Social Science Data and Software (SSDS) Blog: FYI Archives

January 31, 2012

Announcing Farmshare: a Shared Computing Environment for the Stanford Community

There’s some good news on the horizon for social scientists working with large or complex datasets. As of January 20, 2012, IT Services has launched Farmshare, a shared research computing environment, that is available free of charge to current faculty, staff and students.

Farmshare provides Linux access for general and research computing tasks, and all the machines run the Ubuntu operating system. There are three types of computing environments available through Farmshare, and you can log-in to whichever one is most suited to a specific computing task, or to your computing needs:

* The cardinal machines are for low-intensity uses such as accessing email, chat or newsgroups;
* The corn machines can be used for interactive general computing and research computing tasks that take less than a day to run;
* The barley machines are available for non-interactive, high-intensity tasks that have higher memory and processing requirements. The software installed on these machines includes R, SAS, Stata and MATLAB.

To learn more about Farmshare and how to gain access, go to: http://farmshare.stanford.edu
You can also find out more about Farmshare at: http://itservices.stanford.edu/service/sharedcomputing

Anyone who is interested in learning how to use Farmshare can contact SSDS software consulting at consult-ssds-software@stanford.edu.

An introductory guide is also in the works, so check the SSDS blog for more updates!

Posted by ronbo at 02:04 PM

October 13, 2011

From MAPSS list - Looking for Research Participants? Apply to Winter 11 REP!

The Research Experience Program (REP) is a resource for Stanford social science faculty and graduate students to recruit additional experimental subjects.

REP is accepting Winter 2011 applications. Applications are due Friday, October 21 at 5 pm.

The REP is a program worked in joint with local community colleges to help Stanford faculty and students perform social science research more easily and effectively by providing them access to a larger participant pool. The REP helps provide access to human participants at local community colleges. Participating in REP not only enhances your research by giving you access to a wider subject pool, it is also a great opportunity for students at local community colleges to gain first-hand exposure to experimental research in the social sciences. We accept both laboratory and online studies.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rep-application

For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep/applicants

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Posted by ronbo at 12:03 PM

January 19, 2011

MAPSS list - Looking for Study Participants? Apply to Spring 11 REP!

The Research Experience Program (REP) is accepting Spring 2011 applications. Applications are due Friday, January 28 at 5:00 pm.

The REP is a program worked in joint with local community colleges to help Stanford faculty and students do experimental social science research more easily and effectively. The REP helps provide access to human participants at local community colleges. Participating in REP not only enhances your research by giving you access to a wider subject pool, it is also a great opportunity for students at local community colleges to gain first-hand exposure to experimental research in the social sciences. We accept both laboratory and online studies.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rep-application

For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep/applicants

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Posted by ronbo at 03:43 PM

November 14, 2010

From UKDA News (11/8/2010) - Search for survey questions

Survey Question Bank (SQB) has a new search tool that allows users to search across a subset of key, recent UK social surveys held in the ESDS Data Catalogue. SQB logo

In the week that SQB celebrates its second birthday, the service has unveiled this search tool that is the first of its kind in the UK to cover such a wide range of survey series - 50 - and individual questions - more than 200,000.

Users can link questions to: the survey response (frequency counts), the question as it appears in its native questionnaire, and the full survey dataset available via the ESDS.

* SQB: Survey question search

[Original article here]

Posted by ronbo at 02:10 PM

September 25, 2009

From MAPSS: Need Study Subjects? Apply to Winter 09 REP!

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Winter 2009 applications. Applications are due Friday October 23rd at 5:00 pm.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/apply-to-rep

For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep and click on the Researcher-Applicant link.

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Thanks!

Posted by ronbo at 07:19 PM

August 26, 2009

From Census Product Update: Hot Tip - Three Ways To Search the Census Web Site

First, in the upper right-hand corner of the Census web page, click "FAQs," for the Question and Answer Center. Here you can search our dynamic set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or submit your question online for a quick emailed response.

Second, in the upper right hand corner of the Census home page you can type your search terms into the white text box and click "Go." This produces a search of the entire Census Bureau web site, along with the first several FAQs related to your search terms.

Third, click "Subjects A-Z" for hyperlinks to hundreds of Census subject areas and concepts on our website.

With these methods of locating data on the web site, you will be on your way toward locating Census data!

Posted by ronbo at 10:41 AM

July 30, 2009

From IRiSS: Looking for Study Participants? Apply to Fall 09 Stanford REP!

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Fall 2009 applications. Applications are due August 28th at 5:00 pm.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/apply-to-rep

For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep/applicants

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Fall 09 Application Due: Friday, August 28th 5:00 pm
Winter 10 Application Due: Friday October 23rd, 5:00 pm
Spring 10 Application Due: Friday January 22, 5:00 pm
Summer 10 Application Due: Friday April 23, 5:00 pm

Posted by ronbo at 06:02 PM

April 08, 2009

Call for applications - National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program - Summer 2009

*CALL FOR APPLICATIONS*

*NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES PROGRAM
GREAT WESTERN DEVELOPMENT, RURAL PEASANTS, AND WATER POLICY ACROSS
CHINA’S LOESS PLATEAU
*
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Central Washington University and the National Science Foundation (NSF),
in cooperation with the Center for Historical Environment and
Socioeconomic Development of Shaanxi Normal University, the Northwest
Socioeconomic Development Research Center at Northwest University of
China, and the Qinghai University for Nationalities announce the call
for applications for the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) program GREAT WESTERN DEVELOPMENT, RURAL PEASANTS, AND WATER
POLICY ACROSS CHINA’S LOESS PLATEAU for summer 2009. This unique program
in social science research will be conducted in Ellensburg, WA, Gansu,
Qinghai, and Shaanxi provinces of China in the summer of 2009. Twelve
highly-qualified undergraduates and a team of faculty mentors will
undertake collaborative research on how economic development and
societal change is impacting China’s already precarious environmental
position across the Yellow River loess plateau. The seven-week program
will be conducted between June 16 and August 4, 2009.

The program’s primary objective is to mentor students through the
complete process of designing a research agenda and performing primary
research in the social sciences at an international field site. It
includes a unique combination of close mentoring, student/faculty
teamwork, multidisciplinary research, and international field
experience. Student participation will be encouraged from all fields of
the social sciences including sociology, anthropology, geography,
environmental studies, economics, political science, Asia-Pacific
studies, history, and land/resource management. Juniors and
non-graduating seniors are particularly encouraged to apply. Graduate
students are not eligible. Applicants are limited to U.S. citizens and
permanent residents.

Faculty mentors include Richard Mack (economics), Hong Xiao (sociology),
and James Cook (Asian Studies) of Central Washington University, and
Roberta Soltz (biology). We will also be working with a large team of
Chinese researchers and students.

*Costs of participation (travel, room, board), including the payment of
a significant research stipend, will be paid by the program. Student
participants are responsible for their travel to/from Central Washington
University, passport and visa fees, and personal incidentals.*

*Deadline for applications is April 20, 2009*. Additional information
and application forms can be found at
http://www.cwu.edu/~studyabroad/faculty-led.html.

Or contact Rebecca Garate in the Study Abroad & Exchange Programs office
via email (garater@cwu.edu ) or phone
(509-963-3620).

Central Washington University is an EEO/AA/Title IX Institution/TDD.

Posted by ronbo at 06:27 PM

March 31, 2009

From MAPSS list: Want more subjects for your study? Apply to Summer 09 REP! (Due: 4/10)

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Summer 2009 applications. Applications are due April 10th at 5:00 pm.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/apply-to-rep

For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep/applicants

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Posted by ronbo at 03:54 PM

December 09, 2008

IRiSS: Get Free Subjects-Apply to Spring 2009 REP

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Spring 2009 applications. Applications are due January 16th, 2009 at 5:00 pm.

The REP is a program worked in joint with local community colleges to help Stanford faculty and graduate students do experimental social science research more easily and effectively. The REP helps provide access to human participants at local community colleges. Participating in REP not only enhances your research by giving you access to a wider subject pool, it is also a great opportunity for students at local community colleges to gain first-hand exposure to experimental research in the social sciences. We accept both laboratory (especially laboratory experiments that can take place up at Foothill College) and online studies.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/apply-to-rep

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Happy Holidays!

Posted by ronbo at 06:47 PM

September 25, 2008

From MAPSS: Need subjects? Apply to Winter 09 REP!

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Winter 2009 applications. Applications are due October 10, 2008 at 5:00 pm.

If you intend to apply for Spring 2009, applications are due January 16th at 5:00 pm.

The website for applications can be found at: http://opinio.stanford.edu/opinio/s?s=957

Posted by ronbo at 01:46 PM

August 21, 2008

Sign Up for the Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS)

Don't Forget to Sign Up for the Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) when you choose your classes this upcoming quarter. We bring in distinguished researchers from across the social sciences to provide useful lessons on broadly applicable methods for data collection and analysis.

PoliSci 402 or Comm 310

MAPSS will be held each thursday from 12:15 to 1:30 PM in Bldg 200, Room 124 (History Corner) and Pizza will be served.

This quarter, MAPSS will be focusing on Hierarchical Linear Modeling and we will be working from first steps and theory through best practices. Speakers are still being lined up for the quarter and will be announced soon. As MAPSS is a colloquium, individuals are welcome to attend any lectures of interest regardless of registration (though individuals who do register are expected to attend).

You can also sign up for 3 quarters of MAPSS to get a Graduate Certificate in Social Science Methodology (additional social science methodology courses may be required). The certificate will demonstrate your methodological competence as you search for jobs when leaving Stanford. See the certificate page for more information (http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/cert/index.html).

MAPSS is an interdisciplinary methodology program designed to expose researchers to diverse modes of data collection and analysis from across the social sciences. MAPSS offers a colloquium series, a workshop, a graduate certificate program, and various research resources. If you would like to learn more about the Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS), please check out our website at mapss.stanford.edu.

Archives

* 2007-2008 Fall colloquium series schedule
* 2006-2007 colloquium series schedule
* 2005-2006 colloquium series schedule

The Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences is a program of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences

Posted by ronbo at 06:44 PM

August 15, 2008

Reminder: CSES short course at APSA

Dear CSES colleagues,

We want to remind you about the below CSES short course, which is being held later this month at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Boston. There are a few spots still available. If you or someone you know would like to attend, please send an email to "cses@umich.edu" and let us know. The short course is being held on Wednesday August 27, and there is no cost involved.

Best wishes,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies, Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)

-----

American Political Science Association (APSA)
2008 Annual Meeting Short Course
Wednesday August 27, 2008
9:30am - 5:00pm

New Opportunities, New Challenges: The CSES Data Set
Electoral Research Using Data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems

Instructors:

John Aldrich, Duke University
André Blais, Université de Montréal
Matt Golder, Florida State University
Matthew Singer, University of Connecticut

Description:

John Aldrich and André Blais will begin with an introduction to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project (CSES; http://www.cses.org) and its data, along with some examples of it in use. Matt Golder and Matthew Singer will then address a variety of methodological issues, problems and potentials that arise from working with such data, using CSES Modules 1 and 2. The instructors will then work with the participants on issues and concerns that arise in their own research.

Goals for the participants:

A first goal is exposure and familiarization with a remarkably rich set of data newly available, with consideration of both its strengths and limitations. A second goal is to develop an appreciation of negotiating a dataset with macro and micro components and some contextual variation within nations, with the goal of generalization across nations. Thirdly, we intend to discuss methodological issues in using cross-national individual level data. Most important is the goal of developing an appreciation of the theoretical issues that arise in a series of surveys designed to advance our understanding of the practice of democracy through elections.

The afternoon will consist of direct consultation, with the instructors being available to discuss with participants their own related research projects.

Participants are invited to bring their laptops, equipped with their statistical package of choice, for use in the afternoon session. Internet access will not be available to participants - while CSES datasets will be made available on CD, if you already use CSES data please bring your datasets with you on your laptop.

Prerequisites:

Some statistical knowledge for analyzing large N data sets, some knowledge of a "standard" package, such as STATA, and some knowledge of CSES.

Registration:

Registration is required, as the class size is limited. To register, please send an email to: cses@umich.edu

When registering, participants are invited to provide a description of their current research projects using CSES data that they might like to use or discuss in the workshop setting. Suggestions of considerations participants would like to see addressed in the short course are welcomed.

Posted by ronbo at 02:18 PM

June 27, 2008

ANES Announces a New Associate Principal Investigator

The American National Election Studies is pleased to announce that Dr. Vincent Hutchings has been named Associate Principal Investigator. Dr. Hutchings has been a member of the ANES Board of Overseers since 2005. He will serve in this capacity for the rest of this year and throughout 2009. In this role, he will participate in all aspects of project planning.

Professor Hutchings' research interests include public opinion, elections, voting behavior, and African American politics. His book entitled "Public Opinion and Democratic Accountability: How Citizens Learn About Politics" focuses on how, and under what circumstances, citizens monitor (and consequently influence) their elected representative's voting behavior. Professor Hutchings also studies how the size of the African American constituency in congressional districts can influence legislative responsiveness to Black interests. The most recent product of this research has been published in the Journal of Politics.

Professor Hutchings is also interested in the ways that campaign communications can "prime" various group identities and subsequently affect candidate evaluations. This research examines how campaign communications can subtly---and not so subtly---prime voter's racial (and other group-based) attitudes and subsequently affect their political decisions. Research from this project has been published in the American Political Science Review and Public Opinion Quarterly. This project is currently being developed into a book-length manuscript.

ANES welcomes Professor Hutchings in his new role and is grateful for his ongoing contributions to the ANES.

Sincerely,

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
ANES Principal Investigators

The ANES is a collaboration of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) at Stanford University, with funding by the National Science Foundation.

Posted by ronbo at 04:13 PM

June 26, 2008

2008 Joint Statistical Meetings

The 2008 Joint Statistical Meetings will be held August 3 - 7, 2008 at the Colorado Convention Center located at 700 14th Street, Denver, CO 80202.

JSM (the Joint Statistical Meetings) is the largest gathering of statisticians held in North America. It is held jointly with the American Statistical Association, the International Biometric Society (ENAR and WNAR), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the Statistical Society of Canada. Attended by over 5000 people, activities of the meeting include oral presentations, panel sessions, poster presentations, continuing education courses, exhibit hall (with state-of-the-art statistical products and opportunities), career placement service, society and section business meetings, committee meetings, social activities,and networking opportunities.

For more information, visit 2008 Joint Statistical Meetings.

Posted by yan at 10:18 PM

June 16, 2008

CSES Announcement: Help Shape the Future of CSES

Note to Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) User Community

Colleagues,

The Module 3 Planning Committee is now nearing the end of its work, and a new Module 4 Planning Committee will take its place in 2009. The current Planning Committee met in Warsaw on 26 April and outlined the next steps in the transition.

The transition affords two opportunities for you to help shape the future of CSES: by suggesting potential members for the new Module 4 Planning Committee, and by suggesting possible substantive themes for Module 4.

NEW MODULE 4 PLANNING COMMITTEE

The CSES rules specify a 50 percent turnover of members on the Planning Committee from one module to the next, and that a Nominating Committee be established to consider the composition of the new Committee. A Nominating Committee has been established consisting of Hans-Dieter Klingemann (Social Science Research Center, Berlin), Jacques Thomassen (University of Twente, Netherlands), and myself.

One purpose of this note is to ask you, as a member of the CSES user community, if you wish to nominate anyone for membership on the Module 4 Planning Committee. Please send nominations to me at: ian.mcallister@anu.edu.au

The composition of the new Module 4 Planning Committee will be brought to a CSES Plenary Meeting in 2009. Planning for that meeting is underway, although no date and venue have been decided.

NEW MODULE 4 SUBSTANTIVE THEME

In order to begin the process of identifying a topic for Module 4, a Task Force has been established, co-ordinated by Jack Vowles (Exeter University, UK), with support from Andre Blais (University of Montreal, Canada), Kees Aarts (University of Twente, Netherlands) and Gabor Toka (Central European University, Budapest).

The Task Force will identify gaps in the research that Module 4 might address, and canvass possible substantive themes for the new module. The second purpose of this note is to ask you, as a member of the CSES user community, to suggest possible themes that the Task Force should investigate. Please direct suggestions and comments for Module 4 to Jack Vowles at: J.Vowles@exeter.ac.uk

The Task Force will prepare a report about the ideas suggested and present the report at the CSES Plenary Meeting in 2009 for feedback and discussion.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in these endeavours, and for your ongoing support of the CSES project.

Ian McAllister
Chair, Module 3 Planning Committee
The Australian National University

Posted by ronbo at 08:49 PM

June 10, 2008

IRiSS in Focus--June 2008 issue

From the Director: Congratulations to the recipients of the first IRiSS seed grants and faculty fellow awards! Read on for details about the awards as well as other notable accomplishments within our social science community. For more information on IRiSS research services and other recognition, news, and activity, visit the unabridged version of IRiSS in Focus.

Best,
Karen Cook, IRiSS Director and Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor and Chair of Sociology

News From IRiSS Centers

Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS):
Rob Reich will become a co-director of the Center as of September 2008, joining Woody Powell and Deb Meyerson.

2009 PACS Fellows: The following six PhD candidates have been selected as the 2009 PACS Fellows: Tara Béteille (economics of education), Christopher Bryan (social psychology), Roy Elis (political science), Paul Gowder (political science), Kaisa Snellman (organizational sociology), and Megan Tompkins (education, sociology). For more on their research projects, visit the unabridged version of IRiSS in Focus.

Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI):
Pathways: The second issue of Pathways will be coming out in August, with a special focus on whether anti-recession economic policy in the U.S. can deliver stimulus and fight poverty and inequality at the same time.

Stanford Poverty Count: A new initiative to release a Stanford Poverty Count is being launched by CPI. The initiative, which received seed funding from H&S, aims to provide a more accurate measure of poverty in the U.S.

Grant Announcements
IRiSS Seed Grants: IRiSS is pleased to announce the first recipients of its new seed grant and faculty fellow programs. A total of eight seed grants as high as $10,000 were awarded to social science faculty undertaking high-risk, high-return research projects. The seed grants offer the potential to boost extramural funding. The awardees are:

Nick Bloom, Max Floetotto, Nir Jaimovich (Economics)
Melissa Brown & Marcus Feldman (Anthropology)
Jennifer Eberhardt (Psychology)
Petra Moser (Economics)
Susan Olzak (Sociology)
Michael Rosenfeld (Sociology)
Rob Reich (Political Science)
Jonathan Rodden, Karen Jusko, and Alberto Diaz-Cayeros (Political Science)
Paul Sniderman (Political Science)

First class of IRiSS faculty fellows announced: The faculty fellows program welcomed eight faculty from multiple departments who are exploring cutting-edge research questions, with the goal of creating and communicating new knowledge through research publications and in the classroom. For specifics on all proposals, visit the IRiSS Web site. The faculty fellows are:

Melissa Brown (Anthropology)
Henning Hillman (Sociology)
Karen Jusko and Jonathan Rodden (Sociology)
Dan McFarland, Woody Powell, Chris Manning, Dan Jurafsky (School of Education, departments of Computer Science and Linguistics)

Awards/Recognition
The Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Science (MAPSS) Awardees: Congrats to the first group of students who completed the MAPSS methods certification program: Laurel Harbridge, Josh Pasek, Daniel Schneider, Pantipa Tachawachira, Xin Wei, and Michael Weiksner. The MAPSS graduate certificate recognizes Stanford PhD students who have developed methodological skills with advanced cross-disciplinary training in research methods--either quantitative or qualitative or both.

