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Archive of 2007 Announcements

ICPSR to Launch PK-3 Data Resource Center

The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) has awarded ICPSR with a two-year contract to create an online resource center to expand the knowledge base and provide tools for the access and handling of pre-kindergarten through third grade longitudinal data.

The goal of this project, the PK-3 Data Resource Center: The First Six Years of Schooling and Beyond, is to inform the Foundation's PK-3 initiative and build the research field by facilitating the analysis of rich, complex, longitudinal datasets that contain a wide range of variables on the child, family, school, and neighborhood. The Web site will be launched in spring 2008, and will disseminate datasets and user guides developed to provide researchers with detailed guidance in creating their own extract datasets.

2007-12-14

Web Site Unavailable Dec. 24-28

On December 24th, ICPSR will be testing its backup server. This server has a reasonably fresh copy of our Web content, our database content, and our holdings, and would be put into service if ICPSR should suffer an extended period of Web service unavailability.

As part of this testing we will be taking both the production Web server and the production database server offline for portions of the day. Web server access will be sporadic for portions of December 24.

The testing may extend into December 26-28, depending upon the results of the testing on the 24th.

2007-12-17

International Data Resource Center Launched

ICPSR is pleased to announce the launch of the International Data Resource Center (IDRC) Web site. The IDRC serves as a central entry point into ICPSR's international data holdings. Dr. Denise DeGarmo, Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, developd the site while in residence at ICPSR as an ICPSR Official Representative Sabbatical Fellow.

International data available through the IDRC includes conflict data, economic data, data on electoral systems and political behavior, environmental data, health data, data pertaining to the human dimension of international relations, public opinion data, and data on international organizations. Searches for international data can be conducted using several different methods, including subject searches, series data searches, or the IDRC's interactive map interface. Additional features of the site include links to foundational datasets and instructional resources.

Please visit the IDRC at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/IDRC/

2007-11-19

ICPSR Announces Launch of QualAnon

The Data Sharing for Demographic Research project at ICPSR announces the availability of a new Web-based tool to assist in the anonymization of qualitative data. In collaboration with Susan Watkins at the University of Pennsylvania and ICPSR programmer Peggy Overcashier, we have developed QualAnon to streamline the process of removing or changing identifiers in qualitative data.

QualAnon employs a user-generated name key to replace identified names with pseudonyms. QualAnon allows users to create an annotated document that identifies where specific changes have been made in the document. The program also creates a summary report that specifies the number of times a specific name has been replaced. In addition, QualAnon has a batch option that allows the users to anonymize several documents at once by uploading multiple documents as a Zip file using one corresponding name key.

QualAnon is a tool that was developed to assist in the removal of identifiers in qualitative research. It is not intended to replace the researcher's role in reducing disclosure risk and minimizing breach of respondent confidentiality.

2007-10-30

IASSIST 2008 Conference Focuses on Technology of Data

The 34th International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) annual conference will be held at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA, May 27-30, 2008. This year's conference, Technology of Data: Collection, Communication, Access, and Preservation, examines the role of technology and tools in various aspects of the data life cycle.

IASSIST is seeking submissions of papers, poster/demonstration sessions, and panel sessions on the following topics:

• Issues and techniques for preserving "old" data as well as information "born digital"
• Methods, technology and questions surrounding data dissemination, including best practices and innovations
• Archival and preservation challenges presented by new processes
• Metadata
• Innovation in the use of data for teaching and research
• The legal issues surrounding new technologies
• Changes in resource discovery methods
• Data services in virtual spaces
• Providing services to users with different degrees of technical "savvy"
• Tools and spaces for research collaboration

Papers on other topics related to the conference theme will also be considered. The deadline for paper, session, and poster/demonstration proposals is December 17, 2007. The Conference Program Committee will send notification of the acceptance of proposals by February 8, 2008.

Individual presentation proposals and session proposals are welcome. Proposals for complete sessions, typically a panel of three to four presentations within a 90-minute session, should provide information on the focus of the session, the organizer or moderator, and possible participants. The session organizer will be responsible for securing session participants. Organizers as well as panel participants are also welcome to submit additional paper proposals but please note that the Conference Program Committee may need to limit the number of presentations per person.

