other prominent scholars will also participate.

In addition to the Symposium, to be held on Friday afternoon, the OR Meeting will feature sessions on:

Navigating the ICPSR Web site and Finding Aids
Non-Traditional Data
Innovative Applications Using the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)
New Data Acquisitions for ICPSR
Instructional Use of Data

And much more. Please join us for this exciting intellectual event. An online registration form for the meeting will soon be available.

2003-06-12

2002 General Social Surveys Available

The General Social Surveys, 1972-2002: [Cumulative File] (ICPSR 3728), is now available. For the first time, the codebook is available electronically. This collection is a cumulative dataset that merges all data collected as part of the General Social Surveys from 1972 to the present. Among the new items added for the 2002 surveys are topical modules on prejudice, doctors and patients, quality of working life, employee compensation, altruism, adult transitions, and mental health.

2003-04-25

Power Outage at ICPSR

Shortly after 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 14, ICPSR lost electricity as part of the widespread power outage that extended from Michigan to the east coast and into Canada. Power was restored late in the morning on Friday. Staff brought computers and other equipment back up slowly to protect against a sudden power surge, and ICPSR was back on-line by 3 p.m. We regret any inconvenience caused by this downtime.

2003-08-19

Quick Tables Feature Available

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) at ICPSR has recently implemented a new capability for facilitating exporatory data analysis. The Quick Tables service is now available for the data collections in the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) series.

Quick Tables enables users to produce analytic tables by choosing from among pre-selected high-interest variables available in drop-down menus. Using Quick Tables with TEDS, a data series that records the number and characteristics of persons admitted to public and private substance abuse treatment programs receiving public funding in the United States, a user can easily determine the primary substance of abuse by client characteristics such as gender, race, age, ethnicity, education level, employment status, etc.

To access Quick Tables:

Select "Online Analysis" from the SAMHDA front page at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/SAMHDA/
Select TEDS
Select the 1993-2000 concatenated file or an individual year of TEDS
Select from the list of available Quick Tables
Select the variables of interest from the drop-down menus
Select the "create the table" button

2003-07-14

New Addition to GIS Resources

NACJD has created an online tutorial to highlight data collections freely available from the archive that can be used for mapping and spatial analysis. The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for using NACJD data collections with ArcView 3.3, ArcGIS 8.1, and MapInfo Professional 6.5. This online tutorial consists of five parts:

How to find data collections of interest
How to download data from NACJD
How to prepare data files for use with GIS software
How to read NACJD data files into a GIS software package
Examples of maps displaying data from various NACJD collections

2003-07-11

SAMHDA Provides Examples of Online Analyses of Substance Abuse Data

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) at ICPSR provides access to substance abuse and mental health research data through our online data analysis system (DAS). This service is intended to offer researchers, academics, policymakers, service providers, and others a mechanism for better understanding substance abuse and mental health problems and the impact of related treatment systems.

For examples of analyses using data in the SAMHDA archive, see the site of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at: http://www.samhsa.gov/oas/tutorial.cfm#Examples.

2003-06-12

Ronald Rindfuss Appointed to ICPSR Council

The ICPSR Council has selected Ronald Rindfuss, Robert Paul Ziff Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to complete the term of Council member Franklin Gilliam, who is vacating his seat on the Council for scheduling reasons. Professor Rindfuss will attend the October 2003 ICPSR Council meeting and will serve until a new Council is seated in March 2006.

A social demographer whose work focuses on the timing and sequencing of cohabitation, marriage, childbearing, divorce, education, migration, and employment, Rindfuss is also working on the relationship between population processes and the environment. In collaboration with several Carolina Population Center (CPC) Fellows, Pramote Prasartkul, and others at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, he is examining migration and social change in Thailand. He is also investigating the consequences of childcare availability on fertility in Norway.