For more information on recent awards and recognition, research support services, and other useful items, please visit the unabridged version of IRiSS in Focus. Thanks for your interest--comments or suggestions for IRiSS in Focus are always welcome and may be directed to IRiSS Communications Manager Tanya Brugh.

Posted by ronbo at 07:54 PM

April 28, 2008

From MAPSS list: 'Bridge to BCG' Info Session

I'm writing to you as a fellow Stanford graduate student to let you know about an exciting opportunity for advanced degree (PhD, MD, JD, residents/fellows, post-docs) candidates interested in a career in consulting, and invite you to an event at Stanford on April 29th. I attended last summer's Bridge to BCG program and will be starting as a full-time consultant in the fall at BCG's Chicago office.

Hope to see you on the 29th!

***Bridge to BCG Workshop***

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) would like to invite all qualified advanced degree candidates to apply to Bridge to BCG: A 3-day consulting workshop for advanced degree candidates. These workshops are specifically for advanced degree candidates (PhD, MD, medical residents/fellows, post-docs) expecting to finish in 2009. This highly interactive experience will provide a view into a career with a strategic management consulting firm. Those selected to participate will:

* Simulate a realistic project experience
* Learn from BCG's thought leaders
* Find out more about BCG
* Network with colleagues

Bridge to BCG workshop dates:

July 28-30, 2008 in BCG’s San Francisco, CA office (West Coast workshop)

To meet current "BCGers", hear about our consulting business, and learn more details about the "Bridge to BCG" program, please attend our upcoming information session:

Stanford Faculty Club, Gold Lounge, on April 29 at 6:30pm.

How to apply to Bridge to BCG:

Please send your resume and cover letter to Bridge2BCG@bcg.com with subject line= "interested in workshop" by May 9, 2008. No business experience required. All workshop expenses will be paid by BCG. More information can be found at www.bcg.com/ADC.

Gaurav Sood
Doctoral Student - Communication

Posted by ronbo at 06:43 AM

April 03, 2008

From Social Science Statistics Blog: Google Charts from R

Late last year Google released the Google Chart API, which gives programmers access to a web service that renders charts. So this url

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=t:60,40&chs=250x100&chl=Hello|World

will produce a chart like this:

Try it yourself -- copy the url into your browser; change the text from "Hello World" to something else, etc. And the API supports bar plots, line charts, Venn diagrams (!) and even, recently, maps.

People have written libraries in various languages to provide interfaces to the API (here's a list of them), and tonight I hacked together a little R interface to the scatterplot charts. It's quite rough, but I'd be curious if anyone wants to extend it or can show anything cool with it.

Continue reading "Google Charts from R"

Posted by ronbo at 07:52 AM

March 27, 2008

From Census Bureau: Publication of Final Criteria for Census Tracts and Block

The Census Bureau published final criteria for both census tracts and block groups in the Friday, March 14, 2008 Federal Register. The notices, "Census Tract Program for the 2010 Decennial Census--Final Criteria" and "Census Block Group Program for the 2010 Decennial Census--Final Criteria," are available on the Federal Register's website at the following links:

Census Tract Final Criteria:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20081800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-5076.pdf

Block Group Final Criteria:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20081800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-5075.pdf

Both notices also will be available via the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program page at:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/psap2010/psap2010_main.html

The block group notice announces the Census Bureau's decision that the minimum population threshold for block groups will continue to be 600 persons.

Questions and requests for further information should be addressed to the Geographic Standards and Criteria Branch, Geography Division, Census Bureau via e-mail at or telephone at 301-763-3056.

April Avnayim
Geographer
Geographic Standards and Criteria Branch
Geography Division
U.S. Census Bureau

(V) 301-763-9100
(F) 301-763-4710

Posted by ronbo at 08:48 PM

From ANES list: Problems Discovered with Measures of Knowledge About Politics

American National Election Studies surveys have routinely included open-ended questions, tapping respondents' factual knowledge about politics, people's beliefs about the country's most important problems, and questions about what people like about political candidates and parties. We recently investigated how answers to these questions have been recorded and coded in the past and discovered an array of problems. We have written a report to describe what we discovered, offer advice to researchers about how to use these questions, and describe how we are using the results of our investigation to improve data collection and distribution practices at ANES and other studies. To access a copy of the report, please visit the ANES website and the following link.
http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/20080324PoliticalKnowledgeMemo.pdf

If you have any comments or questions, please email us at anes@electionstudies.org

Sincerely,

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
ANES Principal Investigators

Matthew DeBell
Director of Stanford Operations for the ANES

Darrell Donakowski
ANES Director of Studies

Posted by ronbo at 08:12 PM

March 14, 2008

From MAPSS list: Sign Up For MAPSS - Get a Certificate!

Getting the MAPSS emails every week?

Still wondering what we do?

MAPSS is a great way to earn class credit, learn about useful methods that you can use in your own work, get a free lunch every Tuesday (Economists take note!) and even get certified!

Get a Certificate in Social Science Methodology!

When you go on the job market, would you like a certification to accompany your degree, confirming that you have special expertise in social science research methodology?

This is now possible, thanks to the new Certificate in Social Science Methodology program created by the Stanford MAPSS program.

The MAPSS graduate certificate will recognize and “credentialize” your advanced cross-disciplinary training in research methods, either quantitative or qualitative or both.

The certificate is easy to get: just sign up now by proposing a tentative set of courses to fulfill the requirements, enroll in the MAPSS colloquium series this spring (COMM 310/ POLISCI 402).

More info on the certificate program is below.

More on MAPSS

Each social science has its own traditional preferences, favoring some research methods and rarely using others, but these barriers are breaking down at an astonishing rate. Some of the most innovative social science is being done by people who take the time to learn about data collection and/or data analysis techniques developed and used by disciplines other than their own. The MAPSS Certificate program is designed to encourage Stanford graduate students to be innovators in this way.

Specifically, the certificate program seeks to:

Receipt of the Graduate Certificate would confirm that you have met our requirements and have acquired methodological expertise through coursework offered across university departments.

The program is administered by the faculty director of MAPSS. Participation in the program is open to any Stanford PhD student with an interest in social science research methodology.

To earn a MAPSS certificate, we invite you to:

For further information on the MAPSS Certificate in Social Science Research Methodology, please go to the MAPSS website (http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/cert/index.html).

We hope this offering will significantly enhance your Stanford graduate school experience.

Posted by ronbo at 12:09 AM

March 11, 2008

From IASSIST Communiqué: Enhanced American FactFinder (AFF) Comments Requested

The U.S. Census Bureau is enhancing the current American FactFinder (AFF) to add features and improve its functionality.

As users of our data, we value your input and want the enhanced AFF to meet as many of your needs as possible so that you can easily access and use data available at the Census Bureau. Therefore, we would like your input about the new system.

We have identified a number of improvements which are described in the link below. Please review them and then provide up to five additional items you would like to see incorporated into the new system. (Note: The survey will be available for comments beginning today, March 10 - March 31, 2008.) Given the limited resources available for enhancing the AFF, the Census Bureau may not be able to implement all the suggestions.

https://questionweb.com/63144/

In an effort to reach as many users as possible, please forward this information to your colleagues and others who use data from the Census Bureau.

Thanks for your time and input as we work together to make the AFF a more efficient, dynamic, and interactive data access and dissemination system.

*******************************************
Nancy M. Gordon
Associate Director for Strategic
Planning and Innovation
U.S. Census Bureau
301-763-2126 (Office)
301-763-8150 (Fax)

Posted by ronbo at 12:00 PM

February 27, 2008

From MAPSS list: Need subjects? Apply for Summer '08 REP Free-for-All

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Summer 2008 applications.

Applications to run for Summer 2008 are due April 2, 2008 at 5 pm.

The REP is a program that helps Stanford social science researchers obtain access to human participants at local community colleges to take part in their experiments and surveys. Participating in REP not only enhances your research by giving you access to a wider subject pool, it is also a great opportunity for students at local community colleges to gain first-hand exposure to experimental research in the social sciences.

We are excited to tell you about the REP cycle for Summer 2008. Especially since access to human subjects tends to be lean during the summer months, the REP is very happy to annouce we will be running a 6 week Summer Free-For-All at Foothill College.

If your project is accepted into the program, you have the summer quarter to try to obtain as many subjects as you can with no limits. Unlike, our regular REP cycles, where research projects are assigned a set allocation, the Summer REP is a full out free-for-all.

We encourage you to visit the REP website at: rep.stanford.edu. You can request access to the REP application through the website by sending a message to research-exp-program@stanford.edu.

If you have any questions, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Posted by ronbo at 06:48 PM

February 25, 2008

From IPUMS Project: American Time Use Survey Threatened

Dear IPUMS Users,

As part of his Fiscal Year 2009 budget submission, President Bush proposed eliminating the American Time Use Survey as an offset to help cover the rising costs of the Current Population Survey. As you may be aware, the Minnesota Population Center has a major project to assist with the dissemination of this valuable survey, so this strikes close to home.

Several colleagues have established a website, www.SAVEATUS.org. There is a letter posted on this page that individual researchers may sign in support of increasing the BLS budget and maintaining the ATUS. If you are interested in this issue, I encourage you to view the letter and sign.

Thank you,

Steve Ruggles

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steven Ruggles
Director, Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

Posted by ronbo at 08:29 PM

February 13, 2008

From APDU (Association of Public Data Users) list: Census Bureau's CCD and CDP final criteria published for the 2010 Census

The Census Bureau published the final criteria for census county divisions (CCDs) and census designated places (CDPs) for the 2010 Census in the Federal Register.

The notice, "Census County Division and Equivalent Entities Program for the 2010 Census--Final Criteria," was published on February 8, 2008, and is available on the Federal Register's website at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20081800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-2348.pdf

The notice announces the Census Bureau's decision to retain CCDs as a statistical geographic entity for use in tabulating and presenting data.

The notice, "Census Designated Place (CDP) Program for the 2010 Census--Final Criteria," was published February 13, 2008 and is available, on the Federal Register's website at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20081800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-2667.pdf

We expect that the final criteria for census tracts and block groups will be published in the Federal Register in the near future.

Questions and requests for further information should be addressed to the Geographic Standards and Criteria Branch, Geography Division, Census Bureau via e-mail at or telephone at 301-763-3056.
General information about the General information about the 2010 Participant Statistical Areas Program is available on the Census Bureau's website at: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/psap2010/psap2010_main.html

Posted by ronbo at 05:30 PM

February 11, 2008

From CSISS list: 2008 Summer Workshops in Advanced Spatial Analysis -- Call for Applications

Dear Colleague,

The Population Research Institute at Pennsylvania State University and the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) at UCSB invite applications from Ph.D. students, post docs, and young faculty in demography and related fields to participate in

NIH-Supported Workshops in Advanced Spatial Analysis

This new program features two 5-day-long workshops in summer 2008 that are intended for scholars who already make use of GIS and spatial statistics in their research.

Geographically Weighted Regression
June 1-June 6, 2008, University Park, PA
Instructors: Stewart Fotheringham, Chris Brunsdon, Martin Charlton, and Stephen Matthews

Spatial Pattern Analysis
July 13-July 18, 2008, Santa Barbara, CA
Instructors: Arthur Getis, John Weeks, Jared Aldstadt, Michael Goodchild, and Don Janelle

Full details on the workshops and the online application form are available at

http://www.csiss.org/GISPopSci/workshops/

Participation in these workshops is by invitation only. We will review and select approximately 20-25 invitees per workshop based on the complete application forms received by the deadline (March 31, 2008). Scholarship support will be available to some qualifying applicants that can help defray some of the costs for travel and lodging.

Please share this call for applications with interested colleagues via email, association newsletters, and related listserves.

Sincerely,

Stephen Matthews, Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography
(courtesy appointment, Geography)
Senior Research Associate and Director,
Geographic Information Analysis Core Population Research Associate
Social Science Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University

Donald G. Janelle, Research Professor and Program Director
Center for Spatial Studies (spatial@ucsb), University of California, Santa Barbara

Michael F. Goodchild, Professor
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara

Posted by ronbo at 01:02 PM

From IPUMS list: Post-doctoral Research Openings at the Minnesota Population Center

Dear Colleague,

The Minnesota Population Center is recruiting post-doctoral researchers to begin in Fall 2008.

To obtain more information and download position announcements, please visit our website at http://www.pop.umn.edu/about-mpc/employment-opportunities/research-positions/

If you know of any outstanding graduate students or recent Ph.D.s who might be interested in coming to Minnesota, I would appreciate it if you would pass this message along.

Sincerely,

Steve Ruggles
Distinguished McKnight University Professor
Director, Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

Posted by ronbo at 03:00 AM

From MAPSS list: Barry Weingast - Caltech Rules for Writing Papers

Get Accepted. Political Science Professor Barry Weingast shares his Caltech Rules for Writing Papers this Tuesday (February 12th). Come to MAPSS to learn how to improve the way you write for journals.

MAPSS is having a Pizza-off. For the next few weeks, MAPSS will be ordering Pizza from two different vendors per week. Tell us which one you think is better.

Food will be served at the Education Building (Cubberley) Room 128 at 12:00PM, talk starts at 12:15PM. (RSVP for Pizza at http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/colloquium/rsvp_signup_pasek.html)

Tuesday, February 12th
12:15 PM
Education Building (Cubberley) - Room 128

Caltech Rules for Writing Papers

All papers that you write for the next five years, and possibly the rest of your life, should have the following basic format. While different contexts require alterations, you should deviate only with good reason. Alter or leave out some component only when you're convinced it is necessary. Like all rules of thumb, these guidelines have useful purposes, but they should not be treated as iron laws.

Download the Caltech rules here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/colloquium/papers/caltech.pdf

Barry R. Weingast is a Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, and the Ward C. Krebs Family Professor, Department of Political Science. He served as Chair, Department of Political Science, from 1996 through 2001. In 1996, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Weingast's research focuses on the political foundation of markets, economic reform, and regulation. He has written extensively on problems of political economy of development, federalism and decentralization, legal institutions and the rule of law, and democracy. Most recently, he has written on democracy and its failure in twentieth century Spain, nineteenth century United States, seventeenth century England, and modern Chile; and a book problem with Douglass North and John Wallis on Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History.

All members of the Stanford community are invited to attend and to RSVP in advance to reserve food.
To RSVP, please click here (http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/colloquium/rsvp_signup_weingast.html).

Lunch will be served at 12:00 for those who have RSVP'd; the talks start at 12:15.
For more information, please contact mapss-info@lists.stanford.edu.

Posted by ronbo at 12:48 AM

February 05, 2008

From ANES list: ANES Announcement: Job Opening

Job Opening: Social scientist to join the staff of the American National Election Studies (ANES) at Stanford University.

We are seeking a social scientist to join our team in carrying out the American National Election Studies (ANES) surveys.

The ANES is the best-known and most widely cited ongoing study of how Americans participate in elections, form attitudes, make political choices, and are influenced by campaigns. Since 1948, the ANES has interviewed tens of thousands of Americans in national surveys of representative samples and has equipped scholars with data to publish more than 5,000 books, journal articles, and conference papers.

ANES is funded by the National Science Foundation, with one of the largest grants in the social sciences, to generate huge datasets to be distributed free to all interested researchers inside and outside of academia.

ANES is a partnership between Stanford University and the University of Michigan. Our major projects include two forms of data collection from representative national samples of American adults: an innovative
Internet Panel survey collecting data each month between January 2008 and mid-2009, and a large face-to-face survey with hour-long interviews conducted both before and after the November 2008 elections. To learn
more about the ANES, visit our website: www.electionstudies.org

We are seeking a researcher to join our terrific staff and to contribute to all aspects of running the ANES. We do data analysis and manuscript writing for publication. We design questionnaires. We receive and
evaluate proposals from researchers (mostly professors and graduate students) suggesting particular research agendas to be pursued in the questionnaires, and we evaluate those proposals and provide feedback to the proposers, sometimes requesting proposal revisions. We test the functioning of questionnaires that will be administered via computers and orally to assure that they are effective measurement tools. We write study
documentation and provide support to our large community of data users. And we edit data files, analyze data, conduct methodological research, supervise data collection firms, run a web site, manage a budget, and conduct administrative tasks, all for the purpose of advancing the scientific study of public opinion and political behavior.

Our new staff member will accomplish this work collaboratively with the study's Principal Investigators -- Jon Krosnick at Stanford and Arthur Lupia at Michigan -- professional staff, and research assistants.

The new staff member's work will include:

* Working collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team of researchers.
* Writing, editing, and reviewing questionnaires and their programming specifications.
* Testing computer implementation of questionnaires.
* Reviewing and analyzing data files using statistical software (SPSS, Stata, or SAS), conducting comparisons with other contemporaneous surveys.
* Monitoring panel survey sample composition over time.
* Preparing data files for public release.
* Writing, editing, and reviewing survey documentation and reports.
* Reviewing and designing methods for survey data collection.
* Managing and monitoring the activities of firms doing data collection.
* Supervising undergraduate research assistants.
* Managing administrative tasks for the project.
* Coauthoring journal articles for publication.
* Collaborating with ANES personnel at the University of Michigan.

Qualifications (desirable but not all required):

*Master's or doctoral degree in a quantitative social science (e.g., psychology, political science, sociology, communication, economics), statistics, or a related field.
*Experience conducting social science research.
*Proficiency using statistical software (e.g., SPSS, SAS, or Stata).
*Experience planning and conducting surveys.
*Experience writing articles for academic journal publication.
*Expertise in one or more of the following areas: American politics, survey sampling, statistical data analysis, questionnaire design, research methodology, project management.

The position is a full-time, exempt, term appointment through December 2009, with full benefits, with the possibility of extension after December 2009 dependent on renewal of the NSF grant.

Interviewing of qualified applicants will begin immediately in order to fill the position as soon as possible.

To apply:

Please apply through the Stanford Jobs web site, http://jobs.stanford.edu/find_a_job.html. From the Stanford Jobs search page, enter 28970 in the keyword search field to find the job listing and apply online by submitting your cover letter and resume or vita.

Posted by ronbo at 05:48 PM

January 18, 2008

From MAPSS list: MAPSS - Jeremy Weinstein - Experiments in Comparative Politics this Tuesday

This Tuesday, join MAPSS to hear from Stanford Political Scientist Jeremy Weinstein who will be discussing the use of experiments in comparative politics!

Also, are you interested in meeting with, sitting down for coffee with, or having a group meet with Professor Mark Appelbaum when he visits on January 29th? Send Josh Pasek an email (josh@joshpasek.com) to set somthing up.

Tuesday, January 22nd
12:00 PM
Education Building - Room 128

Using experiments in Comparative Politics:
Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?

A large and growing literature links high levels of ethnic diversity to low levels of public goods provision. Yet although the empirical connection between ethnic heterogeneity and the underprovision of public goods is widely accepted, there is little consensus on the specific mechanisms through which this relationship operates.

We identify three families of mechanisms that link diversity to public goods provision—–what we term “preferences,” “technology,” and “strategy selection” mechanisms—–and run a series of experimental games that permit us to compare the explanatory power of distinct mechanisms within each of these three families. Results from games conducted with a random sample of 300 subjects from a slum neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda, suggest that successful public goods provision in homogenous ethnic communities can be attributed to a strategy selectionmechanism: in similar settings, co-ethnics play cooperative equilibria, whereas non-co-ethnics do not.

