-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 3
/
s14-04-analyzing-others-data.html
153 lines (136 loc) · 14.9 KB
/
s14-04-analyzing-others-data.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<link href="shared/bookhub.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<title>Analyzing Others’ Data</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id=navbar-top class="navbar">
<div class="navbar-part left">
<a href="s14-03-unobtrusive-data-collected-by-.html"><img src="shared/images/batch-left.png"></a> <a href="s14-03-unobtrusive-data-collected-by-.html">Previous Section</a>
</div>
<div class="navbar-part middle">
<a href="index.html"><img src="shared/images/batch-up.png"></a> <a href="index.html">Table of Contents</a>
</div>
<div class="navbar-part right">
<a href="s14-05-reliability-in-unobtrusive-res.html">Next Section</a> <a href="s14-05-reliability-in-unobtrusive-res.html"><img src="shared/images/batch-right.png"></a>
</div>
</div>
<div id="book-content">
<div class="section" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04" condition="start-of-chunk" version="5.0" lang="en">
<h2 class="title editable block">
<span class="title-prefix">11.4</span> Analyzing Others’ Data</h2>
<div class="learning_objectives editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_n01">
<h3 class="title">Learning Objectives</h3>
<ol class="orderedlist" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_l01">
<li>Name at least two sources of publicly available quantitative data.</li>
<li>Name at least two sources of publicly available qualitative data.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="para editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_p01">One advantage (or disadvantage, depending on which parts of the research process you most enjoy) of unobtrusive research is that you may be able to skip the data collection phase altogether. Whether you wish to analyze qualitative data or quantitative data sources, there are a number of free data sets available to social researchers. This section introduces you to several of those sources.</p>
<p class="para editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_p02">Many sources of quantitative data are publicly available. The General Social Survey (GSS), which was discussed in <a class="xref" href="blackstone_1.0-ch08#blackstone_1.0-ch08">Chapter 8 "Survey Research: A Quantitative Technique"</a>, is one of the most commonly used sources of publicly available data among quantitative researchers (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/GSS+Website">http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/GSS+Website</a>). Data for the GSS have been collected regularly since 1972, thus offering social researchers the opportunity to investigate changes in Americans’ attitudes and beliefs over time. Questions on the GSS cover an extremely broad range of topics, from family life to political and religious beliefs to work experiences.</p>
<p class="para editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_p03">Other sources of quantitative data include Add Health (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth">http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth</a>), a study that was initiated in 1994 to learn about the lives and behaviors of adolescents in the United States, and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch">http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch</a>), a study that has, for over 40 years, surveyed 10,000 women and men who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. Quantitative researchers interested in studying social processes outside of the United States also have many options when it comes to publicly available data sets. Data from the British Household Panel Study (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/bhps">http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/bhps</a>), a longitudinal, representative survey of households in Britain, are freely available to those conducting academic research (private entities are charged for access to the data). The International Social Survey Programme (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.issp.org">http://www.issp.org</a>) merges the GSS with its counterparts in other countries around the globe. These represent just a few of the many sources of publicly available quantitative data.</p>
<p class="para editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_p04">Unfortunately for qualitative researchers, far fewer sources of free, publicly available qualitative data exist. This is slowly changing, however, as technical sophistication grows and it becomes easier to digitize and share qualitative data. Despite comparatively fewer sources than for quantitative data, there are still a number of data sources available to qualitative researchers whose interests or resources limit their ability to collect data on their own. The Murray Research Archive Harvard, housed at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, offers case histories and qualitative interview data (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/mra">http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/mra</a>). The Global Feminisms project at the University of Michigan offers interview transcripts and videotaped oral histories focused on feminist activism; women’s movements; and academic women’s studies in China, India, Poland, and the United States.<span class="footnote" id="blackstone_1.0-fn11_021">These data are not free, though they are available at a reasonable price. See the Global Feminism’s order site for more on pricing: <a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/dvd.html">http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/dvd.html</a>; <a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/index.html">http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/index.html</a>.</span> At the University of Connecticut, the Oral History Office provides links to a number of other oral history sites (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.oralhistory.uconn.edu/links.html">http://www.oralhistory.uconn.edu/links.html</a>). Not all the links offer publicly available data, but many do. Finally, the Southern Historical Collection at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill offers digital versions of many primary documents online such as journals, letters, correspondence, and other papers that document the history and culture of the American South (<a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/ead/archivalhome.php?CISOROOT=/ead">http://dc.lib.unc.edu/ead/archivalhome.php?CISOROOT=/ead</a>).</p>
<p class="para editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_p05">Keep in mind that the resources mentioned here represent just a snapshot of the many sources of publicly available data that can be easily accessed via the web. <a class="xref" href="#blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_t01">Table 11.3 "Sources of Publicly Available Data"</a> summarizes the data sources discussed in this section.</p>
