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Abstract:
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US federal agencies and departments disseminate statistical data to external researchers for a number of reasons. These include allowing external researchers to conduct analyses in areas of interest to the agencies, to identify data quality issues, or to find new and innovative research and educational uses for existing datasets without further burdening respondents or increasing agency costs. The view expressed by a recent panel of the National Commission on Health Statistics about the best way to promote high quality academic research is shared by many: panel members explicitly stated that researchers needed to access and view original microdata directly in their offices, conduct their analyses, share their results, and engage in discourse about different aspects of the data, the analysis, and the interpretation of the results. Smith (1991) makes a similarly compelling case.
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