In addition, we find evidence for a technology mechanism: co-ethnics are more closely linked on social networks and thus plausibly better able to support cooperation through the threat of social sanction. We find no evidence for prominent preference mechanisms that emphasize the commonality of tastes within ethnic groups or a greater degree of altruism toward co-ethnics, and only weak evidence for technology mechanisms that focus on the impact of shared ethnicity on the productivity of teams.
Jeremy Weinstein

RSVP for Free Pizza (available at 11:45 AM outside)

Jeremy Weinstein is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University. His book "Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence" was published in 2007.

Lunch will be served at 11:45 for those who have RSVP'd; the talks start at noon.

For more information, please contact mapss-info@lists.stanford.edu.

Posted by ronbo at 04:16 PM

January 16, 2008

From ANES list: ANES Annoucement: The 7-day Comments Period Has Begun

Today begins the 7-day period in which you can help us evaluate the many new proposals that have been put forward for upcoming American National Election Studies (ANES) surveys.

Between now and January 22, we ask that you make a small, but important contribution to the quality of the 2008 ANES surveys by offering advice that we and the proposals authors' can use to increase the effectiveness of our questionnaires. We are most interested in comments that can increase the range of hypothesis tests in which particular questions can be used.

At the end of this letter are the lists of the proposals we have received. You can read the full proposals in the Online Commons at:
http://www.electionstudies.org

If you can comment on even one of these proposals, it will help future users of the ANES a great deal.

Please note that at the conclusion of the one-week comment period, proposal authors will then have an additional week to revise their proposals in response to any comments that you offer. So this is a moment where your advice can make a big difference. In addition, the ANES PIs and Board of Overseers will make extensive use of your comments when they select questions for inclusion on the survey.

All comments must be made through the Online Commons. If you would like to make a comment and are not yet an OC member, signing up is easy. All it takes is filling out a simple form at:
http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

The new 2008 ANES Time Series Study has the potential to help scholars examine electoral dynamics in an unprecedented way. Please take a moment to help ANES make the most effective use of this great opportunity.

We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to make a productive contribution to the development of the ANES surveys.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators

2008 ANES TIME SERIES STUDY: NOT IN THE CORE PROPOSALS:

01. "Native Born or Naturalized Americans" by user "Jimbo"
02. "Monetary Recruitment and the Rise of Internet Fundraising" by users "Wiley" and "pollock"
03. "Interviewer-coded items" by user "clawson"
04. "From Online Newspapers to YouTube: Examining Exposure to Internet Sources”" by users "ttowner" and "ddulio"
05. "Religion and Electoral Behavior" by users "mockabee", "kenwald" and and "dleege"
06. "Three ideas: titles, turnout modeling, cell phone users" by user "spinkus01"
07. "General Incentives Models of Turnout: ANES & BES" by user "hclarke01"
08. "Political Alienation" by users "javeline" and "bairdv"
09. "The Role of Collective Political Efficacy" by users "Markmann", "Constanzebeierlein", "Preiser" and "Wermuth"
10. "Internet Blog Usage and Political Participation" by user "rlreed"
11. "Why Do Parties Distribute Particularistic Goods?" by users "jordangansmorse", "sebastian.mazzuca" and "nichters"
12. "Character Judgments and Voting Behavior" by user "dcm23"
13. "Threat Perceptions and Charisma" by users "merolla" and "ejzech"
14. "A Better Way to Measure Prospective Economic Evaluations" by users "KMichelitch", "marco_morales", "andrewowen" and "jtucker"
15. "Measuring Knowledge and Attitudes about the Electoral College" by users "ShaunBowler", "ToddDonovan" and "karpjeffrey"
16. "Independents, Leaners and Partisanship" by users "ShaunBowler", "ToddDonovan", "karpjeffrey" and "DavidLanoue"
17. "Including 'Propensity to vote' questions in the ANES time series" by users "Franklin" and "SamAbrams"
18. "Wealth and Electoral Behavior" by user "tdeluca"
19. "Issue Scales in the 2008 Election Study" by users "stuart" and "rabinowitz"
20. "Understanding Trust in Government" by users "nes user" and "dlplane"
21. "Systematic Misrepresentation of Political Polarization" by users "andrewgelman", "david.chungpark" and "ejuliast"
22. "Gender and Race in American Elections" by users "kdolan" and "Kira Sanbonmatsu"
23. "Election Integrity" by user "HeleniT"
24. "Civic Skills and Contacting" by users "Verba", "Schlozman" and "nburns"
25. "Institutional Legitimacy in the United States" by users "legitimacy", "MargaretLevi" and "audreysacks"
26. "Effects of decision to vote on other household members" by user "cfinn"
27. "Measuring Commitment to Economic Equality" by user "suhay"

2008 ANES TIME SERIES STUDY: CHANGES IN THE CORE PROPOSALS:

01. "Cognitive and Affective Partisanship" by user "klofstad"
02. "Media Use Measures for the ANES 2008 Time Series Study" by users "salthaus" and "tewksbur"
03. "Moral Foundations Questions" by users "aperrin" and "vaisey"
04. "Internet User Definitions and New Communications Channels" by user "EvansWitt"
05. "Measuring Issues with Open-Ended Questions" by user "RePass"
06. "Measuring Attitudes toward Candidates" by user "RePass"
07. "Gender and Race in American Elections" by users "kdolan" and "Kira Sanbonmatsu"
08. "Method of Registration and Its Impact on Turnout" by users "ReneeParadis" and "kahlilw"
09. "Proposal to Modify ANES 2008 Items" by user "Prysby"

2008 ANES TIME SERIES STUDY: BONUS MINUTES PROPOSALS

01. "Religious Identity" by users "bphillips" and "Saxe"
02. "Race, Gender, and Policy" by users "nburns" and "DRK"

TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY PROPOSALS:

01. "Items used in TESS survey and/or Palestinian survey for consideration for ANES" by users "Moskalenko" and "cmccaule"
02. "Collective Memory of 9/11 and Public Opinion of Counter-Terrorism:" by user "cbail"
03. "Public attitudes about terrorism, natural disasters, risk perception and preparedness" by user "Bill8008"
04. "Fear of crime and terrorism as it relates to political affiliation and voter turnout" by users "fayewachs" and "stacymcgoldrick"
05. "Emotional Responses to Potential Threats" by user "hlench"
06. "Public attitudes towards technology and perception of terrorist attacks" by users "hbalyssa" and "kbuerkle"
07. "Individual and Government/Emergency Preparedness" by user "Keith"
08. "Proposed National Survey Question" by user "rejali01"
09. "Political views and funding homeland security policy" by users "carolm" and "Kerry Smith"

Posted by ronbo at 08:56 PM

January 09, 2008

ANES annoucement: Only 6 days left to propose questions

There is only one week left to propose questions for inclusion on upcoming American National Election Studies (ANES) surveys!

1) The 2008 ANES Time Series
You may submit a proposal for questions to be included in the 2008 ANES Time Series face-to-face presidential election study. The time series continues a string of interviews that began in 1948. We are accepting two kinds of proposals: changes to the ANES "core" questions (the set of questions that the ANES Time Series asks repeatedly over time) and changes to the rest of the survey (including proposals to capture opinions and attitudes that are especially relevant to the November 2008 presidential and congressional elections).

2) Terrorism and Homeland Security
We are also running a special competition in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security. For that competition, we are accepting proposals pertinent to the intersection between elections and DHS emphases on terrorism, natural disasters, risk perception, and preparedness. Questions from successful proposals in this competition can be included on the 2008-2009 ANES Panel Study and/or the 2008 ANES Time Series study.

We accept proposals through the ANES Online Commons. Please go to its website to get more information about these opportunities: http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

The ANES Online Commons will continue to accept these proposals until 3:00pm Eastern Time (noon Pacific Time) on January 15, 2008.

The Online Commons will remain open for two additional weeks thereafter to allow commentary and revision of the proposals.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,
Jon Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies (ANES)

Posted by ronbo at 06:45 PM

January 04, 2008

From MAPSS list: Get a Certificate in Social Science Methodology - Sign Up For MAPSS!

Posted by ronbo at 04:13 PM

December 14, 2007

From Census Update (11/14/07): Hot Tip - If You Want to Get Technical About It!

Ever had a really detailed question about the data you were reviewing, but couldn't find an answer? The Census Bureau has a vast amount of technical documentation and working papers online (both historical and present) which may be useful for that nettlesome question. From the Census Bureau home page, click "Publications," then click "Technical Documentation/Working Papers." Keep this link in your favorites list!

Posted by ronbo at 08:02 PM

October 09, 2007

From Census Product Update (10/4/07): OnTheMap version 2.3 Released

The Census Bureau released OnTheMap version 2.3 with 42 states now appearing in the web-based mapping and reporting tool. This completes the phased release of OnTheMap version 2 that started on April 15, 2007. The 42 states in OnTheMap version 2 cover three years of data (2002-2004) and roughly 83 percent of the nation's population, introducing for the first time cross-state worker flows and new geographic layers such as Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) regions and the 110th Congressional Districts.

The freehand tool allows OnTheMap users to select geographical areas beyond traditional bounds and produce information on travel patterns; workforce distributions by age, earnings, and industry; and employment dynamics at the local level. OnTheMap is supported by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor and the 45 states in the Local Employment Dynamics partnership with the Census Bureau. OnTheMap version 2 is accessible by selecting "Local Employment Dynamics" at http://www.census.gov and then "OnTheMap V2" under "Quick Links."

Posted by ronbo at 08:31 PM

September 04, 2007

From Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) list: CSES papers and presentations at the 4th ECPR General Conference in Pisa

Dear Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) colleagues,

We want to inform you about some of the papers using CSES data that will be presented this week at the 4th General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in Pisa, Italy.

This announcement can also be viewed, with links to websites for the listed sections, panels, and papers, on the CSES website at address: http://www.cses.org/announce/newsltr/20070903.htm

Section 17, "Voting Behaviour and Electoral Institutions in a Comparative Perspective" is organized and chaired by Oddbjorn Knutsen of the University of Oslo, and Gabor Toka of the University of Oxford, and contains at least eight papers that make use of CSES:

Panel 150, "Multivariate and multi-level models of determinants of party choice," is on Thursday, September 6 at 11:30. The panel chair and discussant is Bernhard Wessels of the Wissenschaftzentrum für Sozialforschung (WZB). The panel includes two papers that make use of CSES.
- Paper 469. "The politicised participant? Explaining the impact of left-right position on political participation," by Tom Van Der Meer of Nijmegen, and Peer Scheepers of Radboud University.
- Paper 472. "The effect of social spending on vote choice in OECD countries," by Lluis Orriols or the University of Oxford.

Panel 154, "Party identification," is on Friday, September 7 at 14:00. The panel is to be chaired by Jacques Thomassen of the University of Twente, with Paolo Bellucci as discussant. The panel includes two papers that make use of CSES.
- Paper 485. "Partisanship and system support in comparative perspective," by Aida Paskeviciute of the University of Essex.
- Paper 487. "Party identification revisited: A comparative study of partisanship and the vote in Europe," by Jacques Thomassen of the University of Twente.

Panel 155, "The impact of electoral systems on voting behaviour," is on Friday, September 7 at 16:00. The panel is to be chaired by Susan Banducci of the University of Exeter, with Michael Marsh as discussant. The panel includes two papers that make use of CSES.
- Paper 488. "Accountability and representation: Voter approaches to elections," by Stephen D. Fisher of the University of Oxford, Laurence Lessard-Phillips of the University of Oxford, Sara Binzer Hobolt of the University of Oxford, and John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde.
- Paper 489. "Does globalisation affect public perceptions of 'who in power can make a difference'? Evidence from 37 countries, 1996-2005," by Jack Vowles of the University of Auckland.

Panel 156, "The impact of voting behaviour on policy and institutional change," is on Saturday, September 8 at 09:00. The panel is to be chaired by Jeffrey Karp of the University of Exeter, with James Stimson and Sarah Binzer Hobolt as discussants. The panel includes one paper that makes use of CSES.
- Paper 492. "Policy outcomes, voting, and citizen knowledge," by Gábor Toka of Central European University.

Panel 159, "The impact of European integration on the vote in national elections," is on Saturday, September 8 at 16:00. The panel is to be chaired by Romain Lachat of the University of Montreal, with Simon Bornschier as discussant. The panel includes one paper that makes use of CSES.
- Paper 501. "The dual nature of EU issue voting: The impact of European integration in national and European parliamentary elections," by Martin Rosema of the University of Twente, and Catherine De Vries of Vrije University.

These presentations, or their associated papers, also make use of CSES:

- Paper 99, "The conditional effect of political leadership on party support. Ideological positioning and institutional context," by Georgios Xezonakis of the University of Essex, is part of Panel 203, "Attitudes towards leaders and parties" on Friday, September 7 at 14:00.
- Paper 523, "Diploma democracy: The disappearance of the less educated from political life," by Mark Bovens of the University of Utrecht, and Anchrit Wille of Leiden University, is part of Panel 267, "Social backgrounds and careers of political elites" on Friday, September 7 at 14:00.

If your ECPR presentation or paper makes use of CSES and is not listed here, please let us know and we will make sure it appears in the announcement on the CSES website, and in the CSES Bibliography.

Best wishes,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)

Posted by ronbo at 10:51 AM

August 23, 2007

From Census Product Update - Hot Tip: Community Economic Development HotReport & New ACS Web Site

Community Economic Development HotReport Released

The Community Economic Development (CED) HotReport provides community and business leaders speedy access to information tailored to economic development decision-making. It is a free, easy to use portal to instantly obtain detailed information for local and regional areas on a wide variety of topics from a multitude of sources.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), the Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) and the U.S. Census Bureau collaboratively designed the CED HotReport with local and regional experts to help communities and businesses plan for economic expansions and contractions using the best available information. For a complete list of measures and sources, see CED Measures (PDF - 72 KB).

The CED HotReport utilizes software developed by the Census Bureau known as TheDataWeb, DataFerrett and ReportWriter to retrieve data live from the original source whether within or outside of the Census Bureau and display it in maps, graphs and tables on interactive web pages. Comments and problems should be sent to did.local.employment.dynamics@census.gov.

Don't Miss the New American Community Survey Home Page!

Be sure to see the new American Community Survey (ACS) home page. In particular, see the Highlights section to read about exciting new 2006 data products and to find out whats different about 2006. On the web site you can sign up for ACS alerts which provide timely ACS news delivered by email, find key contact numbers, and read about whats coming in future years for the ACS.

Posted by ronbo at 08:28 AM

August 22, 2007

From CSES list: CSES papers and presentations at the APSA annual meeting

Dear Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) colleagues,

We want to inform you about some of the papers using CSES data that will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

A panel on Thursday, August 30 at 2:00pm makes extensive use of CSES. Panel 11-35 is titled "Is Democracy Working? Satisfaction, Accountability and Participation in Electoral Democracies." Ian McAllister, of The Australian National University, is chairing the panel. Pippa Norris, of the United Nations Development Programme and Harvard University, is the discussant. In that panel, three papers make use of the CSES:

1. "Citizen Information, Election Outcomes and Good Governance," by Gabor A. Toka of the Central European University.

2. "Representation, Accountability and 'Rational' Electoral Behavior," by Radoslaw Markowski of the Warsaw School of Social Psychology.

3. "Meaningful Choices, Political Supply, and Institutional Effectiveness," by Bernhard Wessels of the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and Hermann F.J. Schmitt of the University of Mannheim.

Papers uploaded by these authors to the APSA 2007 website also make use of CSES:

4. "Relative Extremism and Relative Moderation: Strategic Party Positioning in Democratic Systems," by Paul V. Warwick of Simon Fraser University. The presentation is part of Panel 35-6, "Party Positioning," on Saturday, September 1 at 8:00am.

5. "Compulsory Electoral Participation and Political Legitimacy" by Sarah Birch of the University of Essex. The presentation is part of Panel 36-16, "Comparative Electoral Systems," on Saturday, September 1 at 10:15am.

6. "A Comparative Validation of Implied and Observed Voter Utilities" by Cees van der Eijk of the University of Nottingham and Michael Marsh of Trinity College, Dublin. The presentation is part of Panel 8-8 (co-sponsored by Panel 36-1), "Methodological Advances in the Study of Elections and Voting Behavior," on Saturday, September 1 at 2:00pm.

7. "Institutions and Substantive Representation in Developed Democracies: The Impact of Alternative Conceptualizations and Data on the Effects of Election Rules and Party Systems" by G. Bingham Powell of the University of Rochester. The presentation is part of Panel 14-11, "Party Strategies and Electoral Systems," on Sunday, September 2 at 8:00am.

If your APSA presentation or paper makes use of CSES and is not listed here, please let us know and we will make sure it appears in the announcement that will follow on the CSES website, and in the CSES Bibliography.

We hope to see you at APSA!

Best regards,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)

----------

Addendum:

A second paper is being presented at Panel 36-16 on Saturday, September 1 at 10:15am: "What Happens When the Rules Change? Institutional Changes and Voter Turnout," by Gregory Love of the University of California, Davis, and Ryan E. Carlin of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

A second paper is also being presented at Panel 14-11 on Sunday, September 2 at 8:00am: "Ideological Congruence and Two Visions of Democracy," by Matt Golder of Florida State University, and Jacek Stramski of Florida State University.

The following presentation is included in Panel 37-25, "The Impact of Education, Interest, and Knowledge on Public Opinion," on Thursday, August 30 at 2:00pm: "Individual and Contextual Effects on Political Knowledge," by Jason Ross Arnold of the University of Minnesota.

Please check the CSES website at this location for future additions to the list: http://www.cses.org/announce/newsltr/20070822.htm

Posted by ronbo at 10:16 AM

August 13, 2007

American National Election Study (ANES) Announcement: Bonus Minutes and Complementary Cases Program

August 13, 2007

The American National Election Studies is pleased to announce two new programs: Bonus Minutes and Complementary Cases. Scholars can use these opportunities to enhance their own research agendas while making important contributions to the ANES user community.

Bonus Minutes Overview

For the first time, ANES will allow interested persons to purchase space on the 2008 national face-to-face election survey. This version of the largest and longest-running ANES data collection is a two-wave panel that will be conducted in the months immediately before (September, October) and after (November, December) the 2008 presidential election. All interviews are conducted face-to-face in respondents' homes. This study will be the newest addition to the ANES time-series that now covers over 50 years of elections. To learn more about the ANES time series, visit: http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/cdf/cdf.htm and http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/nesguide.htm

People who purchase this space can, subject to the proposal review procedures described below, guarantee that topics and questions of their choosing are covered on the 2008 ANES survey. Given the extensive range of questions that the ANES normally includes, this opportunity provides for scholars a direct means for evaluating how particular items interact with existing items in a high-quality election survey.

Bonus Minutes Program Details

Up to 25 minutes of time will be available for sale.

For researchers who are formally affiliated with colleges, universities, or governmental agencies, the cost of a two-minute module is $35,000. Additional minutes can be purchased at a price of $15,000 each. For all other persons, the cost of a two-minute module is $58,000. Additional minutes can be purchased at a price of $29,000 each. As ANES is strictly non-partisan, it cannot consider proposals from partisan organizations (i.e., organizations that attempt to intervene in the processes ANES is attempting to study).

Proceeds from the Bonus Minutes program will be used to benefit the entire ANES user community. After covering the necessary survey and administrative costs of the Bonus Minutes program, ANES will use the proceeds to expand the length of the pre-election survey (whose content will be determined by the entire user community through the Online Commons) and to improve data quality by pursuing activities such as vote validation. In short, while purchasers of Bonus Minutes will be able to secure a place for questions of interest to them, their contributions will help to produce outcomes that benefit all ANES users.

