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ICPSR Blogs

We use a free blogging tool external link to manage our announcements. We also host some blogs.

Our news blog is used to manage our announcements, and to enable us to quickly and easily share relevant news with our partnering sites. Our User Support blog is set up to manage our frequently asked questions. And we host a blog for ICPSR Official Representatives.

Our blogs provide an easy interface for updating content and allow us to import content (via RSS) directly to our Web site. Our blog tool also provides an intuitive interface for searching all our announcements.

Announcements

NAHDAP releases criminal justice and drug abuse treatment dataset

The National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP) is pleased to announce the release of the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) from the National Criminal Justice Treatment Program Survey (NCJTP) Survey in the United States, 2002-2008.

The NCJTP Survey included participation from key criminal justice administrators, managers, and staff in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the data collected relates to current practices in a range of community correctional settings for adults and juveniles.

The goal of the survey is to describe current practices and policies; examine agency structures; and assess coordination and integration between corrections and treatment systems.

2010-09-08

ICPSR phasing out support of Internet Explorer 6

On October 1, 2010, ICPSR and its partnering Web sites will cease to support Internet Explorer 6. This does not mean that you will not be able to view our sites with IE6; it means that we will no longer test the sites in IE6, nor will we program workarounds for display issues created by flaws in IE6. For the most part, the site will continue to work for IE6 users, though such users may encounter odd display issues.

There are a number of reasons ICPSR is discontinuing support of IE6:

  • IE6 is currently the least secure Web browser available, logging 473 unpatched publicly known vulnerabilities, compared to 53 issues in IE7, 26 in IE8, 1 issue in Opera and Firefox, and zero issues in Google Chrome and Safari. Having a secure browser is essential to responsible data use.

  • IE6 was somewhat limited in adherence to formal Web standards when it was released ten years ago. Since then, Web standards have changed significantly and continue to change. ICPSR is already exploring the transition to HTML5 and CSS3, standards that will not work in IE6 (though they can be made to work in IE7 and IE8, and will be built in to IE9).

  • Approximately 5% of our overall audience is still using IE6, which represents a small segment of our user base. Regrettably, we cannot justify the additional resources necessary to test within the IE6 environment and adjust code accordingly for this small, declining percentage of ICPSR users. Our policy is to look carefully at any browser that dips below 10% of our user base.

If you have any questions, please contact web-support@icpsr.umich.edu. If you'd like more information on the issues surrounding IE6, the following articles provide more information:

2010-09-07

New releases through 2010-09-06

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

New Additions

Updates

2010-09-07

New study released examining barriers to retention in care for HIV+ patients

Continuity, enhancing wellness, and patient engagement are long-term goals in primary care. Factors that influence clients to disengage from care frequently result in patterns of episodic utilization that may compromise the patient's health status and increase their psychosocial vulnerability. Sustaining and retaining HIV-infected patients in care has been a consistent challenge to primary care health systems. Data from a recent study designed to address these issues has recently been released and is available for download through the Center for Population Research in LGBT Health and ICPSR websites.

The study, Retention Challenges for HIV-Infected Primary Care Patients 2001-2004 (Principal Investigators Judith Bradford, Chris Grasso, and Sharon Coleman), surveyed HIV-infected patients who had received care at Fenway Community Health Center but were lost to follow-up in order to examine reasons why HIV+ patients leave care. The project administered telephone and mail surveys to HIV-infected patients who had been determined to be inactive and not meeting the standard of care of four primary-care follow-up visits per year. The survey included demographic questions, insurance questions, potential reasons for stopping care, and whether the participant is receiving care at another facility. Subsequently, the project connected interviewees into the Health System Navigation (HSN) Project to assist them with seeking HIV medical care. Prescreener questions included in the survey established eligibility for referral to the HSN Project. Visit the study home page for more information or to download this newly available data.

2010-09-03

NSF seeks comment on future of social, behavioral and economic research

The National Science Foundation is seeking comments on the direction of its Social, Behavioral, and Economics directorate's efforts to address the "grand challenges" of the future of research.

In a Dear Colleague letter, the directorate's leader Myron Gutmann, former director of ICPSR, said the input received from the research community will help shape how NSF frames its research priorities going forward.

White paper responses to the letter should be no longer than 2,000 words, and are due by the end of September.

