conference programme book - European Survey Research ...

TUESDAY 19 JULY 531 Freie Universität Berlin, GermanyComparave research on Civil Society oen focuses on organizaons as the unit of analysis. Voluntary nonstate,non-market associaons are seen as an indicator for the extensity and intensity of a more or less ”civil”society. However, fundamental quesons about civil sociees demand a complementaon in the relevant unitsof analysis. Therefore the presentaon will not address the comparison of nonprofit organizaon density bycountry, but discuss the following research queson: How can the normave dimension of civil society becompared empirically and what role can the CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) play thereby?1.28 The role and benefit of structured metadata in survey research ITo be held on July 19, 2011 from: 16:00 to 17:30, in room 414.Coordinated by: Joachim Wackerow - GESIS - Leibniz Instute for the Social Sciences, Germany1.28.1 Overview of the Data Documentaon Iniave (DDI) Metadata Standard: Goals and BenefitsM. Vardigan 11 ICPSR, United StatesMetadata are costly to produce but essenal to effecve data analysis. Thus, it makes good sense to createmetadata that are (1) machine-aconable with the capability to drive data collecon processes, and (2)reusable across the enre data life cycle.1.28.2 Benefits of Structured DDI Metadata across the Data Lifecycle: The STARDAT Project at the GESISData ArchiveM. Linne 1 , E. Brislinger 1 , W. Zenk-Möltgen 11 GESIS - Leibniz Instute for the Social Sciences, GermanyHigh quality data and documentaon of survey datasets is needed by social sciensts during the research process.The Data Documentaon Iniave (DDI) uses the idea of the data life cycle across the stages of discoveryand planning, inial data collecon, data preparaon and analysis, publicaon and sharing, and long-termmanagement. The GESIS Data Archive already uses several tools to create standardized documentaon onstudy and on dataset level to fulfil the needs of the scienfic community.Current examples for the benefits of structured metadata are the quesonnaire development of the 4th waveof the European Values Study, which has been supported by the documentaon of the 3rd wave, and thesupport for enhanced publicaons, which enables researchers to indicate the datasets they have used in theirpublicaons.1.28.3 The Use of Structured Survey Instrument Metadata throughout the Data LifecycleS. Hansen 11 University of Michigan, United StatesComputer-assisted survey soware packages such as Blaise store queson-level metadata that are associatedwith the survey data collected. The Michigan Quesonnaire Documentaon System (MQDS) extracts thosemetadata from a Blaise metadata file and outputs them to a DDI3 compliant XML file. Once those metadataare available, they may be used and reused throughout the data lifecycle to document and compare versionsof the survey instrument, document preliminary and cleaned datasets, produce codebooks, and to harmonizeand disseminate data.This presentaon will follow the flow of a study’s queson-level metadata from a Blaise survey instrumentvia MQDS, and follow their and reuse throughout the data lifecycle phases of instrument design, tesng, datacollecon, data processing, and data disseminaon.