This program will not displace questions that would otherwise appear on the 2008 ANES. Our grant from NSF pays for sixty minutes of interview time before and after the election. The Bonus Minutes program allows us to extend the post-election portion of the interview beyond our current capacity.

All questions administered through the Bonus Minutes program will be made available to all ANES users on an equal basis. This program does not provide exclusive or privileged access to ANES data to anyone. Purchasing Bonus Minutes simply reserves a place for the proposer’s desired content will appear on the 2008 ANES.

Final timings for contractual purposes will be determined in a pre-test to be conducted in the summer of 2008. At that point, the Bonus Minute purchaser and ANES will agree to the final set of questions. In the event that proposed questions take more than the time purchased, the number of questions will have to be reduced. Should the proposed questions take far less than the time purchased under the Bonus Modules program, additional questions will be permitted. Generally speaking, 3 to 4 brief questions can be asked and answered per minute. More complicated questions can take substantially longer. ANES can provide data on question timing from previous surveys.

To minimize the administrative costs of this program, we cannot accept proposals for Bonus Minutes that are less than two minutes in length, only whole additional minutes will be sold, and we cannot accept proposals that ask questions of only part of our sample -- all Bonus Minute questions will be asked to all respondents.

We expect that Bonus Minutes questions will appear at or near the end of the 2008 study's post-election wave. The purpose of this placement is to ensure that Bonus Minutes content will not interfere with responses to questions being placed on the survey through normal ANES means. In rare instances, we will consider proposals for inclusion in the pre-election wave, but such proposals must be determined by ANES to pose no harm to the Time Series.

The number of cases cannot be guaranteed, but here are our current estimates. At present, ANES is scheduled to conduct hour-long face-to-face interviews in the homes of a nationally representative sample of Americans before and after the election. The survey is targeting a sample of 1500-1800 respondents for the pre-election interview. In addition, and thanks to a cooperative agreement with scholars from the University of Washington, we will also conduct interviews with a substantial oversample of the Latino population. The survey is targeting 350 additional Latino voters. As is always the case with large surveys, the actual number of cases we will achieve depends on a number of factors. Our Complementary Cases program may lead to an increase in the total number of cases. Moreover, we remain interested in partnerships with federal agencies and scholarly teams (such as the one we have with the University of Washington) that may further increase the total number of cases.

Details on How to Make a Bonus Minutes Proposal

Proposals for Bonus Modules will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Each proposal must have two components: a financial component and a scientific component. The financial component must provide details on how the proposal will be funded. Both documents must be provided to ANES at "anes-proposals@electionstudies.org". The scientific component will be posted on the Online Commons and should be considered a public document. The financial component will be reviewed by the ANES Board of Overseers, Principal Investigators, staff and other survey personnel as needed for evaluation and as required under federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, but it will not be otherwise distributed and will not be a public document.

Each proposal's scientific component must propose wording for all questions. It must also follow the format of proposals to the ANES Online Commons. This means that proposals are limited to ten pages with font no smaller than 12 point, one-inch margins, and double spacing. Scholars may submit multiple proposals. Scholars who wish to alert people to detailed materials to support their arguments may do so in the text of their proposal. All references must include a URL for a publicly-accessible website.

As a general matter, the criteria for inclusion for Bonus Minutes questions are quite broad. ANES prefers to receive Bonus Minutes proposals that are relevant to questions of voting and elections. The rationale underlying the proposal should be of high scientific quality and questions should be useful to a wide range of ANES users. Questions need not be about the elections specifically. Questions about a range of economic, sociological, psychological or related topics are welcomed. However, ANES will not accept any proposal that is seen to damage the integrity of the study in any way.

We will use the Online Commons to seek public comment on the scientific component of the proposal and its value to ANES users for a period of no less than 60 days. Then, we will refer the proposal to the Board of Overseers. Upon soliciting advice from the Board and the User Community, the Principal Investigators will render a decision on the proposal’s suitability for the ANES. Based on the review and public comment, ANES may alter question wording to improve the value of the data to the ANES user community. As ANES retains the right to reject proposals for any reason, including question wording concerns, we encourage proposers to use the Online Commons as a means for soliciting advice about optimal wording.

After the review, a proposal is either rejected or it is considered provisionally accepted. Final acceptance requires payment in full and all requisite IRB approvals.

IRB approval is required for final acceptance. Such approval must come from several sources. First, the IRBs of Michigan, Stanford, and RTI International (the survey firm with whom we are working) must approve all ANES studies. The ANES staff will work with applicants who receive provisional acceptance to gain IRB approval at these institutions. Moreover, the home institution(s) of university-based researchers may require proposers to solicit their own IRB's approval prior to seeking funding or paying for Bonus Minutes. Please check with your home institution in advance of compiling a proposal. For final acceptance, ANES will need documentation of your home institution's IRB approval or documentation that your home institution does not require its own IRB review.

In the event that more proposals are provisionally accepted than can be administered, priority will go to proposals that achieve final acceptance first. Provisional acceptance does not constitute a guarantee of content inclusion. That guarantee comes only after final acceptance is achieved.

Once our capacity for adding modules is exhausted, the Bonus Modules initiative for the 2008 ANES will end. Otherwise, the deadline for Final Acceptance is June 30, 2008. If full payment for a provisionally accepted Bonus Minutes module is not received by this date, the questions cannot be included. To maximize the likelihood of meeting the deadlines described above, we recommend that Bonus Minutes proposals be submitted no later than January 15, 2008.

The Complementary Cases Program

ANES is also interested in working with scholars who are interested in expanding the size of the respondent pool. These proposals can target a particular subpopulation or they can seek to increase the sample size as a whole.

The Complementary Cases initiative has the potential to provide innovative scholars who are interested in the views of specific Americans with an opportunity to obtain high quality data on their views at a relatively low cost. Subject to the conditions stated above, Complementary Cases can provide a "win-win" situation. Scholars who succeed in getting their sample added to the ANES win, because they get an oversample of their desired population without having to pay the fixed costs of conducting their own face-to-face study. The ANES user community wins because the data are made available to everyone on an equal basis and are collected in a way that enhances the value of the base study.

The procedures for submitting a Complementary Cases proposal parallel those described for the Bonus Minutes program. Each proposal must have two components: a financial component and a scientific component. The financial component must provide details on how the proposal will be funded. The scientific component must describe the target population and a rationale for including an expanded sample of such persons. Both documents must be provided to ANES at "anes-proposals@electionstudies.org". The proposal review and acceptance policies are as stated above with one exception. The deadline for Final Acceptance of a Complementary Cases proposal is March 31, 2008. To maximize the likelihood of meeting this deadline, we recommend that Bonus Minutes proposals be submitted no later than December 1, 2007.

The cost per case will depend on the kind and number of additional cases requested. It should be noted that requests to oversample very small or hard to reach groups are likely to be prohibitively expensive. Moreover, it takes considerable time and effort to obtain cost estimates from the survey firms with which we work. So we cannot consider Complementary Cases proposals that will be impossible to implement or that are not attached to a credible funding source.

Bonus Minutes and Complementary Cases Program History

The Bonus Minutes and Complementary Cases programs arise from two factors. The first factor is the National Science Foundation's desire to have the ANES "serve as a 'docking station' for substantive modules submitted by researchers who may not be part of the ANES project team." Such programs provide opportunities for scholars with special needs to advance their own research agendas while augmenting ANES data for everyone else.

The second factor is economies of scale. Conducting a nationally representative face-to-face survey entails paying the large fixed costs required to get ANES interviewers to the doorsteps of randomly selected Americans. Fixed costs also come from questionnaire design, computer programming (to allow dynamic interviews to be conducted via laptops in a range of settings), and sampling framework development and evaluation that must be completed before the first interview is attempted. Also fixed are the costs of extensive training to ensure that the interviews are conducted in a standardized manner, the costs of housing interviewers for the weeks when the 2008 study will be in the field, and payments that survey respondents receive for agreeing to participate in an interview. Once these fixed costs are paid, however, it is possible to add extra questions to the interviews and expand the sample at costs that are low relative to the fixed cost.

We are excited to have the opportunity to introduce these new programs. We look forward to working with you on using the Bonus Minutes and Complementary Cases programs expand and enhance upcoming ANES surveys.

Sincerely, Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia ANES Principal Investigators

Posted by ronbo at 01:35 PM

August 09, 2007

From Census Product Update (8/9/07): Hot Tip - New Site Helps Businesses Understand the Economic Census!

The Census Bureau has launched a new web site to help businesses understand the Economic Census and how it benefits them. The site includes snapshots of economic information for selected industries and also includes business facts and ratios about every industry. The Economic Census is conducted every five years, and later this year more than four million businesses will receive forms for the 2007 Economic Census. Check out this new site today!

Posted by ronbo at 08:57 PM

June 27, 2007

From MEPS list: MEPS (Medical Expenditure Panel Study) and the APHA (American Public Health Association) Learning Institute Workshop Set for November 3, 2007

AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the American Public Health Association Learning Institute Workshop Set for November 3, 2007

The MEPS workshop scheduled for November 3 at the annual APHA meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. is now only $50.

If you have an interest in attending a MEPS workshop and earn CE credits, this is for you. AHRQ has scheduled a MEPS session at APHA annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on November 3, 2007. The format will be lecture (no SAS experience required) and will last 1-day. If you have any questions, please contact workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov

The Continuing Education Institute (CEI) on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC) is sponsoring a 1-day workshop on November 3 in Washington, D.C. to provide an in-depth learning experience concerning MEPS. The purpose of this workshop is to facilitate the use of the MEPS HC public use data files by the health services research community. To attend the MEPS session at APHA LI, a registration is required. The MEPS workshop is approved for CME, CHES, and nursing contact hours credits. See http://www.apha.org/programs/education/APHA-Learning+Institute.htm for registration materials and more information.

Posted by ronbo at 03:56 PM

June 26, 2007

ANES Announces Research and Publication Opportunities: Evaluate the 2006 Pilot Study

American National Election Studies (ANES) Announcement
ANES Announces Research and Publication Opportunities: Evaluate the 2006 Pilot Study
June 26, 2007

We are writing to announce a new opportunity for scholars who are interested in advancing the survey-based study of elections. In 2006, the ANES ran a Pilot Study. The Pilot Study’s purpose is to implement new ideas for measuring currently (and potentially) important concepts. The Pilot Study data are now available for evaluation and we seek your input about whether to include these new measures in future ANES surveys.

All of the new questions on the Pilot Study originate from the tremendous scholarly response to or call for proposals. Using the first ever ANES Online Commons, scholars from a wide range of disciplines proposed over 1100 questions. All of these proposals can be viewed at: http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

Over 100 new questions appeared on the Pilot Study. Some involve new measurements of familiar topics, while others involve measures of topics that are new to the study of elections. All of the questions can be viewed at: ftp://ftp.electionstudies.org/ftp/nes/studypages/2006pilot/anes_2006pilot_int.txt

With these data, many exciting research opportunities exist.

We invite interested scholars (faculty and graduate students alike) to take the lead in helping the ANES user community evaluate the new questions. Scholars may submit Pilot Study reports for as many questions as they like. By so doing, they can shape how researchers think about these new ideas and influence how the ANES will be conducted in the
future.

The stated goals of the Pilot study can be viewed at: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_OCprocess_20060929.pdf

Ideally, a Pilot Study report will speak to the stated goals of the Pilot Study, and will contain one of two kinds of analyses:

- Analyses of wording/order/format experiments of items according to the ability of constructs to predict variables of interest to election scholars, including vote choice and turnout. An example of a report analyzing an experiment can be found here: http://www.electionstudies.org/resources/papers/Pilot2006/nes011881.pdf

- Analyses of sets of items, assessing correlational validity in the same manner. An example can be found here: ftp://ftp.electionstudies.org/ftp/nes/bibliography/documents/nes008997.pdf

Already, we have received reports from the original authors of the proposals that generated the questions. They may be viewed at: http://www.electionstudies.org/resources/papers/pilotrpt.htm

But numerous opportunities remain to further analyze the Pilot Study. There are many questions for which we have not received reports and there are also opportunities for scholars to run new and unique analyses of questions for which some reports already exist. Both kinds of reports can be very valuable.

We will accept Pilot Study reports from the public on a rolling basis beginning July 1. Submissions will be reviewed and we will post all Pilot Study reports that meet the criteria listed above on the ANES web site.

If there are enough excellent Pilot Study reports, we will seek to publish them in an edited volume with a leading university press. The book is tentatively titled “The ANES Book of Ideas” and will help scholars better understand key properties of election study data. If you would like to submit a report that is considered for this publication opportunity, we must receive a draft of the report that meets the criteria listed above by 5:00pm pacific time on September 7, 2007. Inclusion in the book may be contingent upon revision.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Matthew DeBell, the Director of Stanford Operations for the ANES, at “debell@stanford.edu”. We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,
Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
ANES Principal Investigators

LIST OF PILOT STUDY QUESTIONS

Module #: Topic (Variables)
01: Character judgments (V06P501)
02: Defensive confidence (V06P502)
03: Need for closure (V06P503 - V06P511)
04: Belief in a just world (V06P512)
05: Self-monitoring (V06P513 - V06P518)
06: Trust (V06P519 - V06P522)
07: Values (V06P523 - V06P544)
08: Borrowing (V06P545 - V06P547)
09: Sociotropic voting (V06P548 - V06P551b)
10: Religion (V06P552 - V06P557)
11: Christianity (V06P558 - V06P566)
12: Optimism/pessimism (V06P567x - V06P586)
13: Social networks (V06P587 - V06P629)
14: Attention to politics (V06P630 - V06P634)
15: Ambivalence (V06P635 - V06P643)
16: Efficacy (V06P644 - V06P653)
17: Trust in government (V06P654 - V06P663)
18: Media (V06P664 - V06P679x)
19: Party identification (V06P680 - V06P688)
20: Abortion (V06P689x - V06P731)
21: Tolerance (V06P732a - V06P732b)
22: Justice (V06P733 - V06P736)
23: Gender (V06P737 - V06P764)
24: Tax (V06P765 - V06P769)
25: Partisan differences (V06P770 - V06P773)
26: Vote (V06P774 - V06P787)
27: Branching-pres. approval (V06P788x - V06P807)
28: Economy (V06P808)
29: Death (V06P809 - V06P810)

Posted by ronbo at 02:04 PM

April 13, 2007

From the ACS Alert: Census Bureau Submits to Congress Planned Subjects for 2010 Census and ACS

American Community Survey Alert, Number 47
(released April 13, 2007)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

The U.S. Census Bureau recently submitted to Congress the subjects it plans to address in the 2010 Census and the ACS. Estimated to take less than 10 minutes to complete, the 2010 Census would be one of the shortest and easiest to complete since the nation's first census in 1790. Its subjects include gender, age, race, ethnicity, relationship and whether you own or rent your home.

The ACS, fully implemented in 2005, meets a critical need to have more timely, current and detailed data on which to base important decisions for all levels of government, community organizations and businesses.

Under law, the decennial census subjects must be submitted to Congress three years before Census Day on April 1, 2010. Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon said the subjects represent the necessary balance between the need for data and the Census Bureau's commitment to eliminate redundant questions and reduce the time it takes to complete
the form.

The 2010 and ACS subjects document is available on the ACS Web site at:
<http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/Final_2010_Census_and_American_Community_Survey_Subjects_Notebook.pdf>.

Posted by ronbo at 02:53 PM

April 11, 2007

FREE LUNCH (4/24) with MAPSS Talk on Dynamic Decision Making

At noon, Tuesday, April 24th, the MAPSS Colloquium Series presents...

Jay McClelland

Professor of Psychology, Director of Center for Mind, Brain, and Computation, Stanford University

"Dynamical Models of Decision Making: Optimality, human performance, and principles of neural information processing"

Lane History Corner, (Building 200) Room 203

Lunch will be served at 11:45 am and the talk will begin at 12:00. To receive lunch, you must RSVP by noon, Friday, April 20th at:
http://mapss.stanford.edu/events/rsvp.html

If you are a student currently enrolled in the MAPSS workshop, you do not need to RSVP for lunch.

Abstract:
I will present a model of the dynamics of decision making. The model can be related to the theory of optimal decision making under conditions in which noisy information is sampled continuously from the environment, to details of human behavior seen in experiments requiring perceptual classification or preferential choice, and to principles of neural information processing. The process of model development and the application of the model to experimental findings will be discussed, and contrasts with other models attempting to address some of the same phenomena will be presented.

Bio:
James L. (Jay) McClelland received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. He served on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego, before moving to Carnegie Mellon in 1984, where he was a founding Co-Director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint project of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. In 2006 he moved to Stanford University, where he is now Professor of Psychology and the founding Director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Computation.

Over his career, McClelland has contributed to both the experimental and theoretical literatures, most notably in the application of connectionist/parallel distributed processing models to problems in perception, cognitive development, language learning, and the neurobiology of memory. He was a co-founder with David E. Rumelhart of the Parallel Distributed Processing research group, and together with Rumelhart he led the effort leading to the publication in 1986 of the two-volume book, Parallel Distributed Processing, in which the parallel distributed processing framework was laid out and applied to a wide range of topics in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. McClelland and Rumelhart jointly received the 1996 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and several other awards for their pioneering work in this area. McClelland is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and he has received the APS William James Fellow Award for lifetime contributions to the basic science of psychology.

McClelland currently teaches cognitive neuroscience and conducts research on learning, memory, conceptual development, spoken language, decision making, and semantic cognition.

For the full 2006-2007 speaker schedule, see the MAPSS website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/colloquium/index.html
MAPSS is sponsored by Stanford's Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS)

Posted by ronbo at 05:36 PM

March 15, 2007

MEPS (Medical Expenditure Panel Survey) Data Users' Workshop

AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RESEARCH AND QUALITY
MEPS Data Users' Workshop

AHRQ is conducting a two-day workshop to facilitate the use of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC) by the health services research community. The workshop, designed for those with an interest in using national health surveys, will be held at the Eisenberg Building, located on 540 Gaither Road in Rockville, MD. 20850. At this workshop participants will have the opportunity to bring up specific research and policy questions of interest to them.

Two-day Overview of MEPS-HC and Computer Hands-on: May 3-4, 2007

This workshop combines lecture (1st day) and hands-on (2nd day) with a maximum of 20 participants (Cost $ 50). The 1st day will consist of lectures on practical information about the survey design, file content, and the construction of analytic files by data users and the knowledge necessary to formulate research plans utilizing the various MEPS-HC files and linkage capabilities. The focus of the workshop will be health care utilization, expenditures, and medical conditions. The 2nd day will consist of an opportunity to construct analytic files with the assistance of AHRQ staff. A PC will be available for each participant. Attendees should have some exposure to MEPS and the ability to use SAS.

For Full Program Description, Registration Form and Logistical information

Please check http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/about_meps/workshop_details/meps_workshop_may_2007.pdf

For any other questions, email workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov

Posted by ronbo at 02:51 PM

From SIPP users digest: [sipp-users] Message concerning the content topical sessions

The Census Bureau will host a series of content meetings for the dynamics of economic well-being system (DEWS), and you are cordially invited to participate. The purpose of these meetings is to review, by topical area, the specific content and questions that the Census Bureau is proposing for the initial DEWS instrument which is scheduled to be fielded in Fiscal Year 2009. The Census Bureau will consider the comments from these meetings as it finalizes the content by the early summer of 2007.