Rindfuss, who received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, is author and editor of four books and over 100 research contributions dealing with demography, including First Births in America: Changing in the Timing of Parenthood and Changing Numbers, Changing Needs: American Indian Demography and Public Health. He has been a leader in the interdisciplinary field of the human dimensions of global change, promoting the usefulness of remote sensing and the GIS approach to social science problem-solving as attested in his recent co-edited volume, People and the Environment.

Rindfuss is a past president of the Population Association of America and former director of Carolina Population Center. He has been a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1992.

2003-05-16

New Members Join ICPSR

ICPSR is pleased to announce that several new institutions have recently joined the Consortium. We extend a sincere welcome to the following new members:

University of Alaska, Anchorage -- Category B
Austin College (Texas), joining the Associated Colleges of the South Federation -- Category S
Center for Research and Teaching Economics CIDE (Mexico) -- Category C
Messiah College (Pennsylvania) -- Category B
National Autonomous University of Mexico -- Category C
Slovene National Membership -- Category C
Bradley University (Illinois) -- Category B

ICPSR Receives Third Renewal of NIJ Data Resources Program

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a component of the Office of Justice Programs and the research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently awarded its Data Resources Program (DRP) contract to ICPSR for the third time since the initial award in 1992.

The DRP operates at ICPSR within the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), under the direction of Dr. Christopher Dunn. The DRP ensures the preservation and availability of research and evaluation data collected through NIJ-funded research. Data collected through NIJ-funded research are archived and made available to others in order to support new research, reproduce original findings, or test new hypotheses. Information about the DRP is available on the NIJ Web site using the Program link.

Data holdings of the Data Resources Program have grown steadily over the decade that the program has been housed at ICPSR. From a total of 125 archived studies in 1992, the number has grown to nearly 450 in 2003. Over the life of the contracts the DRP staff has released an average of 31 studies per year, but in more recent years the average is about 40. The change in distribution statistics has been even more dramatic. In the last quarter of 1992, 76 DRP datasets were disseminated (via magnetic tape), while 4780 studies were accessed or downloaded (via the Web site) during the last quarter of 2002.

2003-04-18

ICPSR Bulletin Moves to Semiannual Schedule

Beginning with the Fall 2003 issue of the ICPSR Bulletin and volume year XXIV, ICPSR will publish the Bulletin twice a year, rather than quarterly. As previously noted, the lists of recently released studies will no longer be printed, permitting us to add other types of content. If you have ideas for Bulletin articles or announcements, please feel free to get in touch with the Bulletin editors at editors@icpsr.umich.edu.

2003-04-18

Email Notification of Recent Updates & Additions

ICPSR provides an electronic notification service to inform users about new data collection releases and updates to existing holdings. Recent Updates & Additions notices are sent out about once a week. They can also be found on our Recent Updates & Additions Web page.

ICPSR's Official Representatives are automatically signed up for this service and may forward this information on to interested users on their campus or post it on their own intranets.

If you would like to subscribe to the service, or unsubscribe, please visit our notification service Web page.

If there are any questions or comments, please feel free to contact the User Support staff at netmail@icpsr.umich.edu or 734-647-2200.

2003-04-17

DDI Alliance Established

On February 8, 2003, the Steering Committee for the newly created Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Alliance met for the first time in Washington, DC, to formally start up Alliance operations. Members of the Steering Committee include the following individuals from Alliance host institutions and associations:

Ann Green, Yale University, representing the International Association of Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST)
Myron Gutmann, representing the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
Bjorn Henrichsen, Norwegian Social Science Data Archive, representing the Council of European Social Science Data Services (CESSDA)
Ekkehard Mochmann, Zentralarchiv fur Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA), representing the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO)
Richard Rockwell, representing the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
Mary Vardigan, ICPSR, DDI Alliance Director
Peter Joftis, ICPSR, DDI Alliance Associate Director

The DDI is a project of the social science research community to develop an international specification for technical documentation describing social science data. Version 2.0 of the specification, which is written in XML, will soon be available on the DDI Web site at www.ddialliance.org. Development of Version 2.0 was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

The DDI effort, begun with ICPSR sponsorship and in-kind contributions from members, is being restructured as a self-sustaining membership Alliance. Membership in the Alliance is open to for-profit or not-for-profit educational, commercial, or governmental organizations that want to have a voice in the decision-making process for the standard. Members are entitled to send one representative to meetings of the new DDI Expert Committee, whose first formal meeting will be held in Ann Arbor in conjunction with the Official Representatives meeting in October 2003. That date will be available shortly.