<div class="table block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_t01" frame="all">
<p class="title"><span class="title-prefix">Table 11.3</span> Sources of Publicly Available Data</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Organizational home</th>
<th>Focus/topic</th>
<th>Data</th>
<th>Web address</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>National Opinion Research Center</td>
<td>General Social Survey; demographic, behavioral, attitudinal, and special interest questions; national sample</td>
<td>Quantitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/GSS+Website/">http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/GSS+Website/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Carolina Population Center</td>
<td>Add Health; longitudinal social, economic, psychological, and physical well-being of cohort in grades 7–12 in 1994</td>
<td>Quantitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth">http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Center for Demography of Health and Aging</td>
<td>Wisconsin Longitudinal Study; life course study of cohorts who graduated from high school in 1957</td>
<td>Quantitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/">http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Institute for Social & Economic Research</td>
<td>British Household Panel Survey; longitudinal study of British lives and well-being</td>
<td>Quantitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/bhps">http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/bhps</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>International Social Survey Programme</td>
<td>International data similar to GSS</td>
<td>Quantitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.issp.org/">http://www.issp.org/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University</td>
<td>Large archive of written data, audio, and video focused on many topics</td>
<td>Quantitative and qualitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/mra">http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/mra</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Institute for Research on Women and Gender</td>
<td>Global Feminisms Project; interview transcripts and oral histories on feminism and women’s activism</td>
<td>Qualitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/index.html">http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/index.html</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Oral History Office</td>
<td>Descriptions and links to numerous oral history archives</td>
<td>Qualitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www.oralhistory.uconn.edu/links.html">http://www.oralhistory.uconn.edu/links.html</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>UNC Wilson Library</td>
<td>Digitized manuscript collection from the Southern Historical Collection</td>
<td>Qualitative</td>
<td><a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/ead/archivalhome.php?CISOROOT=/ead">http://dc.lib.unc.edu/ead/archivalhome.php?CISOROOT=/ead</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="para editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_p06">While the public and free sharing of data has become increasingly common over the years, and it is an increasingly common requirement of those who fund research, Harvard researchers recently learned of the potential dangers of making one’s data available to all (Parry, 2011).<span class="footnote" id="blackstone_1.0-fn11_022">Parry, M. (2011, July 10). Harvard researchers accused of breaching students’ privacy. <em class="emphasis">The Chronicle of Higher Education</em>. Retrieved from <a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://chronicle.com/article/Harvards-Privacy-Meltdown/128166">http://chronicle.com/article/Harvards-Privacy-Meltdown/128166</a></span> In 2008, Professor Nicholas Christakis, Jason Kaufman, and colleagues, of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, rolled out the first wave of their data collected from the profiles of 1,700 Facebook users (2008).<span class="footnote" id="blackstone_1.0-fn11_023">Berkman Center for Internet & Society. (2008, September 25). Tastes, ties, and time: Facebook data release. Retrieved from <a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/4682">http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/4682</a></span> But shortly thereafter, the researchers were forced to deny public access to the data after it was discovered that subjects could easily be identified with some careful mining of the data set. Perhaps only time and additional experience will tell what the future holds for increased access to data collected by others.</p>
<div class="key_takeaways editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_n02">
<h3 class="title">Key Takeaways</h3>
<ul class="itemizedlist" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_l02">
<li>Previously collected data sources enable researchers to conduct analysis without having to collect any of their own data.</li>
<li>Some publicly available data sources are quantitative; others are qualitative.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="exercises editable block" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_n03">
<h3 class="title">Exercises</h3>
<ol class="orderedlist" id="blackstone_1.0-ch11_s04_l03">
<li>If you’re interested in learning about additional sources of publicly available data, check out the American Sociological Association’s lengthy and thorough list of public data resources: <a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://www2.asanet.org/student/pubdata00a.html">http://www2.asanet.org/student/pubdata00a.html</a>. Which of those that you read about on the site are of most interest to you? Why?</li>
<li>Read <em class="emphasis">The Chronicle of Higher Education</em> article on Harvard’s recent “privacy meltdown”: <a class="link" target="_blank" href="http://chronicle.com/article/Harvards-Privacy-Meltdown/128166/">http://chronicle.com/article/Harvards-Privacy-Meltdown/128166/</a>. What do you think the future holds for the public sharing of data? How might the incident described in the <em class="emphasis">Chronicle</em> article shape how, when, and whether public sharing of social scientific data occurs?</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id=navbar-bottom class="navbar">
<div class="navbar-part left">
<a href="s14-03-unobtrusive-data-collected-by-.html"><img src="shared/images/batch-left.png"></a> <a href="s14-03-unobtrusive-data-collected-by-.html">Previous Section</a>
</div>
<div class="navbar-part middle">
<a href="index.html"><img src="shared/images/batch-up.png"></a> <a href="index.html">Table of Contents</a>
</div>
<div class="navbar-part right">
<a href="s14-05-reliability-in-unobtrusive-res.html">Next Section</a> <a href="s14-05-reliability-in-unobtrusive-res.html"><img src="shared/images/batch-right.png"></a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="shared/book.js"></script>
</body>
</html>