Gutmann also addressed the annual conference of the American Sociological Association Aug. 15, outlining the NSF's long-term strategy.

2010-08-16

John Garcia accepts permanent position at ICPSR

John Garcia, head of the Resource Center for Minority Data, has accepted a permanent position at ICPSR effective Aug. 1, 2010. Garcia, formerly with the University of Arizona, will also serve as ICPSR's Director of Community Outreach.

Garcia's association with ICPSR dates back to 1969, when he attended the Summer Program as a graduate student. Since then, he has served as an instructor in the Summer Program and visiting professor. He started as director of the RCMD in August 2009.

His primary areas of research and teaching are: minority group politics, especially Latinos; political behavior; political mobilization; urban politics; social survey research; and public policy.

Garcia has published numerous books, book chapters, and journal articles. In January 2010, Garcia and five other co-authors published Latino Lives in America, a comprehensive analysis of the implications of Latinos' population growth and geographic dispersion for American politics and society. The book was published by Temple University Press.

2010-08-16

ICPSR participating in ASA annual meeting

The educational potential of ICPSR's data collection and the resources on our TeachingWithData.org Web site will be highlighted at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting Aug. 13-17 in Atlanta.

During the pre-convention day on Friday, Aug. 13, ICPSR data will be featured in a workshop led and organized by Roger Woodard of North Carolina State University. The workshop (Session 003), co-sponsored by ICPSR and the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE), is meant to expose statistics instructors to new resources and principles than can improve an introductory statistics course. ICPSR data and materials will be used as an example of classroom-ready resources available on the Web.

Also before the conference, a project to define and assess quantitative literacy in the social sciences and to create content based on the American Community Survey will be the focus of a two-day workshop. The project is a partnership between the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) and ICPSR, and the workshop will be led by SSDAN staff.

On Sunday, Aug. 15, ICPSR's Lynette Hoelter will co-lead a workshop on TeachingWithData.org (Session 176) with John Paul DeWitt of SSDAN. The workshop will include a brief discussion on quantitative literacy, a demonstration of the Web site, which features data-driven exercises, datasets, and pedagogical materials for classroom use.

ICPSR will also have an exhibit booth (#1411) at the conference.

2010-08-11

ICPSR researcher publishes op-ed in Chronicle

ICPSR researcher Felicia LeClere has published an opinion essay in on the Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site on the topic of data sharing.

The piece addresses the emerging paradigm shift toward more sharing of data among funding agencies and scientists. The essay also takes on, point by point, the most common arguments against sharing primary research data.

The movement toward more data sharing is being pushed forward by a new policy at the National Science Foundation requiring grant seekers to provide data-management plans describing how and when data will be shared. The policy is set to be in place around October, according to the NSF.

2010-08-03

China Multi-Generational Panel dataset released

DSDR has released the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset (CMGPD) base file under ICPSR Study # 27063. The China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset is drawn from the population registers compiled by the Imperial Household Agency (neiwufu) in Shengjing, currently the northeast Chinese province of Liaoning, between 1749 and 1909. It provides 1.5 million triennial observations of more than 260,000 residents of approximately 628 communities.

Possible applications of the dataset include the study of relationships between demographic behavior, family organization, and socioeconomic status across the life course and across generations, the influence of region and community on demographic outcomes, and development and assessment of quantitative methods for the analysis of complex longitudinal datasets.

2010-07-13

Study finds diversity of grieving among Alzheimer's caregivers

A new study by ICPSR researcher James McNally reveals racial and ethnic differences in the emotional attitudes of caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients.

Based on analysis of data from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) project lead by Richard Schulz of the University of Pittsburgh, McNally's research finds that Blacks, whites, and Hispanics have differing emotional reactions to caring for Alzheimer's patients and grieving for them when they die.

For example, whites and Hispanics reported a much greater sense of relief upon the care recipient's death than Blacks. White caregivers, in turn, were more likely to report anger than the other two groups.

More detail on the study can be found at the University of Michigan News Service Web site and an interview in MP3 format (4MB). McNally is presenting his research this week at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease put on by the Alzheimer's Association in Honolulu.

2010-07-13

Archived Announcements

Looking for an older announcement? Try visiting the ICPSR News blog external link, where you can find archived announcements as far back as 2001.

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