Proposals for papers, sessions, and posters/demonstrations should include the proposed title and an abstract no longer than 200 words. Longer abstracts will be returned to be shortened before being considered. Please note that all presenters are required to register and pay the registration fee for the conference. Registration for individual days will be available.

Proposals can be submitted via email to: iassist08@gmail.com

A conference Web site with an online submission form will be available shortly. A separate call for workshop proposals is also forthcoming.

For more information about IASSIST, visit the Web site.

2007-10-30

ICPSR Releases New County-Level Contextual Data File

ICPSR is pleased to announce the release of County Characteristics, 2000-2007 [United States] (ICPSR 20660), a county-level contextual data file covering a wide array of county attributes. The 470 variables in this ICPSR product, which is being distributed free of charge, are organized into 15 sections:

1. Geographic Identification Variables, 2005
2. Geographic Coordinates, Land Area, and Water Area, 2000
3. Total Population, Births, Deaths, Migration, Group Quarters Population, and Housing Units, 2000-2005
4. Population by Selected Age Groups and Sex; Sex Ratio; Median Age by Sex; Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin, 2005
5. Labor Force Size, Employment, and Unemployment, 2005
6. County Typology Codes, 2004; Urban Influence and Rural-Urban Continuum Codes, 2003
7. Personal Income by Major Source; Earnings, Compensation, and Employment by Industry, 2005
8. Land Surface Form Typography and Climate
9. Federal Government Expenditures, Fiscal Year 2004
10. Local Government Revenue and Expenditures, 2001-2002 Fiscal Year
11. Crimes Reported to Police, 2004
12. 2004 Presidential Election Results
13. New Privately-Owned Residential Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits, 2005
14. Health Profession Shortage Areas (HPSA), 2007
15. Medicare Enrollment, 2003

2007-10-26

ICPSR Improves Searching for International Data

ICPSR has recently revised its metadata to include a tag specifying whether or not the data is international in scope. (International being defined as not solely related to the United States.) Users can now easily restrict their searches to international data by including "global" in the geographic coverage field on the advanced search page.

For example:

2007-10-18

How Rising Energy Prices are Affecting the Great Plains

An article coauthored by ICPSR Director Myron Gutmann in the October 2007 issue of the journal Bioscience reveals that although Great Plains agricultural production, population, and income trends have been surprisingly stable during the past 100 years, the recent rise of energy prices offer both challenges and opportunities for the future of this region.

The authors examine whether it is possible in the long term to maintain agriculturally orientated populations in the Great Plains region as well as in similar regions around the world. "Our key findings apply to rural, agricultural areas," said Myron Gutmann, a historian and director of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the U-M Institute for Social Research. "Rural areas with irrigation have done surprisingly well, sustained by increases in production of crops and livestock. Their ability to produce large quantities of corn gives them great potential, because demand for biofuels has doubled the price of corn. Even though rural areas without irrigation lost population prior to 1970, their populations, agricultural production and incomes have kept up fairly well since then."

For more information, see Population and Environment in the U.S. Great Plains

William Parton, senior research scientist at Colorado State's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, and Dennis Ojima, senior scholar in residence at the H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, coauthored this paper with Gutmann.

2007-10-11

ICPSR Sponsors Archivists' Research Forum

ICPSR cosponsored the first annual Society of American Archivists (SAA) Research Forum, "Building Bridges Between Research and Practice," during the SAA Annual Meeting in Chicago on August 28, 2007.

The forum delved into discussions of research that informs good archival practice and was aimed at individuals who:

• engage in research
• seek to identify research-based solutions for their institution
• wish to participate in the research cycle by serving as a beta site for research trials
• want to learn what's happening in research and innovation

ICPSR's Digital Preservation Officer, Nancy McGovern, a cofounder of the SAA Research Forum, commented: "Research means different things to different SAA members, depending on their experience and perspective, as the discussion at the first annual SAA Research Forum and the responses to the survey we posted demonstrated" (preliminary survey results). "For our first attempt, success might be measured in terms of participation by SAA members, both as attendees and presenters; the breadth and depth of the program; and some indicators that we were able to raise awareness about the need for incorporating into the programs and workings of SAA. From my perspective, we scored well for each of these metrics. We had 60 people attend, a compelling program consisting of 11 presentations and 12 posters on a wide range of topics by researchers of all kinds, and I had great feedback directly and indirectly about the Research Forum. There's interest in and support for next year's program. I couldn't be more pleased with the success of our inaugural program and we're already looking ahead to next year."