Before that first meeting, an informal open meeting of the members of the original DDI Committee, the DDI Alliance Steering Committee, and all interested individuals will be held during the upcoming IASSIST conference in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday, May 28, 2003, 5:30-6:30. The meeting will invite a discussion of where the DDI is going and what the Alliance hopes to achieve.

For more information on joining this effort, please contact the DDI Secretariat, which is housed at ICPSR, at: secretariat@ddialliance.org.

2003-04-14

Professor James Lee Becomes Faculty Associate at ICPSR

The University of Michigan has appointed James Z. Lee to several positions beginning in Fall 2003. Professor Lee, formerly at the California Institute of Technology, will hold the positions of Professor of History and Sociology, Senior Research Scientist at the Population Studies Center in the Institute for Social Research, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, and Faculty Associate at ICPSR.

Professor Lee received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His research interests include the social and economic history of China as well as comparative historical and contemporary demography. Among his publications are Life Under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia 1700-1900, MIT Press, 2003 (with Tommy Bengtsson and Cameron Campbell et al); One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000, Harvard University Press, 1999 (with Wang Feng); and Fate and Fortune in Rural China: Social Organization and Population Behavior in Liaoning, 1774-1873, Cambridge University Press, 1997 (with Cameron Campbell).

2003-04-14

ICPSR Annual Report Now Available

The ICPSR annual report (PDF 5.2MB) for the 2002-2003 fiscal year is now available. The annual report provides general information about ICPSR's activities, as well as information on our accomplishments over the 2003-2003 fiscal year.

2003-03-26

Census Course To Be Offered in June

ICPSR staff member Peter Granda will be teaching a course on Census 2000 data as part of the 2003 Summer Program in Quantitative Methods. The course is titled Census 2000: Accessing and Utilizing Data Resources and more information can be found on either the Census 2000 Web site or the Summer Program Web site.

2003-03-24

ICPSR's New Site

On March 10, 2003, ICPSR launched the newest version of its Web site. This particular design was the product of detailed testing by ICPSR staff and Official Representatives (ORs). The new site incorporates a number of improvements, including:

streamlined download interface
batch downloading for all users (not just ORs)
easier site navigation
increased access to bibliographic citations for data-related literature
increased access to online analysis using our Data Analysis System (DAS)

If you would like more detailed information on new site features, we've written an explanation of the major changes we incorporated into the site.

We hope that you enjoy the improvements we've made to the new site. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email web-support@icpsr.umich.edu.

2003-03-11

Summer Program Announces 2003 Offerings

Detailed information on the 2003 ICPSR Summer Training Program is now available in the Education and Instruction area of this Web site. A Web-based registration form is available, and for the first time, we'll offer a secure form to accept credit card payments on-line.

The Summer Program offers a comprehensive, integrated program of studies in research design, statistics, data analysis, and social methodology. Basic methodological and technical training is offered, along with opportunities for advanced work in specialized areas. The Program also provides active participatory data analytic experiences that complement formal lectures and discussions.

2003-03-11

Erik Austin Named as ICPSR Assistant Director

Erik W. Austin has recently been named as ICPSR Assistant Director and Director of Archival Development. This new title reflects the expanded responsibilities that Erik has taken on since he stepped down as ICPSR Interim Director in August 2001.