The meetings will be held in the Census Bureau's new building located at 4600 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland 20746. Please refer questions about the meeting objectives or DEWS content to either Judy Eargle (301-763-5263) or Jason Fields (301-763-2465). Details follow:

Demographics and other items
April 4, 2007 (1:00 - 3:00) Room 7H063

Assets and wealth
April 23, 2007 (1:00 - 3:00) Room 7H063

Government programs
May 7, 2007 (1:00 - 3:00) Room 7H063

Labor Force
May 21, 2007 (1:00 - 3:00) Room 7H063

Health
May 30, 2007 (1:00 - 3:00) Room 7H063

These meetings are open to the public and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you plan to attend, please RSVP via email to Mary Chin (mary.p.chin@census.gov) indicating which session you will attend at least 7 days prior to the date of the meeting.

These meetings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be sent via e-mail to Mary Chin (mary.p.chin@census.gov) at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

Posted by ronbo at 12:31 PM

March 12, 2007

From The Scout Report, 3/2/07 (vol.13, no.7) - Item #6: Exploring Data

The Scout Report

A publication of the Internet Scout Project.
Sponsored by University of Wisconsin - Madison Libraries.

=======

6. Exploring Data
http://exploringdata.cqu.edu.au/
For many students who wish to embark into the world of statistics, the whole process can be a bit daunting. Fortunately, the Exploring Data website makes such a proposition a bit easier for both students and teachers. The site is easy to navigate, and the homepage contains an index of topics and materials ranging from linear regression to sampling. Each of these sections includes activities, worksheets, and datasets that can be used in a variety of ways. More advanced students will appreciate the fact that the site also contains material that goes beyond some of the basic concepts within the field, and educators will also want to recommend this site to students who might need a bit of a refresher on certain key areas. [KMG]

Posted by ronbo at 08:48 PM

Short Courses in Applied Statistics by Paul Allison

Statistical Horizons offers short courses on Survival Analysis, Categorical Data Analysis and Missing Data.

2007 Seminar Schedule for Paul Allison

Missing Data
April 27-28, Philadelphia, PA

Missing Data
May 25-26, San Francisco, CA

Survival Analysis Using SAS
July 9-13, Philadelphia, PA

Categorical Data Analysis
July 16-20, Philadelphia, PA

Survival Analysis Using Stata
July 23-27, Philadelphia, PA

For more information on the courses, go to the Statistical Horizons website: http://www.statisticalhorizons.com/.

Posted by yan at 04:34 PM

March 06, 2007

From IPUMS-users list: IPUMS Summer Workshop and Postdoc positions

Dear IPUMS Users,

I am pleased to announce the IPUMS Summer Workshop, to be held in Minneapolis on June 25th-27th, 2007. This training session will cover four major databases: IPUMS-USA, IPUMS-International, IPUMS-CPS, and the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS).

For more information on the IPUMS Workshop, please visit http://www.pop.umn.edu/training

Also, the Minnesota Population Center is searching for new postdoctoral research associates to begin in Fall 2007. If you know of any outstanding graduate students or recent Ph.D.s who might be interested in coming to Minnesota, I would appreciate it if you would pass this message along. Initial appointments are for one year and can be renewed for up to two additional years.

Screening of postdoc applications will start on March 15, 2007 and will continue until the positions are filled. Further information on the postdoc positions is contained in the attached flyer and on our website at
http://www.pop.umn.edu/employment/research.shtml.

Sincerely,

Steven Ruggles
Principal Investigator
IPUMS Projects

Posted by ronbo at 08:04 PM

February 26, 2007

From IRiSS: Census and Health Statistics Data Sets

Faculty and graduate students with an interest in research using data at the U.S. Census Bureau and the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) are invited to participate in a presentation introducing the new data center to be opened by IRiSS. Stanford Professor Matt Snipp will be joined by UC Berkeley Professor Henry Brady, who is director of the California Census Research Data Center, and Andrew Hildreth, director of research at the Berkeley center. Snipp is on the board of scientific counselors for the NCHS and advisory committee for the Census Bureau. An overview of the kinds of confidential microdata available to the research community will be presented.

Sessions will be held on March 19 and 20. Contact IRiSS-info@stanford.edu for details.

Posted by ronbo at 10:38 PM

February 08, 2007

From IPUMS Users List: IPUMS needs your help!

Dear IPUMS User,

Once again it's grant writing time, and once again IPUMS urgently needs your help! Later this month we will apply to the National Institutes of Health for the renewal of the main grant funding the IPUMS-USA database. Continued funding for the IPUMS data series is contingent on its continued use by the academic and professional research community.

It is crucial, therefore, to have a complete list of both published and forthcoming books, articles, dissertations (completed and in progress), conference papers, working papers, research reports, fact sheets, and newspaper stories that have used IPUMS data. We are also interested in news of any classroom or other pedagogical use of the IPUMS, so if you have used the data in a course please let us know.

If you have done any research using the IPUMS, please visit our bibliography at http://bibliography.ipums.org to see if we have it. If something is missing or if you find errors, you can enter the citation online or just email the information to ipums@pop.umn.edu. We suspect that a substantial quantity of research published in books and collections of essays is missing from our bibliography, since there are no citation indexes available for those sources. We would appreciate if you can make any additions or corrections to our bibliography as soon as possible.

We would also appreciate it if you would forward this message to any IPUMS users who may not be registered for our data extraction system; this is especially important for people at research centers who may obtain the data indirectly.

If you received this message in error, please accept my apology; it is sent to everyone who has registered to use the IPUMS unless they have removed themselves from our user list. To remove yourself, click on the link at the bottom of the page or send a message to ipums@pop.umn.edu.

Thanks for your prompt reply...we really appreciate your help!

Sincerely,

Steve Ruggles
Principal Investigator
ruggles@pop.umn.edu

Posted by ronbo at 04:19 PM

February 01, 2007

From ANES List: The 14-day Comments Period for the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study Has Begun

The 14-day Comments Period for the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study Has Begun: Please help us evaluate the proposals for this exciting new study

Today begins the 14-day period in which all members of the research community can help us evaluate the many new proposals that have been put forward for the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study.

Between now and February 14, we ask that you make a small, but important, contribution to the development of this new study by offering advice that we and the proposals authors' can use to increase the effectiveness of the Panel Study.

We are most interested in comments that can increase the range of hypothesis tests in which particular questions can be used as well as advice about how we can use these proposals to leverage the unique temporal aspects of the Panel Study's design. For details, see: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_OCpanel_20061023.pdf

At the end of this letter is a list of the proposals that we received. You can read the full proposals in the Online Commons at: http://www.electionstudies.org

If you can comment on even one of these proposals, it will help ANES a great deal.

Please note that at the conclusion of the comment period, proposal authors will then have two additional weeks to revise their proposals in response to any comments that they may receive. So this is a moment where your advice can make a difference. In addition, the ANES PIs and Board of Overseers will make extensive use of your comments when they select questions for inclusion on the survey.

The new ANES Panel Study has the potential to help scholars examine electoral dynamics in an unprecedented way. Please take a moment to help ANES make the most effective use of this great new opportunity.

Sincerely,

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia Principal Investigators

<http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_PanelStudyCommentsMemo_20070201.pdf.)

Posted by ronbo at 05:34 PM

January 25, 2007

SPACE GIS workshops summer 2007- call for applications

Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)

Spatial Perspectives on Analysis for Curriculum Enhancement (SPACE)
Summer Workshops 2007

For Instructors of Undergraduate Courses in the Social Sciences

/SPACE/ workshops are intended for instructors of undergraduate students in the social sciences. They offer content knowledge in methods of spatial analysis, instructional resources, and professional development support for curriculum planning and learning assessment. Successful applicants must commit to implementing spatial perspectives in their undergraduate courses and to providing feedback and documentation to evaluate the /SPACE/ workshop program.

There are no fees associated with these workshops - participation is determined through a competitive application process. *The deadline for applications is 23 April 2007*. Participants in the program are eligible for *scholarship support for travel and subsistence*. More details are available at http://www.csiss.org/SPACE/workshops.

GIS and Spatial Modeling for the Undergraduate Social Science Curriculum
18-23 June 2007, Columbus OH
This workshop focuses on applications of spatial analytic techniques suited for undergraduate social science courses. These techniques include cartographic visualization, exploratory spatial data analysis, space-time modeling of individual behavior, spatial equilibrium models, and spatial optimization methods. Workshop participants will consider how to integrate these techniques into instructional modules, exercises, and learning assessment approaches. Requirements to benefit from this workshop include prior experience with computer file and data management in applications of quantitative analysis in the social sciences. GIS experience is desirable.
*Instructors:* Mei-Po Kwan (coordinator), Ola Ahlqvist, Deshing Liu, Alan Murray, Morton O’Kelly, Kathryn Plank, and Ningchuan Xiao (all of The Ohio State University), and Sara McLafferty (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
*Co-sponsor with /CSISS/: *University Consortium for Geographic Information Science www.ucgis.org. *Host Institution:* Dept. of Geography, The Ohio State University http://www.geography.ohio-state.edu/

Spatial analysis in the Social Science Curriculum: Enhancing Undergraduate Learning
15-20 July 2007, Santa Barbara CA
This workshop focuses on spatial methods and perspectives suited for applications in the undergraduate social science curriculum, such as spatial statistics, spatial econometrics, spatial pattern analysis, and cartographic visualization, in a GIS framework. Participants will illustrate these methods and design instructional modules and exercises for use in teaching undergraduates. A major goal of the workshop will be to explore strategies for curriculum enhancement and for assessment of student learning. Requirements to benefit from this workshop include prior experience with computer file and data management in applications of quantitative analysis in the social sciences.
*Instructors:* Stuart Sweeney (coordinator), Fiona Goodchild, Mike Goodchild, Jeff Howarth, Don Janelle, and Stacy Rebich, Waldo Tobler (all of UCSB)
*Co-sponsor with CSISS and Host Institution:* Dept. of Geography http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/ and the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research http://www.isber.ucsb.edu/, University of California, Santa Barbara

This program is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education, under its program for Course, Curriculum & Laboratory Improvement – National Dissemination.

/For resources on spatial analysis in the social sciences, see http://www.csiss.org/

=======================================================
Spatial Perspectives on Analysis for Curriculum Enhancement
(SPACE) Program
Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)
c/o the National Center for Geographic Information & Analysis (NCGIA)
3510 Phelps Hall
Department of Geography
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060 U.S.A.
csiss@csiss.org www.csiss.org/SPACE
=======================================================

Posted by ronbo at 03:36 PM

December 28, 2006

Selections from Census Product Update: December 28, 2006

See the complete Census Product Update CPU06-26

Headline News

2010 Census Web Page Now Live! Everything you need to know at your fingertips including 2010 FAQs, links to press releases, Census job information, promotional materials, and activity timelines.

Census Bureau to Survey Nation's Spending Habits. (Released December 21, 2006)

Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE): 2004. (Released December 20, 2006)

Majority of Undergrads and Grad Students Are Women, Census Bureau Reports. (Released December 19, 2006)

Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2005. (Released December 19, 2006)

Hot Tip
Take Advantage of the Statistical Abstract Web Site

With the recent release of the 2007 Statistical Abstract, you'll want to take advantage of the versatile Statistical Abstract website! Once on the Census website, click "Statistical Abstract" on the bottom of the page. You'll find the tables not only in PDF format, but also in downloadable spreadsheet format. Spreadsheet format allows for quick access to the tables for convenient analysis and use. Headings are listed along the left margin - - choose your section of interest and the table titles from that section will appear. In addition to accessing the spreadsheets, browse the site to see other features such as; access to other statistical compendia websites, a guide to sources, top five data links, access to state statistical abstract links, and more! Explore all the new features on the Statistical Abstract website today!

Posted by ronbo at 02:13 PM

December 15, 2006

Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007 released today

Nearly Half of our Lives Spent with TV, Radio, Internet, Newspapers, According to Census Bureau Publication

Adults and teens will spend nearly five months (3,518 hours) next year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to personal music devices. That’s only one of thousands of nuggets of information on Americana and the world in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007, released today.

“The Statistical Abstract is a collaborative effort that showcases our government statistics and the work of the international community, private industry and nonprofit agency researchers,” said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon.

According to projections from a communications industry forecast (Table 1110), people will spend 65 days in front of the TV, 41 days listening to radio and a little over a week on the Internet in 2007. Adults will spend about a week reading a daily newspaper and teens and adults will spend another week listening to recorded music. Consumer spending for media is forecasted to be $936.75 per person.

The Statistical Abstract includes topics as diverse as condo and mobile home sales to new tables on alternative work schedules and the North American cruise industry. Overall, the book features more than 1,400 tables and charts on social, political and economic facts about the United States, and the latest available international statistics.

Posted by ronbo at 04:50 PM

December 14, 2006

From Census Product Update: December 14, 2006 - Census 2010 web site

Selected news items from Census Product Update - CPU06-25

Headline News

2010 Census Web Page Now Live! Everything you need to know at your fingertips including 2010 FAQs, links to press releases, Census job information, promotional materials, and activity timelines.

Hot Tip

Where Does Your State Rank in Population?

Each December the Census Bureau releases official population estimates for the U.S. and states along with the components of change. Which state will be the fastest growing this year? What states will change places on the top 10 most populous? Look for the July 1, 2006 population estimates in December for the answers.

Recently Released

Population

America Speaks: A Demographic Profile of Foreign-Language Speakers for the United States: 2000. Internet files show national- and state-level data on who speaks English and who does not, broken down by type of household, age of householder, education attainment, and income.

Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Participation in Government Programs, 2001 Through 2003, Who Gets Assistance? Report available online in PDF focusing on the characteristics and participation of people who received benefits from a number of means-tested assistance programs.

Posted by ronbo at 07:33 PM

December 12, 2006

ANES: Only 50 Days Left to Propose Questions for the 2007-2009 Panel Study

Dear ANES user community,

We wanted to send you a reminder that there are only 50 days left to submit a proposal to include questions on the first waves of the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study. The deadline for submitting proposals is January 31, to be followed by a short comment and revision period. The ANES Online Commons (OC) is the only method by which questions can be proposed for the study.

Panel data are appealing for studying elections, because one of the major interests of election analysts is change over time in individuals. Our plan for the ANES 2007-2009 Panel Study involves six ANES-based waves of interviewing with the same respondents, plus 15 additional secondary waves of data collection. The data collection will be conducted on the Internet with a nationally representative panel recruited specifically for this purpose. The first ANES wave of data will be collected in September 2007.

If you have not already visited the ANES OC, you can do so by visiting the following location on our website: http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

We would also like to use this opportunity to announce that an advance release of data from the 2006 ANES Pilot Study will be available for download from the ANES website (www.electionstudies.org) no later than January 12, 2007. The advance release will contain all of the survey data, but with minimal data cleaning and few administrative or derivative variables. The timing of the release is so that analysts have a couple of weeks to evaluate the performance of Pilot Study questions in case they wish to propose that the questions should also appear on the Panel Study.

We are very excited about our ability to bring this opportunity to you. As of right now, the questionnaires are wide open. This is the largest opportunity in years to place questions on an ANES -- one this is likely to be used by scholars, students and journalists for decades to come! Don't be left out.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,
Jon Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies (ANES)

Additional information about the design and purpose of the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study can be found on the Online Commons page. If you have questions that are not answered there, please send us an email to: anes@electionstudies.org

Posted by ronbo at 02:42 PM

November 06, 2006

Selections from Census Product Update: November 3, 2006

Fact of the Day

State and Metropolitan Area Data Book

The top five metro areas in the proportion of doctors to the population each have more than 1,000 physicians per 100,000 persons, according to data published in the Census Bureau's State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, now available online and in print.

Leading the way was Rochester, New York with 1,720 physicians per 100,000 people. The other four with more than 1,000 were Iowa City, IA (No. 2 with 1,294); Charlottesville, VA (No. 4 with 1,057); and Ann Arbor, MI (No. 5 with 1,023).

These data illustrate one of the major benefits of the Data Book: it has data from the Census Bureau and a variety of government and nongovernment sources. The online version also incorporates links to the data tables so you can zip to the source.

Hot Tip

American Community Survey Tables Comparable to Census 2000 Summary File 3

Most people know that the American Community Survey tables basically echo the tables published in Census 2000 Summary Files. Figuring out which tables match up in these two data sets can be tough unless you access a comparability table on the ACS website.

[Full Census Product Update]

Posted by ronbo at 06:16 PM

October 26, 2006

From E-Social Science Newsletter: MixedMediaGrid (MiMeG) Software now available

[E-SOCIAL-SCIENCE-NEWS Digest - 19 Sep 2006 to 26 Oct 2006 (#2006-16)]

Software developed by the NCeSS MixedMediaGrid Research Node is now available.

The software:

- allows real time discussion and analysis of video data between two or more remote sites
- supports multiple data types (e.g. digital video in various formats, transcripts, images)
- enables participants to annotate the video stream and to see each others' annotations
- provides opportunities to save annotations for review and further analysis
- is available in PC and Mac versions

For more information about the MiMeG node, and the software available, please visit http://www.ncess.ac.uk/research/nodes/MiMeG/software/

Posted by ronbo at 04:26 PM

From E-Social Science Newsletter: Special Issue on Data Mining Applications on Supercomputing and Grid Environments

[E-SOCIAL-SCIENCE-NEWS Digest - 19 Sep 2006 to 26 Oct 2006 (#2006-16)]

Dealing with the massive quantity and diversity of data generated by research and industry presents one of the defining challenges to data mining. The huge size of many databases together with online documents presents an opportunity to discover previously unobserved patterns. There is now widespread recognition that it is possible to extract previously unknown knowledge from large datasets using machine learning techniques. For this reason there is a growing body of research concerned with the use of parallel and grid computing for data mining. The challenge is not only algorithmic but also the management of the large amounts of associated data and the provision of a user interface.

The special issue is targeted at researchers actively involved in data mining on Supercomputing and Grid environments. It will focus on Data Mining tools and applications to explore the opportunities and challenges of data discovery via the Grid and Supercomputing resources.

All papers are subject to strict peer review process before publication. All submitted papers should comply with the instructions for authors available at: http://www.medjcn.com/index.htm
Deadline for submission of manuscripts is 1 December 2006. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to: Firat.Tekiner@manchester.ac.uk

For more information, please visit http://www.mc.manchester.ac.uk/about/publications/specialissueondatamining

Posted by ronbo at 04:24 PM

October 23, 2006

From ANES list: ANES Announcement: Online Commons opens for 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study proposals

ANES Announces a New Opportunity: Place Questions on its 2007-2009 Panel Study. The Action Begins Today.

October 23, 2006

About the 2007-2009 Panel Study

Some people believe that political science understands pretty much everything there is to know about the causes of election outcomes. But a careful look at the accumulated evidence makes it clear that what we really know a lot about is what CORRELATES with candidate preferences and vote choices and turnout. Correlations do not document causality. An interest in documenting causality has been growing in the minds of many investigators using the ANES.

Panel data are appealing for studying elections, because one of the major interests of election analysts is change over time in individuals. Whose candidate preferences crystallized before the campaign began? Which voters changed their minds in which directions throughout the primaries? Did the parties' national conventions pull any from one camp to the other – and, if so, who? Whose likelihood to turnout was enhanced by grass-roots mobilization efforts by interest groups or parties? Who was persuaded to change his or her position on a controversial issue as the result of an advertising blitz? These questions are all about change over time, and they are at the core of studying elections. To study such change requires panel data, to document which people's opinions or preferences changed and what caused that change.