2007-10-04

Data Sharing Research Project Funded by NIH

Researchers at ICPSR have been awarded a two-year grant by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project entitled, "Barriers and Opportunities for Sharing Research Data." The project will investigate the extent of research data sharing in the social sciences and assess whether research data sharing is related to other aspects of the scientific process including scientific publication. ICPSR's existing LEADs database, which contains information about social science research data funded by NSF and NIH, will be utilized and enhanced to examine the extent to which these data have been made available for secondary analysis and whether this data availability has enhanced scientific productivity through the research literature. The principal investigator for this project is Dr. Amy Pienta of ICPSR.

2007-10-04

ICPSR Welcomes New Consortium Members

ICPSR is pleased to announce that several new institutions have joined the Consortium since July 2007. We extend a sincere welcome to the following new members:

• Dillard University
• Drew University
• Randolph-Macon College
• Brigham Young University - Hawaii
• Calvin College
• Chapman University
• University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh
• Minnesota State University at Mankato
• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Southern Connecticut State University
• University of Dayton
• Oakland University
• American Solutions
• National Library of Education
• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

2007-09-14

2007 Summer Program Posts Record Enrollment

The ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research achieved a significant milestone in 2007: Enrollments reached an all-time high with more than 800 participants and the Program included nearly fifty courses that were held in six different cities across the United States. This unparalleled expansion helped to send off retiring director Henry "Hank" Heitowit on a high note, after four decades of association with the ICPSR Summer Program. Information on the 2008 ICPSR Summer Program will be forthcoming over the next few months.

2007-09-10

ICPSR Introduces New Digital Preservation Web Site

ICPSR has a 45-year track record for preserving social science research data. The new Digital Preservation site at ICPSR provides a means for us to be transparent about our digital preservation policies and practices, in accordance with prevailing standards and practices of the digital preservation community.

The site documents our digital preservation priorities and our digital preservation policy framework. The documentation will grow as we continue to develop our comprehensive set of policies for digital preservation and as we engage in ongoing preservation planning.

While the site focuses primarily on ICPSR, others interested in digital preservation may find it helpful as a guide in planning their own preservation-related policies and strategies.

2007-09-10

Terrorism & Preparedness Data Resource Center Launched

ICPSR and the University of Maryland's consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism -- START -- are pleased to announce the formal launch of the Terrorism & Preparedness Data Resource Center (TPDRC) Web site. TPDRC is a clearinghouse for news and research data related to terrorism and preparedness around the world. TPDRC is jointly managed by researchers from the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice, and staff at the University of Michigan's National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.

TPDRC archives and distributes data collected by government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and researchers about the nature of intra- (domestic) and international terrorism, organizations, perpetrators, and victims; governmental and nongovernmental responses to terror and natural disasters, including primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions; and, citizen attitudes towards terrorism, terror incidents, and the response to terror. TPDRC aims to organize and streamline access to extant research and administrative data from across the world that are relevant to study of terrorism and the response to terrorism, for descriptive and scientific analysis by educators, decision-makers, practitioners, academics, and researchers.

TPDRC is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation.

2007-08-31

The National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP)

NSHAP data is now available for research through the NACDA Program on Aging at ICPSR. There is no Web download for the data, as NSHAP is covered by a restricted-use agreement with the University of Chicago. We will be happy to send you a copy of the study, but we will require three documents.

1. We need a copy of your IRB approval for use of the data for your project. This will typically fall under an Exempt 4 classification for secondary data analysis.
2. We will need a secure data storage plan, which is essentially a written description of how the NSHAP data will be stored on site, and how the data will be protected from unauthorized access on your computer network.
3. We need a signed data use agreement which we will supply to you when you we have requirements 1 and 2 in hand.