Erik brings to this role over 30 years of experience as an archivist and an historian. A graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B. in History) and the University of Michigan (M.A. and Ph.D. coursework, also in History), Erik has played a prominent role throughout his career in building and extending the holdings of the ICPSR Archive, particularly in the areas of political science, history, and demography.

Erik has served as Executive Director of the Social Science History Association since 1993 and is the author of Political Facts of the United States Since 1789 (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1986); co-author (with Jerome M. Clubb and Gordon W. Kirk Jr.) of The Process of Historical Inquiry: Everyday Lives of Working Americans (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1989); and numerous articles on historical and data archival topics.

2003-02-13

ICPSR Hires Research Investigator

ICPSR is pleased to announce that Amy Mehraban Pienta will be joining the ICPSR staff in June 2003 as a Research Investigator. In this position, Dr. Pienta will identify and pursue the acquisition of data collections in all fields of the social sciences with the goal of arranging for their deposit in the data archive at ICPSR.

Dr. Pienta, who is currently Assistant Professor in the Institute on Aging and Department of Health Policy and Epidemiology at the University of Florida, received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests are in work and retirement, population health and aging, and marriage and family in later life. She is the author of several articles, including "Understanding the Retirement Behavior of Married Couples" Journal of Applied Gerontology (in press); "Social Change and Adult Children's Attitudes Toward the Support of Elderly Parents: Evidence From Nepal" Hallym International Journal of Aging 3(2), 2001:211-235 (with Jennifer S. Barber and William G. Axinn); and "Who Continues to Work Past 62: The Retirement Plans of Married Couples" Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 2002, 57B:S199-S208 (with Mark Hayward).

2003-02-13

ICPSR's Union Catalog in Process

With funding from the National Science Foundation's "Infrastructure in the Social Sciences" program, ICPSR has begun to augment its electronic catalog with metadata records describing externally-held social science data resources. The goal of the union catalog project is to expand and facilitate "one-stop shopping" for research data through ICPSR's on-line catalog. The category "external resources" complements the range of in-house resources ICPSR currently makes available and includes individual datasets, data analysis tools, instructional materials, and Web sites. Adding metadata descriptions for these external resources and seamlessly connecting them to ICPSR finding aids will simplify the data discovery process and provide users with more comprehensive search results. The minimal-level DDI-compliant metadata records being added to the catalog for this project are also being indexed using the ICPSR subject thesaurus.

2003-02-13

ICPSR Hosts Professor James Lee

James Z. Lee, Professor of History at California Institute of Technology, is spending the 2002-2003 academic year at ICPSR while working with the University of Michigan Department of History, the Population Studies Center, and the Center for Chinese Studies. Professor Lee, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, is an expert on the social and economic history of China as well as the comparative historical and contemporary demography of East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Among his publications are One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythologies and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000, Harvard University Press, 1999 (with Wang Feng); and Fate and Fortune in Rural China: Social Organization and Population Behavior in Liaoning, 1774-1873, Cambridge University Press, 1997 (with Cameron Campbell).

2003-02-13

Watch for ICPSR's new Web site in March!

ICPSR is currently conducting usability testing of a new iteration of its Web site, with the goal of releasing the new site to the public in March 2003. Web site enhancements include:

New site organization and navigation that streamline the process of accessing data
Centralization of all of the data finding aids on one page with explanations of the utility of each approach
Extensive revision of the data downloads page to clarify the relationship between studies and data files, and to solve display problems that stem from studies with a large number of files
Improved batch downloading function, with this capability available to all users, not just Official Representatives
Increased accessibility of the Bibliography of Data-Related Literature and Online Analysis through links appearing on the downloads page
A simpler, cleaner design for the front page with a new logo and a smaller set of links
A Javascript utility that displays different versions of the front page for users with older computers or smaller screens

Please visit the new site at http://labrat.icpsr.umich.edu/ (site no longer available) and contact us with comments or suggestions at web-support@icpsr.umich.edu.

2003-02-13

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