The ANES 2007-2009 Panel Study will involve six ANES-based waves of interviewing with the same respondents, plus 15 additional secondary waves of data collection. The first ANES wave of data will be collected in September 2007, before the 2008 primaries begin. Subsequent ANES waves of data collection will be in June 2008 (before the parties' conventions), September 2008, and October 2008. Two post-election ANES waves will be conducted in November 2008 and in May 2009.

During the 15 secondary data collection months, questions put to our respondents will not be directly about politics. These secondary data collections are intended to minimize panel attrition, in two ways. First, each month will bring a new questionnaire to complete, so respondents will feel as if they are part of a continuing monitoring enterprise. Second, the content of the questions will vary considerably from month to month, which will minimize the likelihood that respondents uninterested in politics will choose to leave the panel for that reason. The secondary months' questionnaires will be especially enjoyable for respondents to complete and will collect supplementary data on respondents to enrich our analyses of political behavior.

The final wave of interviewing in May 2009 will equip analysts to investigate an interesting set of empirical questions that have yet to be explorable using ANES data. The question of interest here is how Americans make sense of an election outcome just after it happens, whether it is viewed differently by the supporters of the winning candidates and those of the losing candidates, and whether the outcome of an election influences Americans' confidence in the democratic process, their support for democratic institutions, their worries about the future, and many other consequential beliefs and attitudes. Each wave of interviewing will involve a random spreading of interviews across its month. That is, respondents will be randomly assigned to a week in the month on which they will be invited to complete that month’s questionnaire. This random assignment will be done independently for each month, so there will be no relation between when a person is interviewed within one wave and when he or she is interviewed within the following wave. As a result, many campaign events will occur between two consecutive interviews for some respondents and not between those same waves' interviews for other respondents. Thus, analysts will be able to include dates of interviews in their analyses to explore the impact of particular events on individuals.

About the Respondents

Our panel respondents will be part of a brand new national probability sample. The sample will be recruited by random digit dialing over the telephone or via face-to-face interviewing (yet to be determined), and then they will answer all survey questions via the Internet. We are aiming for an initial sample size of approximately 1800 cases. In addition, mid-way through the panel's life, we will recruit a fresh cross-sectional sample of respondents using the same high quality recruiting procedure used to recruit the initial panel. We will administer a set of key measures to the new cross-section respondents at the same time that panel members are interviewed with the same measures, allowing a direct comparison. If we see differences, we can again use the benchmarks to offer analysts a tool for weighting the data during analysis.

About the Online Commons

Design of the questionnaires for the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study will evolve from proposals and comments submitted to the Online Commons (OC). The OC is an on-line system designed to promote communication among scholars and to yield innovative proposals about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships. It conforms to best practice principles in "open source" software development and is tailored to accommodate ANES needs. The goal of the OC is to improve the quality and scientific value of ANES data collections, to encourage the submission of new ideas, and to make such experiences more beneficial to and enjoyable for investigators. In the first use of the ANES Online Commons for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study, more than 300 scholars participated, and more than 1100 questions were proposed.

Proposals for Panel Study questions must include clear theoretical and empirical rationales for question inclusion. All proposals must also clearly state how the questions will increase the value of the panel study. In particular, proposed questions must have the potential to help scholars understand the causes and/or consequences of turnout or candidate choice. These questions may be taken from the inventory of questions that have been asked in prior ANES surveys (for lists of these questions, see http://www.electionstudies.org/resources/questions/questions.htm). Or the questions may be ones not asked previously in ANES surveys but that have been asked in other sample surveys and have been shown to yield valid and reliable measurements of the constructs of interest. For questions new to the ANES, it is important that the proposer provide evidence of effective item functioning. For all questions, it is important that the proposer provide a theory-driven rationale for why the measures might help for understanding the causes and/or consequences of turnout or candidate choice.

The panel study will be more useful to social scientists if it includes a common set of questions in all of the 6 core waves. This would permit tracking change over time in factors such as candidate preferences, turnout likelihood, citizen engagement, and the principal causes and consequences of them (using some traditional measurement approaches to allow comparability across data collections). In addition, each ANES wave will include some measures assessing exposure to particular recent events to allow for gauging the impact of them. And since three of the ANES waves will be run at the same time as the 2008 time series survey, running some of its questions will permit interesting mode comparisons. In many respects, therefore, this project offers wonderful new opportunities for innovation in measurement and theory-building for the ANES.

The ANES Online Commons will begin accepting Panel Study proposals on October 23, 2006, and it will stop accepting new proposals on January 31, 2007. The Online Commons will remain open for one additional month thereafter to allow commentary and revision of the proposals. For additional information about how to submit a proposal and the proposal evaluation process, please visit: http://www.electionstudies.org

This opportunity is open to anyone who wants to make a constructive contribution to the development of ANES surveys. Feel free to pass this invitation along to anyone (e.g., your students) who you think might be interested. We hope to hear from you.

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators American National Election Studies

ANES is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Posted by ronbo at 06:54 PM

October 17, 2006

Social Explorer - A New Resource for Census Data

Social Explorer (www.socialexplorer.com) provides easy access to historical census data for the United States through the use of interactive maps and reports. Today, we are excited to announce the preview release of Social Explorer and the addition of seventy years of census data from 1940 to 2000.

Developed at Queens College CUNY, Social Explorer allows users to visually analyze and understand the demography of any part of the United States with access to the following:

* Interactive thematic maps of historical census data

* Customized reports for any chosen area or areas (including aggregates)

* Complete coverage of the United States, down to neighborhoods and streets

* Simple navigation buttons and a find tool make it easy and efficient to study neighborhoods

What's New:

1. Seventy years of census data: 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 at the neighborhood (census tract), county, state and national levels, now easily accessible in the form of interactive data maps and reports. (click here <http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/maps/home.aspx> )

2. An animated training guide with step by step instructions. (click here )

3. A Reports section, similar in operation to the Census Bureau's American Fact Finder, allows users to directly generate reports about areas of their choice. (click here )

4. A Find tool, allowing users to instantly locate cities, zip codes, addresses, counties, towns, townships and other census geographies on the map.

5. Full source disclosure for all reports - every variable in a report links directly to information about where the data originated and how it was computed, as well as

6. Detailed information for 1960, 1970 and 1980 censuses about which variables were not disclosed for privacy concerns.

Guided by feedback from our numerous beta testers, this release is focused on maximizing Social Explorer's ease of use and eliminating barriers to demographic research. To this end, we have done extensive data processing and entry to make Social Explorer possible. For example, it took over 5 trillion CPU operations just to recode suppressions in 1970 to enable aggregations of the variables. These sort of Herculean data operations, an unavoidable part of Census research, are already done by Social Explorer, allowing users to focus on the results they seek.

Social Explorer is continually improving; we are currently working on adding data back to 1790 for counties and back to 1910 for census tracts. A set of data that will make it possible to follow change in the same area using comparable variables will soon be added. Data from the 2005 American Community Survey, a Census Bureau survey that will ultimately replace the Census Long Form, will be available in the next several weeks. We are also working on improving our reporting system, generating more tools for data mining, and creating sets of data that are comparable across time. In addition, we plan to develop estimates and projections of Census data at the small area level.

The developers are grateful to the National Science Foundation, which funded the development of Social Explorer, as well as the NHGIS team at the University of Minnesota (www.nhgis.org). Social Explorer is used by The New York Times, for their newsroom, and the Times funded early data development and analyses of the Census data for stories in the newspaper.

Contact: Ahmed Lacevic at alacevic@socialexplorer.com, Andrew Beveridge at abeveridge@socialxplorer.com, or Jordan Segall at jsegall@socialexplorer.com.

A few comments about Social Explorer's beta release:

World Changing: "...they've done a fantastically thorough job. You can zoom all the way from the national level to ... the street you live on, and see all sorts of different data, from income to industry to gender to ethnicity to means of commuting to family structure. Want a map showing percent of foreign-born nationals who immigrated in the last five years? It's there. Want a map showing percentage of self-employed males? It's there. Percentage of housing where rent is between $600 - $800 per month or where heat is provided by solar power? It's there."

O'Reilly Radar: "Social Explorer gives a map interface to the 2000 census data. It's beautiful and really interesting. . . When you chart the changing density of blacks and whites in NYC, you get a feel for the sudden post-war boom in projects in Queens and Kings."

Posted by ronbo at 12:30 PM

October 10, 2006

From Census Update: Hot Tip - Residential Finance Survey Focuses on Properties, Not Housing Units

The Census Bureau has conducted the Residential Finance Survey (RFS) every 10 years since 1951 and yet many analysts are unaware of it. For a sample of properties (68,000 addresses in 2001), the Census Bureau collects data on housing financial arrangements from three sources - homeowners, owners of rental properties, and lenders. In 2001, for example, there were 83.5 million properties. Almost 50.6 million were mortgaged. Almost 37.6 million had a fixed-rate, level payment mortgage; 2.3 million had a short-term mortgage with a balloon payment; 11,000 had a reverse mortgage; and 6.5 million had an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM).

The RFS has data on owner characteristics, property characteristics, and financing characteristics. The last includes interest rate, type of mortgage, term of mortgage, holder of mortgage, caps on interest rate over life of the ARM, monthly payment, items included in first mortgage, etc. The results of the RFS are available online in a PDF report or in microdata files available for download. On the Census Bureau homepage, click on "Housing" and then on "Residential Finance Survey."

Posted by ronbo at 01:09 PM

October 06, 2006

From Census Update: Hot Tip - Exactly Which Geographic Areas Are Identified in the 2005 American Community Survey Tabulations?

The 2005 American Community Survey publishes a wealth of data for areas of 65,000 or more people. On October 3, we published the latest installment of data from this survey. This release gives you access to data on the number of housing units (occupied and vacant), total population in housing units by owner/renter status, heating fuel, owner costs, plumbing and kitchen facilities, bedrooms, vehicles available, and telephone, as well as additional place-of-work data.

Wondering which geographic areas make the cut? That is, which have 65,000 or more people and therefore are published in the survey results? Our online ACS Users Guide includes a spreadsheet listing all the areas in each state that are identified in ACS tabulations. In addition, you can view a map showing counties with over and under 65,000 people and a series of state maps showing counties and cities that meet the threshold.

If you want to see all the areas of a particular kind (e.g., places or school districts), come to the ACS Users Guide, and go to the tool in the left-hand top corner labeled "Geographic Areas in 2005." Then select "United States." The resulting page lets you download a spreadsheet showing all areas covered or select a kind of area and see all such areas in the US.

To find the users guide, check on the "American Community Survey" on the Census Bureau home page and then on "Guide to the ACS data products" under the "Using the Data" tab.

Posted by ronbo at 05:22 PM

September 29, 2006

From ANES list: ANES Announces Winning Proposals for its 2006 Pilot Study

September 29, 2006

From March 8 to June 15, 2006, the American National Election Studies introduced a new way of soliciting public input for its surveys. This first ever ANES Online Commons (www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm) allowed interested persons to propose questions for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study. The Online Commons is designed to increase participation in, and the transparency of, the survey development process. It also provides a forum for participants to exchange ideas about posted proposals or other matters relevant to the scientific study of elections.

The response to this new opportunity was tremendous. Over 300 scholars from a range of scientific disciplines registered for the Online Commons. Collectively, they proposed over 1100 questions – with many coming from younger faculty and graduate students. These proposals remain on the Online Commons and can be viewed at the website listed above.

After the close of the proposal period, an evaluation process commenced. As the purpose of the Pilot Study is to evaluate new questions that have not been included on previous ANES surveys but could prove valuable to scholars if included in the future, the evaluative criteria supported this goal. The evaluation criteria were: novelty of idea, theoretical foundation, empirical support, suitability to ANES, breadth of relevance, controversy-relevance, bridge-building, generalizability, value of pilot data, and the extent to which the likely value of the question to ANES users could be credibly evaluated as a result of inclusion on the pilot study. The evaluation also proceeded with the knowledge that only about 120 of the 1100 questions could be included on the 45 minute Pilot Study. A separate report detailing the evaluation process can be found here: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_OCprocess_20060929.pdf

The Board and the PIs discussed their evaluations at a two day meeting at Stanford University in late July 2006. After reviewing this feedback further, the PIs began to contact authors of proposals that were best suited to be the basis of Pilot Study questions. They are now well in the process of finalizing the Pilot Study questionnaire. At the same time, the PIs are preparing individualized and detailed responses to the authors of all of the other proposals. These responses not only thank scholars for their contributions for the project and provide feedback but also attempt to build on the content of these proposals so that the ideas may be of greater use to ANES and other studies in the future. These responses are now being sent to Online Commons proposers.

The Principal Investigators would like to thank the hundreds of persons who were involved in making the Online Commons and the design of the 2006 ANES Pilot Study a great success. A new version of the Online Commons will open in October 2006. It will be devoted to the development of the 2007-09 ANES Panel Study. For more information on that study, visit: http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/future_data_collections.htm

Subject to space availability on the final version of the questionnaire, the following winning proposals have been selected to be the basis of questions for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study. Congratulations!

“Alternative Measures of Partisan Ambivalence”
Marco Steenbergen, UNC Chapel Hill
Howard Lavine, Stony Brook University

"Assessing Sexual Orientation and Contact with Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals"
Patrick Egan, University of California, Berkeley
Randall Sell, Columbia University
Kenneth Sherrill, Hunter College, CUNY

"Basic Values"
Shalom Schwartz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Born-Again Identity"
David Barker, University of Pittsburgh
Lawrence James Zigerell Jr., University of Pittsburgh
Heather Marie Rice, University of Pittsburgh

"Candidate Gender and American Political Behavior"
Kira Sanbonmatsu, Ohio State University
Kathleen Dolan, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

"Character Judgments and Voting Behavior"
Daniel Molden, Northwestern University

"Collective Identity, Ethnic Organization Participation, and Political Behavior"
Belinda Robnett-Olsen, University of California, Irvine

"Crime, Perceived Criminal Injustice, and Electoral Politics"
John Hagan, Northwestern University
Ross L. Matsueda, University of Washington
Ruth D. Peterson, Ohio State University
Lauren J. Krivo, Ohio State University

"Defensive Confidence and Exposure to Political Information"
Dolores Albarracin, University of Florida
“End Times Beliefs” alternate version proposed by Michael K. Earl, Trinity
University

"Everyday Political Talk"
Vivian Martin, Central Connecticut State University

"Extending Political Efficacy"
Daniel Schneider, Stanford University

"Federalism and Trust in Government"
Joe Gershtenson, Eastern Kentucky University

"Figuring Out Voters' Values"
Steven Hitlin, University of Iowa

"Financial Resources and Security"
Katherine Porter, University of Iowa College of Law
Teresa A. Sullivan, University of Michigan
Deborah Thorne, Ohio University
Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School

"Generalized Trust Questions"
Eric M. Uslaner, University of Maryland

"Measuring Ambivalence about Government"
Stephen C. Craig, University of Florida
Jason Gainous, University of Louisville
Michael D. Martinez, University of Florida

"Measuring Political Interest"
Danielle Shani, Princeton University

"The Need for Closure and Political Attitudes"
Christopher Michael Federico, University of Minnesota
John T. Jost, New York University
Antonio Pierro , Universita delgi Studi di Roma
Arie W. Kruglanski, University of Maryland

"New Abortion Items"
David Barker, University of Pittsburgh
Lawrence James Zigerell Jr, University of Pittsburgh
Heather Marie Rice, University of Pittsburgh

"People's Attitudes toward Equality, Redistribution and a Progressive Tax System" by
Ruben Durante, Brown University
Louis Putterman, Brown University

"Perceptions of Entitativity and Similarity of Political Groups"
Sara Ann Crump, UC Santa Barbara
David Hamilton, UC Santa Barbara

"Polarization and Perceived Polarization on Policy Issues""
Charles Judd, University of Colorado
Leaf Van Boven, University of Colorado
David Sherman, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Political Networks"
Betsy Sinclair, Caltech

"Political Trust: Reconciling Theory and Practice"
Dennis L. Plane, Juniata College

"Questions about Social Mood"
Wayne D. Parker, Socionomics Foundation

"Questions Measuring Authoritarianism"
Fred Slocum, Minnesota State University, Mankato

"Religion and Electoral Behavior"
David C. Leege, University of Notre Dame
Stephen T. Mockabee, University of Cincinnati
Kenneth D. Wald, University of Florida

"Self-Monitoring and Political Attitudes"
Adam Berinsky, MIT
Howard Lavine, Stony Brook University

"Sociotropic Voting and the Media"
Stephen Ansolabehere, MIT
Marc Meredith, Stanford GSB
Erik Snowberg, Stanford University
James M. Snyder, Jr., MIT

"Testing a New Generation of Media Use Measures for the ANES"
Scott Althaus, University of Illinois
David Tewksbury, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Values Assessment Proposal"
Kennon M Sheldon, University of Missouri-Columbia
Charles Nichols, University of Missouri-Columbia

For details of the evaluation process of the 2006 ANES Pilot Study, please visit the following link: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_OCprocess_20060929.pdf

ANES is funded by the: National Science Foundation

Posted by ronbo at 04:44 PM

September 26, 2006

From Census Update: Hot Tip - New Metro/Micro Page Easier to Navigate

Finding data and definitions for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas has just gotten much easier. The Census Bureau has redesigned the web site so that users can easily choose from helpful dropdown menus to find current and past definitions of these areas along with their component cities and counties. The redesign comes at the same time as the release of population totals for the 2005 metro and micro areas. Definitions are as of December 2005 and are the same definitions used in the recent release of data from the 2005 American Community Survey.

Incidentally, the metro area with the largest numerical increase in the first half of this decade is Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta; tops in numerical increase between 2004 and 2005 is Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale. The 2005 data include several useful ranking tables for metro and micro areas.

Posted by ronbo at 09:58 PM

September 25, 2006

From MEPS list: Update: Continuing Education Institute Workshop

Workshop now offered at no cost

AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the American Public
Health Association Continuing Education Institute Workshop Set for
November 4

The Continuing Education Institute (CEI) on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC) is sponsoring a 1-day workshop on November 4 in Boston, MA, to provide an in-depth learning experience concerning MEPS. The purpose of this workshop is to facilitate the use of the MEPS HC public use data files by the health services research community. The workshop is offered at no cost.The MEPS workshop is approved for CME, CHES, and nursing contact hours credits. See http://www.apha.org/meetings/continuing_ed.htm for registration materials and more information.

Posted by ronbo at 06:01 PM

September 08, 2006

From Census Product Update - September 8, 2006

Fact of the Day
Scholars Pay Many Dollars, Receive Some Too

Full-time college students pay an average of $10,560 in college costs per year (tuition, books, room, and board) according to 2001-2002 data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Student aid averaged $6,291 and came from Pell Grants (average: $2,701), work study ($3,043), loans ($5,924), employer assistance ($3,600), among other sources. The recently released data show student characteristics, dependency status, enrollment level, marital status, work status, veteran status, and other topics.

In all, over 11 million college students (both full-timers and part-timers) received some form of financial aid outside their families to help pay for their education; about 7.5 million of these were full-time students. Higher education pays off - but costs some dollars to acquire.