Due to the sensitive nature of many NSHAP questions, these documents have been developed to provide essential protection for study respondents. Their completion allows NACDA to release the restricted data version of NSHAP for secondary analysis. We will be happy to answer any questions or assist as possible in the preparation of these materials.

Please contact the director of the Program on Aging at any time by email (jmcnally@umich.edu) or by telephone (734-615-9520).

Sincerely,
James McNally, Director
NACDA, Program on Aging

2007-08-24

Merged CPES Data and Web Site Now Available

ICPSR and Survey Research Operations of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, are pleased to announce the release of the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), which provide data on the distributions, correlates, and risk factors of mental disorders among the general population, with special emphasis on minority groups. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Heath, this project joins together three nationally representative surveys: the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), and the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS).

The CPES Web site provides a number of ways to explore the CPES data:

• Use the Interactive Documentation to compare questions and variables across the merged CPES file and the three separate files

• Download the data in ASCII, SPSS portable, SAS transport, or Stata system format along with the documentation for desktop analysis

• Investigate and visualize the CPES data through the SDA online analysis system, which enables a variety of analytic tasks

• Search on specific variables or topics of interest

• Browse the CPES data by DSM-IV or ICD-10 diagnostic headings

More information on using CPES is found on the Web site.

2007-07-18

Enchanced ICPSR Authentication Allows Off-Campus Download

ICPSR is pleased to inform you that it has enhanced its authentication protocol to enable users at ICPSR Direct institutions to download data from off-campus without using a proxy server. Users can now download data from home and when traveling.

How does it work?

In order to download data from off-campus, all you need to do is log on to the ICPSR Web site from a campus computer. Do this once at the beginning of the semester, and your account is flagged for off-campus access for the next six months.

Every time you log on from a campus computer, it revalidates your account for off-campus downloading, so you really only need to visit your campus once a semester.

How do I start?

Just get on a campus workstation and log on to the ICPSR Web site. If you don't have a MyData account already, you'll need to create one. The rest happens automatically.

How do I validate for off-campus access if I'm already off-campus?

If for some reason you were unable to log on before leaving campus for an extended period of time, just contact ICPSR User Support at netmail@icpsr.umich.edu or contact your OR directly. Our staff will verify your status with your OR and flag your account so that you are validated for off-campus downloading.

2007-07-09

ISR-ICPSR Project Receives NIH Grant to Harmonize Fertility Surveys

The National Institutes of Health, Demographic and Behavioral Science Branch, recently awarded researchers at ICPSR and the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research a five-year grant to produce a harmonized dataset of U.S. family and fertility surveys spanning the period 1955-2002. Pamela Smock, Research Professor in the U-M Population Studies Center, is the Principal Investigator of the project.

Surveys to be harmonized include the 1955 and 1960 Growth of American Families (GAF); the 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Survey (NFS); and the 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (Cycles 1-6 of the NSFG). This new Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) and its associated data products will facilitate analyses across nearly a 50-year period, yielding new insights into changes in fertility and the family.

2007-06-25

2006 General Social Survey Data Available

The 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) data are now available from ICPSR. The GSS is a personal interview survey of U.S. households conducted by the National Opinion Research Center with James A. Davis, Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden as principal investigators. The 2006 study contains cumulative data from 1972 to 2006, with over 4,500 respondents interviewed in 2006. For the first time, the GSS contains data collected from interviews conducted in Spanish.

In addition to the standard topics, the 2006 survey contains the following topics: quality of working life, attitudes towards firearms, shared capitalism, level of disability, use of foreign languages, mental health attitudes and experiences, participation in congregations, knowledge about and attitudes towards science, religious trends, and sexual behavior. The 2006 International Social Survey Program data focus on the role of government and work orientation, with special emphasis on social-welfare and economic regulation, civil liberties, spending priorities, and political efficacy.

General Social Surveys, 1972-2006: [Cumulative File] (ICPSR 4697) is available in the following formats: ASCII data with SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files, SAS transport (XPORT) file, SPSS portable file, and Stata system file.

