Accessing and Using ESDS Government

surveys

Vanessa HigginsESDS Government

Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR)

University of Manchester

My mission…

• Intro to Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) and how we can help you

• What data is available and what it is like

• Registration and access

• Issues when using the data

ESDS Government• ESDS began in Jan 03 and comprises 4 specialist services

– ESDS Government– ESDS Longitudinal– ESDS Qualidata– ESDS International

• ESDS Government services are split between too organisations: UKDA and CCSR at University of Manchester (headed by Prof Angela Dale)

• ESDS Government provides: – access to the key large-scale government surveys such as Labour Force

Survey, Expenditure and Food Survey (UKDA)– user support for the key large-scale

government surveys (CCSR)

                     

                     

User support- some of the things we do!

• Helpdesk (FAQs and notes)• Survey pages incl. how to get started, news etc• User Group seminars • Workshops and events• Publications Database• Usage details• Teaching datasets• Derived variables• Online guides – SPSS, STATA, Weighting,

Employment Research, Health Research, Social Capital, Data Sources for Scotland

• Newsletter and Jisclist• Theme each year

• Employment (2003)• Health (2004)• Social capital (2005)• Ethnicity (2006)

Which surveys do we support?

• General Household Survey• Labour Force Survey• Annual Population Survey• Family Resources Survey • Expenditure and Food Survey (previously the National

Food Survey and Family Expenditure Survey)• ONS Omnibus Survey • National Travel Survey • Time Use Survey • Survey of English Housing (England only)

• Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland • British Crime Survey/Scottish Crime Survey• British Social Attitudes/Scottish Social

Attitudes/Northern Ireland Life & Times/Young People’s Social Attitudes

Integrated Household Survey (Continuous Population

Survey)

• Will bring together – Labour Force Survey– Annual Population Survey – General Household Survey– Expenditure and Food Survey– Omnibus Survey

• Expected to start c. 2008• Materials on our website• IHS Consultation Meeting 23rd January 2006

ESDS Government Surveys

• Microdata• Sample data (large samples)• Nationally representative within the UK (some files cover

only part of UK)• Most focus in-depth on a topic (exception GHS)• Mainly cross-sectional (exceptions GHSL, LFS, IHS)• Mainly face to face (some telephone)• Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI)• Some are household surveys, some one person• Many are continuous• Good quality data (ONS, NatCen)• Good response rates• Many have hierarchical data• Important for policy makers• Excellent sources for secondary analysts• Free!

Hierarchical data

P erson 1M a le

5 6se lf

P erson 2F em ale

5 2sp ou se o f p e rson 1

P erson 3M a le

2 3son o f p e rson 1

F am ily 1

P erson 4F em ale

8 2m oth er o f p e rson 1

F am ily 2

H ou seh o ld 1

P erson 1F em ale

6 7se lf

F am ily 1

H ou seh o ld 2

•Other levels – benefit unit, event

Choosing a dataset for research

• Is secondary analysis appropriate? – And has someone already done the analysis for you?– Check published reports.

• Which datasets cover your main topic?• Which other topics are you interested in?• Measurement over time• Geography• Respondents – whole household, children?• Sample size• This information will be in the documentation • To help with the decision

– ESDS Getting Started guides– ESDS topic guides

Registration• All users can access study descriptions, online

documentation, including questionnaires, free of charge without registering with ESDS

• In order to access the datasets you need to register with ESDS– Register online using your ATHENS username and

password – Simple online form, takes about 10 minutes– You need to register a usage of the data as part of this

process– Non-commercial users: free of charge – Commercial users: £500 Charge for per study and will

need to apply for ATHENs username and password – You need to agree to the End User Licence when

you register

The End User Licence• We need to know who you are, how to contact

you and what you are using the data for• Agree not to attempt to identify individuals• Only use the data for your stated purpose (you can

re-register if you want to use the data for another use)

• Do not pass the data to unregistered parties (that includes deleting the data before passing on PCs!)

• Tell us if you publish using the data• Some more sensitive or detailed datasets require

more stringent licensing procedures– Special conditions: British Crime Survey– Special licences: Annual Population Survey and Labour

Force Survey at the moment

Special Licences• Agreement between ONS and ESDS • Data where the disclosure risk is deemed too high for

standard dissemination methods. E.g.:– Local authority level microdata– Month of birth

• Paper application procedure – Need to agree to stringent data stewardship conditions– Required to read the guide to good practice– Application has to be approved by ONS

• Annual Population Survey and Labour Force Survey at the moment but hope to roll out to other surveys

Registering the data for teaching

• If all students are registered ESDS users, you should register a new use of data, tick ‘teaching only’ and add the name of each student to the usage details

• If students are not registered ESDS users a paper form can be used for teaching

• Lecturer takes responsibility for the class• Students simply fill their details in on a paper

form• Return form to the UK Data Archive

Obtaining data once registered

• Choice of downloading entire files:– SPSS, Stata, tab delimited formats for most files– Comes zipped up with documentation

• Or explore the data and download subsets in Nesstar (c. 200 files in this format – including most of the Government surveys)– Allows you to explore metadata without being

registered– Can do basic exploratory analyses (including

OLS) online without downloading files– Can define subsets to download in a wider range

of formats including SAS

NESSTAR

Good practice: some pointers• Irresponsible use threatens future access; keep data secure • You won’t understand the data unless you consult the

documentation!– Using the correct files– Preparing the variable for analysis

• Consider the impact of the sample design– Sample data has sample error; small cell counts are likely to

be unreliable– Will the sampling design affect the standard errors?– Does weighting need to be applied to avoid bias?

• Do you need to combining datasets for larger sample?• Getting started guides, stats guides and topic guides are available

on the ESDS site • Contact helpdesk if you have any problems or find errors in the

data• User groups and news lists can help keep you informed • Published results from surveys and published

articles that have used the surveys• Survey Link Scheme – can attend an interview

http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sls.htm

Some other useful resources

• Question Bank– Linked to from ESDS– Contains searchable questionnaires for major

surveys– Contains articles about major topics/concepts– Runs the survey link scheme– http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk

• PEAS (Practical Exemplars on the Analysis of Surveys)– Contains learning materials on the impact of

survey design on analysis (e.g. weighting and complex sample designs)

– Uses the government surveys as exemplars– http://www.napier.ac.uk/depts/fhls/peas

• ONS website contains published reports, methodology etc.– http://www.statistics.gov.uk

The important last slide…

Helpdesk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk

(0161)275 1980

Website:http://www.esds.ac.uk/government

JISCmail: esds-govsurveys@jiscmail.ac.uk