Hot Tip
New Metro/Micro Page Easier to Navigate

Posted by ronbo at 02:29 PM

September 01, 2006

From ESRI Newsletter: New ESRI Training Web Site Offers More Resources

ESRI Educational Services is pleased to announce the creation of a single online environment encompassing everything training and education related from ESRI. The new ESRI Training and Education Web site was developed to better serve ESRI users who need information about training options and to provide one place to find answers to training-related questions.

Training Options and Resources
ESRI software users can now find the latest information on instructor-led and Web-based training, search for courses and learning centers, view class schedules and course recommendations, and explore the Internet's most comprehensive library of geographic information system (GIS) literature. The site also features resources especially designed for training managers who need to choose the best training option given their budget and timeline. Highlights of the new site include

Ability to register for classes and purchase on-line training
One search tool for all instructor-led and Web-based courses
Access to monthly live training seminars at no cost
An expansive GIS library with more than 40,000 bibliographical references
Course recommendations based on an individual's previous training, skill set, or job responsibilities
A My Training section to track training progress and view course completion history
Contact names and directions to ESRI learning centers and other training facilities
Access to and search capability in the ESRI Press catalog

The ESRI Virtual Campus continues to be the leader in GIS education on the Web, offering courses that teach ESRI software skills, GIS theory, and the application of GIS tools to find solutions in particular fields. Members of the ESRI Virtual Campus can access their courses at the My Training Section of the new site.

To see all that is new and begin using this resource, visit the ESRI Training and Education Web site.

Posted by ronbo at 03:16 PM

August 31, 2006

Major Upgrade to the MEPS [Medical Expenditure Panel Survey] Web site Coming Soon

During the first week of September 2006, there will be significant changes to the MEPS Web site. This is the first major upgrade to the MEPS site since its initial launching over a decade ago.

The new MEPS Web site will be more user-friendly. Content on the current site is sometimes difficult to locate and often requires going through multiple Web pages; the new site will have a more logical structure and will provide multiple ways to find the information you are seeking in fewer steps.

The new MEPS Web site will have a lot of new content. A few examples include a complete set of MEPS Household Component questionnaires for all survey years; an index of topics that provides links to tables, files, and publications by specific areas of interest; improved survey methods documentation, including survey sample sizes and response rates by year; MEPS Insurance Component State data in spreadsheet formats for all prior years; and improved documentation throughout the site.

The new MEPS Web site will have more powerful databases and search engines. This will improve the speed, quality, and reliability of searches and downloads of public use files, publications, and tables.

The new MEPS Web site will be upgraded to meet all current Federal Web standards.

As with any change, there will be a transition period for those used to the current site. For example, if you have bookmarked pages in the current site, they will no longer function once the new site is activated. If you have problems finding the information you need, please contact us at MEPSProjectDirector@ahrq.hhs.gov and we will be glad to help you navigate the new MEPS Web site.

Posted by ronbo at 01:37 PM

August 21, 2006

From the Census Product Update - August 11, 2006

Fact of the Day
Business Statistics for ZIP Code Areas

Running short of gas as you enter the Smokies? In Asheville, NC, the gateway to the Smokies, the ZIP Code where you are most likely to find a gas station is 28806. It had 29 gas stations counted in the 2002 Economic Census - most in the Asheville area. The Census Bureau has released ZIP Code statistics for eight of the 18 economic sectors covered in the Economic Census. American FactFinder lets you access these statistics by census division (e.g., South Atlantic States) and further narrow your search by geography, industry, or sales size.

Hot Tip
Save or Send Your Search in American FactFinder!

Created a table in the American FactFinder you want to share with others? Here's a simple and quick way to send your AFF results page to a colleague or customer. Once you have the results on your screen, copy the URL address (it is often quite long and may not appear to make sense, but it will work) into an email. The recipient of your email can then click on the URL and see the exact data table or map that you created in American FactFinder. In addition, to save an American FactFinder data table or map, you can bookmark the page that has your results (as you would bookmark any other web page) so that you can easily access the page any time in the future.

Posted by ronbo at 06:20 PM

July 27, 2006

From ResourceShelf blog: Final Draft: Our Cultural Commonwealth: The final report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities & Social Sciences

Final Draft Report Now Available:
Our Cultural Commonwealth: The final report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities & Social Sciences

“Cyberinfrastructure” is more than just hardware and software, more than bigger computer boxes and wider pipes and wires connecting them. The term was coined by NSF to describe the new research environments in which high-performance computing tools are available to researchers in a shared network environment…Of course, scholarship already has an infrastructure: that infrastructure consists of the libraries, archives, and museums that preserve information; the bibliographies, finding aids, and concordances that make that information retrievable; the journals and university presses that distribute the information; and the editors, librarians, archivists, and curators who link the operation of this structure to the scholars who use it. This infrastructure was built over centuries, with the active participation of scholars. The report, available now in final draft form, will appear in final form in the fall, 2006.

Direct to Full Text of Report (PDF; 63 pages)

Source: American Council of Learned Societies

Posted by ronbo at 08:01 PM

July 26, 2006

SULAIR subscribes to online edition of the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, 2nd edition

Online access to the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, 2nd edition is now available for the Stanford community at <http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/mrwhome/109561249/HOME>.

Like the print encyclopedia, you can browse by article (topic) title. The online edition also allows you to search by keyword within full text, tables and figures, as well as provides direct linking from the text to references.

Posted by ronbo at 04:32 PM

July 24, 2006

American Community Survey (ACS) Alert, Number 39 (released July 24, 2006)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

U.S. Census Bureau to Release 2005 ACS Social and Demographic Estimates on August 15; subsequent releases planned throughout 2006

On Tuesday, August 15, 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau will release the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) data on social and demographic characteristics for the nation, all 50 states and the District of Columbia, every congressional district and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more. The release covers 6,800 geographic entities and marks the first time that ACS data will be available for areas with populations of less than 250,000. It is part of the full implementation of the survey, which will provide updated data on an annual basis for all levels of geography (including census tracts and block groups) by 2010.

An online "Guide to the 2005 ACS Data Products" will be released prior to August 15. Included in the Guide are a list of data products, a list of geographical areas for which data are available and step-by-step instructions for accessing the data on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder (AFF).

Data Release Timetable

The August 15 release date is the first of four scheduled ACS releases of the 2005 data. Economic data will be released in conjunction with the Census Bureau's annual release of income, poverty and health insurance data on August 29, with housing characteristics data planned for release on October 3. Additionally, selected population profiles with data by race, Hispanic origin and ancestry will be released on November 14. Comparable data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey also will be released under the same schedule.

Types of Data Being Released

The first scheduled release of ACS data for all areas of 65,000 or more will cover demographic and social characteristics, including:

*Race and ethnicity
*Origins and language
*Age and sex
*Education
*Marital status
*Grandparents as caregivers
*Veterans status
*Disability status
*Household size
*Citizenship and year of entry

As mentioned earlier, economic data from the ACS will be released on August 29, and will cover the following characteristics:

*Income
*Poverty
*Employment status
*Occupation
*Industry
*Journey to work

The planned October 3 release of housing characteristics will include information on:

*Housing occupancy
*Units in structure
*Year structure built
*Rooms
*Bedrooms
*Housing tenure
*Year householder moved into unit
*Vehicles available
*House heating fuel
*Occupants per room
*Value
*Mortgage status and selected monthly owner costs
*Gross rent

The planned November 14 release includes approximately 200 selected population tables with data by race, Hispanic origin and ancestry.

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail .

Posted by ronbo at 03:22 PM

June 27, 2006

Census News Flash - June 26, 2006: Amendments Would Cut FY07 Census Funding

Several proposed amendments to the Census Bureau's appropriations bill would cut the agency's funding by tens of millions of dollars. The amendments reportedly will be offered when the House of Representatives considers the massive Fiscal Year 2007 Science, State, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations bill (H.R. 5672) starting as early as today.

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) has alerted colleagues that he will offer an amendment to shift $30 million from the Census Bureau to the Justice Department's Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program. It is not known if the proposed amendment would direct the Census Bureau to cut specific programs. The amendment's goal is to "ensure that we fully fund the [BVP] program at its authorized level of $50 million," according to a Dear Colleague letter from Rep. Lynch. The National Association of Police Organizations, Inc. thanked the congressman in a letter for sponsoring the amendment.

Reps. Lee Terry (R-NB) and Mark Kennedy (R-MN) will offer three amendments to increase funding for the Justice Department's Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, which the Administration had proposed to eliminate. The Appropriations Committee had restored some funding for this program. One of the Terry-Kennedy amendments would shift $50 million from the Census Bureau to the Byrne JAG program.

Rep. Michael Rogers (R-MI) reportedly will offer an amendment to shift $14.1 million from various Census Bureau activities to the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) is seeking to shift $3.3 million from the Census Bureau to the FBI's Innocent Images program, while Reps. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Rick Larsen (D-WA), and Darlene Hooley (D-OR) propose to take $20 million from census programs to fund grants for drug-endangered children.

Other amendments affecting the Census Bureau are possible. The Appropriations Committee increased funding for the Census Bureau by about $72 million over current year levels, as the agency ramps up for the 2010 census and continues nationwide implementation of the American Community Survey.

----

Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent consultant in Washington, DC, with support from The Annie E. Casey Foundation and other organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is also a consultant to The Census Project, sponsored by the Communications Consortium Media Center. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at 202/484-3067 or by e-mail at TerriAnn2K@aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations.

Posted by ronbo at 03:11 PM

June 05, 2006

From the ACS Alert Mailing List: American Community Survey Alert, Number 37

(Released May 31, 2006)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional actions, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

* * U.S. Census Bureau Releases ACS Design and Methodology Paper
* * ACS Data Now Available on DataFerrett
* Contact Us

* U.S. Census Bureau Releases ACS Design and Methodology Paper
The Census Bureau today released its ACS Design and Methodology Paper, a comprehensive summary of the full set of methodologies used in the ACS. The purpose of this paper is to provide data users and other interested individuals with documentation of the methods planned for the ACS.

The paper contains a wide range of topics ranging from sample design, content development, and the language assistance program to data dissemination and user assistance. The paper also includes a glossary of terms, a list of acronyms and appendices. The ACS Design and Methodology Paper may be found online at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/tp67.pdf.

* ACS 2004 PUMS Now Available on DataFerrett
The Census Bureau recently released ACS 2004 PUMS on DataFerrett. DataFerrett allows you to select a “databasket” full of variables and then recode those variables as you need. You can then develop and customize tables or create charts or graphs for a visual presentation into an html page.

DataFerrett helps you locate and retrieve the data you need across the Internet to your desktop or system, regardless of where the data reside.

For more information about ACS 2004 PUMS on DataFerrett, see contact information below.

Contact Us
If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888)456-7215 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

General information about this mailing list is available at: http://lists.census.gov/mailman/listinfo/acs-alert.

Posted by ronbo at 04:27 PM

June 02, 2006

From the Census Product Update - June 2, 2006

Hot Tip

Latest News About the American Community Survey (ACS)

The Census Bureau has released ACS Design and Methodology, a comprehensive summary of the full set of methodologies used in the ACS. The paper covers many topics: sample design, content development, and the language assistance program to data dissemination and user assistance.

Look for the ACS 2004 Public Use Microdata (PUMS) file in DataFerrett. DataFerrett provides respondent records minus identifying information so that users can create their own tabulations. You can then develop and customize tables or create charts or graphs for a visual presentation into an html page. DataFerrett helps you locate and retrieve the data you need across the Internet to your desktop or system, regardless of where the data reside.

Posted by ronbo at 03:55 PM

May 19, 2006

MEPS Data Users'' Workshop

AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RESEARCH AND QUALITY
MEPS Data Users' Workshop

Two-day Overview of MEPS-HC and Computer Hands-on: July 24-25, 2006

In addition, there will be an overview presentation on H-CUP data (Healthcare Costs and Utilization project). For more information, click on the link below:
www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/

The 2nd day will consist of an opportunity to construct analytic files with the assistance of AHRQ staff. A PC will be available for each participant. Attendees should have some exposure to MEPS and the ability to use SAS.

Coming Soon: Full program Description, Registration Form and Logistical Information
Please check http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/workshop/WSSchedule.htm

For any other questions, email workshop06@ahrq.hhs.gov

Posted by ronbo at 06:56 AM

May 11, 2006

Call for 2007 ISA MAR Panel Paper Proposals

The Minorities at Risk Project (MAR), housed in the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, College Park, invites scholars to submit abstracts for presentation during panels at the annual convention of the International Studies Association, to be held February 28 * March 3, 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. Please see below for panel themes and indicate in your submission to which panel your abstract is addressed. The deadline is May 27, 2006.

Please note:
(1) Submissions do not need to include MAR data for them to be considered and do not need to be quantitative; we base decisions on the merit of the proposal itself, with the only condition that submissions relate to minority politics.

(2) MAR will make its decision on the papers to be included in our submission by May 30th (you will be notified by the evening of May 30th), ensuring that those proposals not selected by MAR can still be submitted by the authors directly to ISA on either May 31st or June 1st.

PANEL TITLES
Panel 1: IR, Globalization and Minority Politics
Global transformations and pressures appearing in a variety of forms affect ethnic politics and conflict, including diaspora groups, transnational and international organizations, as well as the rapid, penetrative spread of information, arms, and ideas. This panel will bring together scholars working in the realm identity politics, globalization, and international or transnational relations.

Panel 2: Low-level ethnic conflict
Increasingly, scholars are shifting away from predicting and explaining “ethnic civil war”, with the realization that we must focus on understanding the lower-level conflicts, the repression-dissent nexus that can build to larger forms of conflict. This panel will focus on exploring, explaining, and understanding lower-level forms of conflict, including repression, dissent, riots and pogroms.

Panel 3: Differences between Identity and Non-Identity Conflicts
The field of ‘ethnic conflict’ is often challenged by scholars asking whether there is, in fact, anything unique about ‘ethnicity’ and conflict. Some research has demonstrated differences in the duration of civil wars or the means by which civil wars end but, equally, other scholars have found no differences at all. Is there something unique about identity? If so, what is the theoretical basis and what patterns are seen empirically? Is identity one of many tools used to overcome the problem of collective action in rebellion or is something else at work?

Panel 4: Territorial Conflicts, Separatism, and Ethno-political Conflict
This panel will bring together scholars interested in ethno-nationalist territorial and separatist conflicts. Themes can include, among others, which conflict regulating mechanisms are most appropriate and effective for these conflict, under what conditions separatism succeeds, strategic choices by organizations to choose autonomy or independence as a goal, international norms regarding autonomy.

Panel 5: Terrorism and Ethnic Politics
Many of the world’s “terrorist organizations” claim to represent ethnic minority groups and have been studied extensively for decades. How can this previous scholarship inform the recent surge of academic interest in the field of terrorism studies? When and why do minority organizations choose to use political violence as a strategy and when does this involve the deliberate targeting of civilians? Do different ‘minorities’ (eg linguistic, religious, social) have different strategies vis-a-vis terrorism?

Posted by ronbo at 07:04 PM

April 20, 2006

From Census Update: American Factfinder Hot Tips

More Improvements to American FactFinder!

The American FactFinder (AFF) tool is one of the most popular sites on the Census web page. On Friday, April 21, we are making several improvements to it. First, for the American Community Survey data, AFF now gives the option of hiding the upper and lower bound columns so that your results display only the estimate.

Second, Census 2000 data tables now link to counts that were corrected (revised) in the Count Resolution (CQR) program through a link above the table. The hyperlink is available on "Detailed Tables" and "Quick Tables" (except in the case of the Island Area Census 2000 data set).

Third, AFF has given its thematic mapping feature the ability to display statistically significant differences in data from those that are not statistically significant. This can be done with a simple click of the "with the statistical significance" in the left panel of the results display.

For more details on each of these improvements, and other changes to AFF, please see the "What's New" section of American FactFinder.

Posted by ronbo at 06:04 PM

April 17, 2006

ANES Announcement: 2006 ANES Pilot Study

Time is running out. The time to act is now.

The deadline for proposing questions for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study is fast approaching.

Submit early – you’ll be better off!

The American National Election Studies will conduct a pilot study survey in November, 2006, to test new questions.

We are pleased to invite all scholars who have innovative and energizing ideas to propose them for testing in this survey.

Things to know about the Pilot Study:

- If you want particular questions to be asked in future ANES surveys, now is the time to offer evidence of how the questions perform in real surveys. The Pilot Study is an ideal way to gather such evidence.

- The Pilot Study respondents were all interviewed previously, for the 2004 ANES. Thus, all respondents have answered many more questions, which give you powerful tools to evaluate new questions.

- The interviews will last about 45 minutes, and almost all of this time will be available for administering new questions.

- The interviews will be conducted by telephone.

- You can submit a proposal through the ANES Online Commons (go to www.electionstudies.org). The firm deadline for submitting proposals for the Pilot Study is June 15, 2006.

- Proposals received earlier will receive greater attention from ANES users and are likely to be advantaged in the review process as a result. For more information on how we will evaluate and choose amongst proposals, please visit the ANES Online Commons.

- Decisions about which questions are placed on the Pilot Study will be announced in August, 2006.

- Proposals from across the social sciences are welcomed.

Visit the ANES Online Commons at: www.electionstudies.org

Posted by ronbo at 03:04 PM

April 14, 2006

MAPSS Colloquium Speaker Series: Stephen Barley (April 18)

On Tuesday, April 18th, the MAPSS Colloquium Series presents

Professor STEPHEN BARLEY

(Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University)

'An Introduction to Organizational Ethnography'

Venue: Building 200, aka History Corner, Room 305

Snacks served at noon; talk begins at 12:15.
To receive food and drink, you must RSVP by noon, Friday, April 14th at:
http://mapss.stanford.edu/colloquium/rsvp.html

Dr. Stephen R. Barley is the Charles M. Pigott Professor of Management Science and Engineering and the Director of the Center for Work, Technology and Organization at Stanford's School of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Organization Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Barley was a member of the Board of Senior Scholars of the National Center for the Educational Quality of the Workforce, and co-chaired National Research Council and the National Academy of Science's committee on the changing occupational structure in the United States. He has written extensively on the impact of new technologies on work, the organization of technical work, and organizational culture.

Abstract: Stephen Barley, long time ethnographer of work and technology, will talk about the value of ethnography as a method, the ins and outs of doing participant observation, and the art of analyzing observational data. Barley will give a short introductory talk, after which the flow of conversation will be guided by questions from the audience. Come prepared to ask all the questions you've ever wanted to ask about doing fieldwork.

For the full 2005-2006 speaker schedule, see the MAPSS website:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/mapss/colloquium/index.html

MAPSS is sponsored by Stanford's
Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS)

Posted by ronbo at 05:18 PM

April 10, 2006

From the StanfordGIS List: Trimble GPS Training at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve

Trimble GPS Training at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (2 different sessions offered)

Friday, April 28
9am - 4pm

Saturday April 29
9am - 4pm

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite based navigation system that is used to accurately locate and track research sites, natural resources, utilities and public sector assets, and manage them in conjunction with a GIS system.

Taught by Trevor Hebert, Jasper Ridge's GIS/Data Manager and Trimble Certified Instructor, our training emphasizes practical applications with hands-on instruction that can be immediately transferred to your mapping project. This course normally costs $500-1,000/person, but is available through the Preserve at our cost.

Participants learn how to complete a mapping project from start to finish. The courses include lectures, hands-on field exercises, planning a project, creating data dictionaries, post-processing data and exporting data to a GIS.

Course participants receive instruction in the use of the Trimble GPS units and the Pathfinder Office post-processing software. There will also be a brief introduction to ESRI's ArcGIS software.