2007-06-01

New ICPSR Member Institutions

ICPSR is pleased to announce that several new institutions have joined the Consortium since March 2007. We extend a sincere welcome to the following new members:

• American Solutions
• Chapman University
• Chuo University (Japanese National)
• University of Dayton
• Drew University
• Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon (French National)
• Economics Education and Research Consortium (Russia)
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• Bank for International Settlements (Swiss National)
• Lake Forest College
• Maastricht University (Dutch National)
• Meharry Medical College
• National Library of Education
• Norwalk Community College
• Osaka University of Economics (Japanese National)
• Universite de Paris I (French National)
• Saint Olaf College (ACM Federation)
• University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh
• Yokohama University (Japanese National)

2007-06-01

NACDA's award-winning poster recaps 25-year NCHS-ICPSR partnership

The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging will exhibit its award-winning poster reviewing the 25-year partnership of ICPSR and the National Center for Health Statistics at a conference commemorating 50 years of the National Health Interview Survey in metropolitan Washington, D.C. On Monday, June 25, 2007, James W. McNally, PhD, and Martha Sayre, BS, of the University of Michigan, will present the poster, "Promoting Research with the National Health Interview Survey: Innovation and Change across the 25-Year Partnership of NCHS and ICPSR: 1982 to 2007." Other NACDA researchers collaborating on the poster are Joyce French and Becki Shepard.

2007-05-30

Subscribe to ICPSR announcements through RSS feeds

Readers may now subscribe to ICPSR's RSS feed to receive the latest announcements from ICPSR, including notice of new study releases.

When you are on the ICPSR home page, click on the RSS icon that appears in the address bar in order to subscribe to ICPSR announcements via RSS feed. You must be using an RSS-enabled browser (such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 7) or other news reader.

2007-05-21

Pienta and Colleagues Examine Impact of Mothering on Well-Being in Midlife

Amy M. Pienta, ICPSR Associate Research Scientist and Director of Data Acquisitions, has coauthored an article on factors impacting women's well-being in midlife that will be published in the June issue of the International Journal of Aging and Human Development.

Coauthors of the article are University of Florida researcher, Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox, who is lead author of the study, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill graduate student in Sociology, Tyson Brown.

Analyzing data from over 6,000 women between the ages of 51 and 61 from two different national surveys, Pienta said the research shows that "Whether a woman has had children or not isn't likely to affect her psychological well-being in later life. What is more important is whether or not she has a husband, a significant other or close social relationships in her life as she ages."

View the University of Michigan News Service article.

2007-05-03

ICPSR joins the Digital Library Federation

The University of Michigan Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) has joined the Digital Library Federation (DLF) as an allied member.

The largest computerized social science archive in the world, ICPSR is part of the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). Established in 1962, ICPSR has over 550 member institutions working together to acquire and preserve, provide access to, and promote the effective use of social science data. Partnerships and cooperative arrangements with other major data archives enable ICPSR to reach an even broader audience. The unique combination of data resources, user support, and training in quantitative methods make ICPSR a vital resource for fostering inquiry and furthering the social sciences.

"We are very pleased to have been approved as an Allied Member of DLF," said Myron Gutmann, director of ICPSR. "As we transform from a social science data archive to a social science digital archive that encompasses a broadening range of digital content, we look forward to having access to the wealth of digital asset expertise that DLF membership represents. This membership offers the potential for sharing information, forging new partnerships and collaborations, and exploring less familiar digital arenas. We will reciprocate for these benefits by sharing our expertise in the areas of social science research and data stewardship, by seeking ways to extend our instructional programs to DLF members, and participating in the development of good practice and guidance for digital content of all kinds."

"I am delighted that ICPSR has accepted our invitation to join," said Peter Brantley, executive director of DLF. "Our collective interests and experience in making available diverse collections of social science data, long-term digital preservation, and the promotion of scholarship and instruction is a wonderful opportunity for both organizations as we explore new architectures for collaboration."

As an allied member, ICPSR joins four other DLF allies in the commitment to providing long-term access to the digital intellectual and scholarly record: the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library, and the OCLC Online Computer Library Center (OCLC).

