Enhancing the Dissemination of Data for the Public Good

• Activity Number: 276 - Enhancing the Dissemination of Data for the Public Good
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 4, 2020 : 1:00 PM to 2:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Barbara A. Downs* and Catherine Fitch* and Trent Alexander* and Zachary Whitman*
• Companies: United States Census Bureau and University of Minnesota and University of Michigan and US Census Bureau
• Keywords: Aggregated Tabular Data; Research Data Centers; Virtual Environments; Graphical Data

Abstract

This panel will explore practical ways in which statistical information is made available for the public good. Downs will describe the Federal Statistical Research Data Center program, which provides a centralized means for researchers to request and utilize federal restricted-use microdata. Alexander will describe a new data infrastructure linking U.S. census records from 1940 to the present. When combined with other linked historical census files, this data resource will cover most of the U.S. population between 1850 and 2020. This government-academic collaboration required innovations in data rescue, record linkage, and restricted data access. Fitch will discuss IPUMS data dissemination of integrated census and survey data. IPUMS facilitates comparative and cross-temporal analysis through harmonized coding structures, thorough documentation, and data access tools. Whitman will describe efforts to help researchers better reference aggregated datasets and allow for research projects to link to authors, publications, data, and code with digital object identifiers (DOIs); and provide well documented data and metadata access through application programming interfaces (APIs).