A certificate of completion and an appropriate number of contact hours of professional development credit can be awarded to attendees if desired. Course fee ($100/person) includes course materials and use of GPS equipment and lab computers. Please pack a lunch as there is not enough time to leave the Preserve.

If you are interested in participating (or know someone who would be), please have them contact Trevor Hebert (thebert@stanford.edu) and indicate which date you want to attend. Please note that this opportunity is on a first come, first served basis, with limited class size. Should these dates not work for you, please let Trevor know, and he will inform you about future offerings.

There will be plenty of individual attention and a structured format that will allow for a deeper understanding of the technology and a real opportunity to get started using Trimble GPS technology in the field.

Trevor Hebert
Geographic Information Systems & Database Manager
Trimble Certified GPS Instructor
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve
Stanford University
650-851-6815
650-823-3116 CELL
650-851-7334 FAX
http://jrbp.stanford.edu/

Posted by ronbo at 01:58 PM

April 06, 2006

2006 Workshops on GIS & Population Science - call for applications

Application Deadline: April 10, 2006

The Population Research Institute (The Pennsylvania State University) and the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (University of California, Santa Barbara) are offering workshops in the NICHD-funded GIS Population Science Training Program. The two-week long workshops provide intensive training in geographic information science (GIS) specifically tailored toward population science.

The primary audience for these workshops is interdisciplinary pre-doctoral students of demography at NICHD-supported population training centers in the United States, institutional members of the wider Association of Population Centers (APC), graduate students in demography-related disciplines from both APC and non-APC institutions (including agricultural economics, anthropology, economics, geography, public health, rural sociology, and sociology), as well as faculty and researchers employed in population-related agencies.

*******************************
State College, PA: The Population Research Institute (www.pop.psu.edu)
Pennsylvania State University, June 4-16, 2006
Instructors: Stephen Matthews (coordinator), James Detwiler, Yosef Bodovsky, Steve Graham, and Michelle Zeiders, plus presentations by local and invited distinguished demographic researchers.

Santa Barbara, CA: The Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (www.csiss.org)
University of California, Santa Barbara July 10-22, 2006
Instructors: Michael Goodchild and Donald Janelle (coordinators), Keith Clarke, Jeremy Crampton, James Detwiler, William Pan, Stuart Sweeney, Waldo Tobler, plus presentations by local and invited distinguished demographic researchers.
*******************************

There are no fees associated with these workshops - participation is determined through a competitive application process. Participants in the program are eligible for scholarship support for travel and subsistence.

Application Process
1. Review detailed information about the workshop program and the requirements for applicants and accepted participants at
www.csiss.org/GISPopSci/workshops
2. Review the workshop agenda and the expertise of instructors at the host institutions to select your preferred workshop
3. Apply on-line at www.csiss.org/GISPopSci/workshops/2006/apply

Important Dates
Application Deadline: 10 April 2006
Notice of Acceptance to Applicants: 17 April 2006
Must Confirm Participation by: 25 April 2006

Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as an R25 award (R25 HD047744-01).

Posted by ronbo at 11:55 AM

March 28, 2006

Call for Papers: 2nd IEA International Research Conference

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is the sponsor of the several international comparative education assessments, including the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Supported in part by NCES and the National Science Foundation, the IEA, in cooperation with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, is hosting a research conference focused on greater understanding of the numerous roles that education plays in the development of nations and in shaping individuals. Individual paper proposals that utilize any of the IEA international assessment datasets are encouraged. The deadline for receipt of proposals is May 31, 2006. The conference will take place from November 9-11, 2006 in Washington, DC.

Information on the submission of proposals, criteria for selection, and other details can be found at: http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/confinfo.asp?confid=166

Posted by ronbo at 06:44 PM

March 20, 2006

From the IPUMS list: Summer workshop on IPUMS databases

Dear IPUMS Users,

I am pleased to announce the first annual IPUMS Summer Workshop, to be held in Minneapolis on July 19th-21st. This training session will cover four major databases: IPUMS-USA, IPUMS-International, IPUMS-CPS, and the North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP).

For more information, please visit http://www.pop.umn.edu/training/summer.shtml.

I hope to see some of you in Minneapolis this summer.

Sincerely,

Steven Ruggles
Principal Investigator
IPUMS Projects

Posted by ronbo at 02:57 PM

March 16, 2006

2006 Virtual Summer Institute in Political Psychology

APPLICATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE

2006 VIRTUAL SUMMER INSTITUTE IN POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY
at Stanford University
July 10 - 21, 2006

APPLY TODAY BY CLICKING HERE
<http://acomptesterg4.stanford.edu/phpsurveyor/index.php?sid=1>

Stanford University is very pleased to announce that it will host the first Virtual Summer Institute in Political Psychology. Continuing the SIPP tradition created by Margaret Hermann at Ohio State University in 1991, Virtual SIPP will provide participants with an opportunity to receive specialized training in political psychology by world-renowned faculty over the course of the two-week Institute. VSIPP 2006 is sponsored by Stanford's Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS).

This year, the Summer Institute will offer 2 weeks of online training in political psychology to up to 60 participants including graduate students, faculty, professionals, and advanced undergraduates. The VSIPP 2006 training will include streaming audio lectures drawn from a unique world class collection of faculty lecturers and accompanying slideshow materials, an extensive reading list and materials to accompany the lectures, online discussion groups, and personal space online to post your own research interests, ideas and projects and to network with fellow participants.

Contingent on participant interest, Stanford University will host an informal two-day conference at the end of Virtual SIPP (July 22-24) where participants will continue their conversations with fellow participants and faculty, connecting with each other at Stanford. See the VSIPP WEBSITE for more details about the Institute and the closing conference.

Political psychology is an exciting and thriving subdisciplinary specialty that explores the origins of political behavior and the causes of political events, with a special focus on the psychological mechanisms at work. The principal contributors to the field include political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, and other researchers who cross bridges between disciplines in efforts to enrich their scholarship.

A wide range of topics will be explored, including terrorism, the causes and dynamics of war, the determinants of election outcomes, public perceptions of the legitimacy of their governments, the influence of the news media on political affairs, processes of individual and collective decision-making by political elites, bargaining and negotiation between and within nations, the impact of leaders' personalities on their actions, and much more.

Stanford University is the home of a large group of faculty experts studying political psychology, including Larry Bobo (public opinion, racial attitudes), Jon Krosnick (survey design, public opinion, voting behavior), Lee Ross (conflict and dispute resolution), Hazel Markus (cultural influences on political attitudes), Albert Bandura (moral disengagement), Phil Zimbardo (terrorism), Douglas McAdam (social movements and protest), Deborah Gruenfeld (political organizations, bargaining and negotiation), Claude Steele (stereotypes and the psychology of diversity), Rod Kramer (collective identity, leadership), Michael Tomz (international relations) and others as well.

Applications from interested participants will be accepted beginning on March 6 and are due by April 15, 2006. All admissions decisions will be finalized by May 1, 2006 and participants will be notified by this date.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about the 2006 Summer Institute, please visit the VSIPP WEBSITE <http://www.stanford.edu/group/sipp> .

TO APPLY, please complete this APPLICATION <http://acomptesterg4.stanford.edu/phpsurveyor/index.php?sid=1>.

Posted by ronbo at 01:54 PM

ANES Announcement: Opening of the Online Commons

ANES Announces the Opening of the Online Commons. Scholars can use it to influence the design of future studies.

On March 8, 2006, The American National Election Studies inaugurated the ANES Online Commons (OC). The goal of the OC is to improve the quality and scientific value of each of our data collections, to encourage the submission of new ideas, and to make such experiences more beneficial to, and enjoyable for, individual investigators.

The OC is a collection of proposal and message board web-pages designed to foster innovation and debate about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships in upcoming ANES surveys. It is faithful to best practices in “open source” development, with the special adjustments made for the ANES.

The OC is open to anyone who wants to make a constructive contribution to the development of ANES data collections. Any Internet user can view the OC, but posting proposals, comments, or other study-relevant materials will require OC membership. To learn how to register, visit: http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

After registering, members may write proposals advocating for the inclusion of new questions in the questionnaires or suggesting that we continue to ask questions that have been asked in the past or suggesting that particular questions not be asked again. Members are also eligible to post comments about each proposal, and proposal authors can update or revise their proposals in response to advice they receive.

In addition to proposals and comments, OC members can write short essays about research topics that they view as important for the ANES and its user community to consider. These essays may be no more than 500 words in length. The essays differ from the formal proposals that are the OC’s focal elements. OC proposals must specify the exact wording for a proposed question accompanied by a scientific rationale, whereas the essays need only offer advice for others about potentially valuable lines of inquiry. The OC is devoted to the improvement and development of scientific election studies, and all essays should adopt the same focus.

For each survey we will conduct, a specific period of time will be specified during which proposals and comments may be posted. After the period of public comment concludes for a survey, a subcommittee of the new Board of Overseers will write an evaluation of the Commons’ contents, which will be posted on the website and discussed at length at a meeting of the full Board. The Board will then provide advice to the Principal Investigators about how to design each survey. The Principal Investigators will make the final decisions and will issue a report announcing and justifying those decisions. Each proposal author will receive written feedback about his or her proposal.

We hope that this process will produce decisions about study content in ways that are more transparent and public than ever before, and we hope that this approach will inspire substantial public debate and input about conceptualization, theory, and measurement before each survey is fielded. The first survey on which we seek input is the Pilot Study to be conducted during November, 2006.

Please pass this invitation along to anyone (e.g., your students) who you think might be interested. We hope to hear from you now and in the coming years as we strive to enhance the study of elections through the ANES.

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies

Posted by ronbo at 01:48 PM

2006 Workshops on GIS & Population Science - call for applications

GIS & Population Science Workshops 2006

Application Process
1. Review detailed information about the workshop program and the requirements for applicants and accepted participants at www.csiss.org/GISPopSci/workshops
2. Review the workshop agenda and the expertise of instructors at the host institutions to select your preferred workshop
3. Apply on-line at www.csiss.org/GISPopSci/workshops/2006/apply

Important Dates
Application Deadline: 10 April 2006
Notice of Acceptance to Applicants: 17 April 2006
Must Confirm Participation by: 25 April 2006

Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as an R25 award (R25 HD047744-01).

=======================================================
GIS & Population Science Program
Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)
c/o the National Center for Geographic Information & Analysis (NCGIA)
3510 Phelps Hall
Department of Geography
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060 U.S.A.
Tel: (805) 893-8224 Fax: (805) 893-3146
csiss@csiss.org www.csiss.org/GISPopSci
=======================================================
GISPopSci is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) as an R25 award titled "GIS Training Program for Population Scientists" (R25 HD047744-01).

Posted by ronbo at 01:36 PM

March 14, 2006

2006 SPACE Summer Workshops- call for applications

Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)

Spatial Perspectives on Analysis for Curriculum Enhancement (SPACE) program Summer Workshops 2006

For Instructors of Undergraduate Courses in the Social Sciences

The following SPACE workshops are intended for instructors of undergraduate students in the social sciences. They offer content knowledge in methods of spatial analysis, instructional resources, and professional development support for curriculum planning and learning assessment. Successful applicants must commit to implementing spatial perspectives in their undergraduate courses and to providing feedback and documentation to evaluate the SPACE workshop program.

There are no fees associated with these workshops - participation is determined through a competitive application process. The deadline for applications is 18 April 2006. Participants in the program are eligible for scholarship support for travel and subsistence. More details are available at www.csiss.org/SPACE/workshops .

* GIS and Spatial Modeling for the Undergraduate Social Science Curriculum
18-23 June 2006, Columbus OH

* Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies for Undergraduate Curricula in the Social Sciences
23-28 July 2006, Norman OK

* Spatial analysis in the Social Science Curriculum: Enhancing Undergraduate Learning
31 July-5 August 2006, Santa Barbara CA

This program is funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education, under its program for Course, Curriculum & Laboratory Improvement - National Dissemination.

=======================================================
Spatial Perspectives on Analysis for Curriculum Enhancement (SPACE) Program
Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)
c/o the National Center for Geographic Information & Analysis (NCGIA)
3510 Phelps Hall
Department of Geography
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060 U.S.A.
Tel: (805) 893-8224 Fax: (805) 893-3146
csiss@csiss.org www.csiss.org/SPACE
=======================================================
SPACE is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education under its program for Course, Curriculum & Laboratory Improvement - National Dissemination, which is administered through the Institute for Social, Behavioral, & Economic Research (ISBER) at U.C. Santa Barbara.

Posted by ronbo at 06:08 PM

March 03, 2006

SIPP Longitudinal Data at risk due to budget cut.

Excerpted from a message from the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) on March 3, 2006:

"We want to make you aware of a significant issue, affecting data users, in the President's Proposed FY 2007 budget. The Survey of Income and Program Participation -- SIPP -- has been cut out of the Census Bureau's budget as submitted to Congress. This means that most data collection for the SIPP program would end in September. There is $9.2 million in the FY07 budget request to finish collecting data for the final Wave (so that the data through 2006 can be published) and to redesign the survey."

"A number of SIPP users, led by Heather Boushey of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, has put together a letter to Congress. It was submitted earlier this week, but should be open for new signatures. For more information, contact Heather at hboushey@cepr.net."

"As far as we can tell based on available information, the cut was made because the Census Bureau was told to cut something, and SIPP was vulnerable. They viewed this as better than an across-the-board cut in all programs. However, the data are used by other agencies in a number of federal programs, and are viewed as extremely valuable to many data users. The bureau is proposing to substitute use of administrative records and to think about design of a new survey which might begin in two or three years."

"The unique thing about SIPP, aside from its subject matter, is that it's a longitudinal survey--therefore offering the opportunity to measure the "before" and "after" effects of policy changes. If it's killed, we may never get another longitudinal survey that useful for policy analysis. This is not to say that SIPP is a perfect survey. There are good reasons for improving SIPP but it should be done in a way that minimizes the data gaps, maintains public access to the data and maximizes the likelihood that a successful SIPP replacement is actually put in place."

"An article about this issue appeared in the March 1 Washington Post ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801334.html ) and there was some discussion of it at a Congressional Hearing on the census which took place the same day. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Christopher Shays (R-CT), and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) are planning to ask other Members to sign a letter to the White House in an effort to save the survey."

"The cost is estimated at $40 million per year."

Posted by ronbo at 04:09 PM

March 02, 2006

ESRI GIS - new virtual campus training seminar

New No-Cost Virtual Campus Training Seminar: Understanding Spatial Statistics in ArcGIS 9
In this introduction to the newest spatial statistics tools included with ArcView 9, ArcEditor 9, and ArcInfo 9, you'll learn how to easily identify the geographic center of a set of features, determine if a set of features is clustered or dispersed, find hot spots or spatial outliers, and examine other critical analysis functions. Learn more.

Posted by ronbo at 08:06 PM

February 21, 2006

Minnesota Postdoc opportunities: IPUMS Project

Dear Colleague,

The Minnesota Population Center is searching to fill postdoctoral positions beginning in Fall 2006. If you know of any outstanding graduate students or recent Ph.D.s who might be interested in coming to Minnesota, I would appreciate it if you would pass this message along.

Initial appointments are for one year and can be renewed for up to two additional years. Applicants must have completed the Ph.D before the position begins. Screening of applications will start on March 15, 2006 and will continue until the positions are filled.

Further information on the positions and application procedures is contained in the attached flyer and on our website at
http://www.pop.umn.edu/employment/research.shtml.

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Steven Ruggles
Director, Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

Posted by ronbo at 08:20 PM

January 25, 2006

GIS: New Free Batch Geocoding Website

From Meredith Williams posted to the campus ESRI-Users list:

This site is offering a free, web-based service that usually is very expensive, batch geocoding. I imagine that this could be very popular in the Business School, or with anyone who doesn't have time to learn GIS, but needs to geocode multiple addresses. http://www.batchgeocode.com/ You can even view your points on a map at the end if you'd like.

Please pass this along to anyone that might use it.

Cheers,
Meredith

____________________________
Meredith Williams, GIS Manager
Branner Earth Science Library
Stanford University
650-725-9179
http://gis.stanford.edu
____________________________

Posted by ronbo at 06:28 PM

December 01, 2005

U.Wisconsin Current Demographic Research Report

The latest issue of Current Demographic Research Report (CDERR #111, 29 November, 2005), a product of the Information Services Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is available at the CDERR website:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/library/cderr/cderr111.htm

CDERR (Current Demographic Research Reports) is a weekly email report produced by the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that helps researchers keep up to date with the latest developments in the field. This report will contain selected listings of new: reports, articles, bibliographies, working papers, tables of contents, conferences, data, and websites. For more information, including an archive of back issues and subscription information see:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/library/cderr/subscribe.htm

Back issues:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/library/cderr/back_iss.htm

Thank you

Jack

--
Jack Solock
Data Librarian--Center for Demography and Ecology
4470 Social Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
608-262-9827
jsolock@ssc.wisc.edu

Posted by ronbo at 05:39 PM

November 07, 2005

From IPUMS: IPUMS needs your help!

Dear IPUMS User,

Once again it's grant writing time, and once again IPUMS urgently needs your help! Next week we will apply to the National Institutes of Health for the renewal of our five-year Center Grant, the core source of funding for our day-to-day operations. Continued funding for the IPUMS data series is contingent on its continued use by the academic and professional research community.

If you have done any research using the IPUMS, please visit our bibliography at http://www.ipums.org/usa/research.html to see if we have it. If something is missing or if you find errors, you can enter the correct information online
(http://www.ipums.org/usa/research.php?view_type=edit_new) or just email the citation to ipums@pop.umn.edu. We suspect that a substantial quantity of research published in books and collections of essays is missing from our bibliography, since there are no citation indexes available for those sources. We would appreciate if you can make any additions or corrections to our bibliography by the end of this week.

Thanks for your prompt reply...we really appreciate your help!

Sincerely,

Steve Ruggles
Principal Investigator
ruggles@pop.umn.edu

_______________________________________________
IPUMS-Users mailing list
https://mail.socsci.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/ipums-users

Posted by ronbo at 10:39 AM

November 01, 2005

From ResourceShelf Blog: Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003

Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003
By gary

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Internet Usage--United States--Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003

"A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 40 percent of adults used the Internet to obtain news, weather or sports information in 2003, a sharp increase from only 7 percent six years earlier. In a measure of how interpersonal communications are changing, more than half of adults (55 percent) used e-mail or instant messaging in 2003, a dramatic increase from the 12 percent who did so in 1997. The report also shows the Internet has become an integral part of the economy. In 2003, nearly half (47 percent) ! of adults used the Internet to find information on products or services. About one-third (32 percent) actually purchased a product or service online, compared with only 2 percent of adults who shopped online in 1997."

From SlashGISRS blog: Review of Online Mapping Sites

Review of Online Mapping Sites
By Satri on map-me

Very Spatial indicates that the Cartography blog just completed a 9 part series on the state of online mapping: intro, Google Local, Map24, Maporama, MapQuest, MSN Maps, McNally, Yahoo! Maps and summary. From the summary: "Some offer better directions than others but, for the most, there is little separating them but appearances and useability. Appearances are often a matter of taste - something that Maporama has recognized with its plethora of map style options. Useability is essential when the task is to offer quick maps and directions. In this area Google Maps / Local does well. The single search box is ideal - no clicking on dropdown boxes to select a country or tabbing to the next box to complete the field."

Posted by ronbo at 01:21 PM