The Digital Library Federation was founded in 1995 as an international association of libraries and allied institutions. Its mission is to enable new research and scholarship of its members, students, scholars, lifelong learners, and the general public by developing an international network of digital libraries. Its partnership with 39 academic libraries and related organizations facilitates the use of electronic-information technologies to extend their collections and services. DLF also provides leadership for libraries by identifying standards and best practices for digital collections and network access, coordinating research and development in the libraries' use of technology, and fostering projects and services that libraries need but cannot develop individually.

For more information contact Bree Gunter, bgunter@umich.edu, (734) 615-8400.

2007-05-14

McGovern article assesses progress in digital preservation

Nancy Y. McGovern, Digital Preservation Officer at ICPSR, published the article, "A Digital Decade: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going in Digital Preservation?" in the April 15 edition of RLG DigiNews.

McGovern reviews the progress within the digital preservation field over the past decade as reflected on the pages of the journal RLG DigiNews. The author reviews three essential components for developing feasible digital preservation strategies: organization, technology, and resources. A decade ago there were no formal shared standards or practice for digital preservation. Important organizational developments over the past ten years include the development and promulgation of the RLG/OCLC report on the Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository (TDR), an increase in the development of digital preservation policies by organizations, and an acknowledgment of the central role of procedural accountability for audit and certification. Notable technology developments include the OAIS Reference Model and open source repository software and tools. While understanding of the need for resources for digital preservation has improved, more organizations should designate funds for digital preservation, and the digital preservation field would benefit from a community document that addresses resources.

View the article at RLG DigiNews, April 15, Vol. 11, No. 1
http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=21033s

2007-04-30

New Summer Workshop on Writing Proposals for International Criminological Research

Dates: August 20-23, 2007 Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

This three-and-a-half-day workshop, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and held at the University of Michigan, will help new researchers develop and refine skills needed to develop successful proposals for international criminological research. The course will cover developing the basics of the proposal, designing doable and fundable research, creating an integrated proposal and identifying appropriate research methods. Researchers will gain an understanding of the NIJ application procedures. The intensive workshop will also offer opportunities for hands-on activities, including mock peer reviews and small group assignments. Student selection is competitive and selected students will receive a stipend.

Instructors: Cindy Smith, Ph.D., and Jennifer Hanley of the National Institute of Justice

For more information and to register for the course:
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog/courses/2007-03-48.html

About the Instructors

Dr. Smith received her PhD from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She is a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar, having recently returned from Ankara, Turkey, where she conducted research on trafficking in human beings. Dr. Smith has a diverse research portfolio and related publications. She has been grant funded by state and federal agencies for the last 10 years in topics that include trafficking in human beings, prison-based therapeutic communities, correctional industries, strategic planning, juvenile sex offenders, juvenile jurisdictional waivers, chronic juvenile offenders, juvenile intervention program evaluation, and juvenile gender issues. She has published internationally on suicide terrorism, elderly victims of financial abuse, restorative justice in the United Nations, and transnational crime and technology methods.

Jennifer L. Hanley is a Social Science Analyst with the International Center at the National Institute of Justice. She manages research on transnational crimes, including terrorism and human trafficking.

2007-04-20

ICPSR Guide Now Available in Japanese

ICPSR's Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving: Best Practice Throughout the Data Life Cycle (Third Edition, 2005) has been translated into Japanese by Dr. Yukio Maeda of the Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo. The Japanese edition of the Guide is available in PDF format at the Social Sciences of Japan Data Archive Web site: https://ssjda.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/.

2007-04-20

Leonard-Gutmann Article Wins Great Plains Research Award

An article coauthored by ICPSR Research Scientist Susan Hautaniemi Leonard and ICPSR Director Myron Gutmman has won the Leslie Hewes Award for best social science article published in Great Plains Research in 2006. "Land Use and Transfer Plans in the U.S. Great Plains," examines the results of a survey of farmers and their spouses between 1997 and 1999. The authors found that farm transfer trends indicated increasing farm consolidation, changes in farm ownership and management, and loss of land for farm production. Participants were ambiguous about their plans to leave farming, transfer land to others, and even about long-term land use, largely due to concerns about the continued economic viability of farming. Participants living far from metropolitan areas expected to sell or rent to other farmers, while those near residential real estate markets expected to sell to developers. Delays in planning for retirement and succession were common, further threatening the success of intergenerational transitions.

2007-03-30

National Academies Report Explores Confidentiality Protection

On March 19, the National Research Council released a book-length report titled, "Putting People on the Map: Protecting Confidentiality With Linked Social Spatial Data." ICPSR Director Myron P. Gutmann chaired the National panel that authored the report and he coedited the report with Paul C. Stern.

The report examines the challenges of protecting confidential information about research participants when confidential data and spatial data are linked. While the risk of compromising participant confidentiality increases with such linked data, important new research is made possible because of it. The report suggests methods that will allow this type of research to grow while protecting confidentiality.

View the report

2007-03-28

2007 Summer Program Registration Now Live

Registration is now open for the 2007 ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research. Go to the Summer Program Web site to see the new time schedule, course descriptions, and other information about attending our Summer Program courses.

In addition to our core courses in research design, statistics, data analysis, and methodology, the Program offers the following new and noteworthy courses this year:

Four-Week Courses:

• Measurement of Race and Ethnicity
• Historical Demography

Three-to Five-Day Workshops:

• National Long-Term Care Survey
• Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys
• Introduction to CrimeStat 3.0
• Introduction to Spatial Analysis
• Spatial Regression Analysis
• American Community Survey
• Child Care & Early Education Research Themes

2007-02-26

Changes to the ICPSR Web Site

Many of the 2007 changes are not entirely visible to the end user, but nevertheless very important. We've made some changes to the core structure of the site to better prepare for the future and to better meet our obligations to the funding agencies that supply us with data.

Visible Changes

New Visual Design
We've re-done the visual design with an eye for more vibrant colors and softer lines/images.

Revised Navigation
We reviewed the navigation and made some significant changes to it, including the addition of rollover menus so that users can quickly proceed to their destination. We also added a Quick Links function to the front page, and made it easier to access MyData options from any page on the site.

MyData Widget
We have deployed a function on the staging server that displays the user's name in the upper right corner of the page if s/he is logged in, so that there's a visual indication of whether or not the person is logged in.

Revised Download Page
OR feedback indicated that they wanted us to leave the download page alone, and so we've made only minor modifications. The "download individual files" option has been removed (as will be explained later), and we moved away from three-column orientation, as this was creating display problems on some browsers.

Improved Tabs
The navigational tabs that accompany any study have been revised so that they only show when applicable. I.e., you will no longer see a Related Literature tab when we have no citations for that study. You will not see an Analyze & Subset tab if there are no online data analysis components for the study.

New Notification Services
We've added a new notification service; users can now request to be notified via email when studies are released or updated in series they select.

Featured Archive
The front page of our site now features a random text/image function that displays a screen shot and blurb about a randomly chosen topical archive. If you hit the refresh button on your browser, it chooses another archive.

Review Cart
The review cart screen has been improved so that it's easier to selectively removes studies/datasets/files from your data cart.

Subtle Changes

Revised Terms of Use
We've changed our authentication system such that terms of use are no longer presented at the beginning of the process. Rather, the user will be presented with terms of use when s/he attempts to actually download the files, and the terms will be reflective of the files in his/her cart. This will enable the various funding agencies to be confident that their data are being distributed under their terms, regardless of which particular site the data is accessed from. Furthermore, this will make it much easier for ICPSR to accommodate special restrictions on individual studies, datasets, or files.

Updated Content
Thanks to the assistance of our CNS team, we have been able to build a very nice content tracking system that makes it very easy to spot which pages are in need of updates. In addition this system sends out email notification to the folks responsible for the content. For the 2007 site, all of our pages have been reviewed and updated. In addition, we made an effort to weed out unneeded pages, so that the users are less likely to presented with a massive amount of results when searching the Web site itself.

Revised Folder Structure
Previously ICPSR content sat in the root directory of our Web server. It now sits in an ICPSR folder, making the ICPSR Web site parallel to the topical archives. This will make it much easier to look at ICPSR Web usage apart from topical archive usage. It will also make it easier to change the ICPSR Web site without impacting other projects.

Fresh Cocoon Installation
Thanks to CNS's hard work, we have a new install of Cocoon on the new site. Cocoon now sits at www.icpsr.umich.edu, instead of webapp.icpsr.umich.edu. This means that users should experience fewer access problems when using proxy servers and heavily locked-down firewalls. Furthermore, we've been very careful with the new Cocoon setup and have created folder/files in such a way that individual projects are completely independent of one another. Small changes to the XML/XSLT code in one project will no longer inadvertently impact other projects.

PRA/Fasttrack
PRA and Fasttrack have both been changed. PRA files are now archived and downloaded via the traditional interface we use for studies. Fasttrack files are now Web downloads, not FTP. This means that users are seeing consistent download procedures, or at least downloading styles that are not unfamiliar.

Future Changes

It's important to note that we have a number of changes in store for the months after the new Web site launches.

New Search Engine
We will be receiving the Google Search Appliance (GSA) in early April and will spend the month testing and deploying it. Per Google's terms, if we're unhappy with the product, we can return it by the end of April and pay nothing. We're fairly confident it will meet our needs, however. The GSA will enable us to do a number of things:

• We'll be able to get past the 500 search results limit of our current search engine.

• True date searching of multiple date fields, like time period and date of collection.

• The ability to search the Web site, data holdings, and bibliography of data-related literature using the same search engine, and thus the same search rules/interface.

• We'll have a truly scaleable search engine that can grow to the upper limit of our goals. If we were to mark up every study in DDI XML and create a full variable search, it would include ~206 million variables. The GSA is one of the few products that could easily scale to meet that volume. Admittedly it would take years to mark up everything, but we'd at least have a foundation to build upon.

Revised Member Institution List
We're going to phase out the traditional list of member institutions, which is the primary means by which users find out if their institution is part of ICPSR, and who their OR is. Instead, we're going to offer a simple search so that users can much more easily answer their questions.

2007-03-19

Article Proposes Building Researcher-Repository Partnerships

Myron Gutmann, Director of ICPSR and Professor of History at the University of Michigan, and Ann Green of Digital Life Cycle Research and Consulting have published an article titled, "Building Partnerships Among Social Science Researchers, Institution-based Repositories and Domain Specific Data Archives." OCLC systems services: international digital library perspectives. v. 23, no. 1, 2007.

The authors propose that in developing and debating digital repositories, the digital library world has devoted more attention to their missions and roles in supporting access to and stewardship of academic research output than to discussing discipline- or domain-specific digital repositories. Their paper juxtaposes these two kinds of repositories and suggests ways that they can help build partnerships between themselves and with the research community.

You may view the preprint through Deep Blue at the University of Michigan.

2007-03-06

ICPSR Annual Report

ICPSR's 2005-2006 Annual Report (PDF 1.1MB) highlights the theme "Outreach and Innovation." It features photos of the completed addition to the Perry Building; the new lobby of ISR Perry with ICPSR Director, Myron Gutmann, Institute for Social Research Director, James Jackson, and Survey Research Center Director, Bob Groves; along with candid shots of ICPSR staff and visitors throughout the year. Gutmann and ICPSR Council Chair, Ruth Peterson, report on the organization's achievements over the year. The report is sprinkled with fun facts and figures about ICPSR activities and milestones. Also included are summary statistics on data processing and distribution, information about the Summer Program in Quantiative Methods, the end-of-year financial summary, membership information, and research insights.

2007-02-02

New ICPSR Member Institutions

ICPSR is pleased to announce that several new institutions have joined the Consortium since October, 2006. We extend a sincere welcome to the following new members:

• Macomb Community College
• Whittier College
• York College of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Federation)
• Reinhardt College (ACS Federation)
• New College of Florida
• University of Texas, Pan American
• University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Federation)
• University of South Dakota
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York
• Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Swiss National)
• Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Swiss National)
• University of Basel (Swiss National)
• University of Berne (Swiss National)
• University of Fribourg (Swiss National)
• University of Lausanne (Swiss National)
• University of Neuchatel (Swiss National)
• University of St. Gallen (Swiss National)
• Institute of Social Studies (Dutch National)
• Yeungnam University (Korean National)
• Kyung Hee University (Korean National)
• Ecole Normale Superieure (French National)
• University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (established Thai National Membership)

2007-02-06