New ICPSR Study: National Congregations Study, 1998 and 2006 [Cumulative File]

Study 3471 National Congregations Study, 1998 and 2006 [Cumulative File]

Summary: The current cumulative National Congregations Survey (NCS) includes Wave I and Wave II data. Wave I consists of interviews conducted in 1998, and Wave II consists of interviews conducted in 2006-07, including a panel component comprising re-interviews of a sample of congregations who participated in Wave I. The NCS elicited from respondents a description of their religious congregation, including its membership, the content of its worship service, and its other activities.

ICPSR Call for Student Research Papers

This year ICPSR is sponsoring THREE competitions – two for undergraduates and a new competition for Master’s level students!

The purpose of these competitions is to highlight the best student research papers using quantitative data.

The objective is to encourage students to explore the social sciences by means of critical analysis of a topic supported by quantitative analysis of a dataset(s) held within the ICPSR archive and presented in written form.

• The winner of each competition receives $1,000 cash and the paper will be published.
• Deadline for submission is January 31, 2010.

More information, submission guidelines, and promotional posters are found by visiting the competition website found here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/prize/index.jsp

GIS Day Open House at the O’Neill Library on Nov. 18th, 2009

Join us at the O'Neill Library for a celebration of GIS Day

• Learn more about Geographic Information Systems and how this powerful data mapping tool can enhance your research.
  
  
• See a demonstration of the ArcGIS software and B.C. spatial data collection.
  
  
• Sign up for a personal tutorial on how to use GIS software.
  
  
• Browse posters with samples of GIS applications and its use at Boston College.
  
  
• Pick up a flyer with detail of our GIS contest (with prizes) and information on how to download the ArcGIS software.

Drop by for demonstrations of ArcGIS in the lobby of O'Neill Library from:
11:00 – noon
1:00 -2:00 p.m.
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Try a chocolate globe while they last . . .

Questions? Constact: Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Manager

WRDS Scheduled Downtime: Monday, November 9, 2009, 8pm-2am ET

Please note that WRDS will be unavailable tonight. See message below from WRDS:

WRDS Scheduled Downtime: Monday, November 9, 2009, 8pm-2am ET

WRDS has scheduled downtime to take place on Monday, November 9, 8pm-2am ET.

PCSAS and UNIX will not be affected. However, web queries will be unavailable during this period.

We apologize for any inconvenience. An update will be posted following the downtime.

2009 ICPSR Meeting Webinar Recordings - Now Available!

Some great programs were offered during the open ICPSR meeting this year via webinars!

Missed the meeting? Missed a session of interest?

Session recordings and slides (if submitted) are available on the meeting website.
See: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/or/ormeet/program/index.jsp

Also, don’t forget to view the pre-recorded presentations found in the right column!

Questions? Contact ICPSR OR Barbara Mento: barbara.mento@bc.edu

Locating and Using Data for Secondary Research October 8, 2009 12:00 - 1:30 pm O’Neill 245

Locating and Using Data for Secondary Research at Boston College

October 8, 2009 12:00 - 1:30 pm O’Neill 245 Note room change!

Boston College offers many sources and repositories of data for secondary research in the social sciences, education, nursing, economics, business and other disciplines. This tutorial is particularly geared to researchers who need to access, analyze and manipulate data from BC's subscription data repositories. This tutorial will help you: find the data you need for your research or class project; learn about the Boston College collection of data resources in the Statistical Data Catalog; and how to download the data onto your desktop, including how to import into quantitative analytical tools such as SPSS. Get a tour of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, a data archive that includes over 5,000 datasets. We will also discuss the library’s guides to key Business, Economics, Education, Health, and General U.S. and cross-national data sources. Topics may be customized based on attendees’ research interests. Please contact datasupport@bc.edu for more information.

Registration

To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial.

Introduction to ArcGIS 10:00 - 11:30 Sept. 29, 2009 O'Neill 245

Introduction to ArcGIS

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used today to analyze and represent data with geographical reference on maps. Such applications are widely used in academia, private industry and government agencies and the number of applications is increasing. ArcGIS Desktop software products from the Environmental Research Systems Institute (ESRI).
ArcGIS Desktop is an integrated suite of advanced GIS applications and interfaces, including ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcGlobe, ArcScene, ArcToolbox, and ModelBuilder. Using these applications and interfaces, you can perform any GIS task, from simple to advanced, including mapping; geographic analysis; data editing, compilation, and management; visualization; and geoprocessing. ArcGIS Desktop is scalable to meet the needs of many types of users.

This session will introduce users to:

• GIS software, data and technical support at Boston College
• License options
• Main ArcGIS features and capabilities (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcTool, ArcGlobe)
• Present available extensions and capabilities (Spatial Analyst, Geostatistical Analyst, etc)
• Demos using Census data; Demos using Environmental data.

Options to get data and training will be also discussed. No prior knowledge of ArcGIS is required.

September 29, 2009 : 10:00 am – 11:30 am O’Neill 245

Registration

To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial that you are interested in attending.

ICPSR 2009: Real Data in a Virtual World

Please note this unique opportunity to learn more about ICPSR data and how to use it!

Welcome!

The 2009 ICPSR Biennial Official Representatives Meeting invites participation from researchers, librarians, teaching faculty, students, and policymakers from around the world who are interested in the use of social sciences data!

This FREE conference is hosted by ICPSR and due to its virtual nature in 2009, is open to everyone.

The theme of the 2009 meeting is "Real Data in a Virtual World" -- appropriate for the content discussed and its delivery! Starting on Monday, October 5 and running through Friday, October 9, ICPSR will deliver 20 sessions related to social science content, tools, quantitative training/literacy, and other resources associated with ICPSR and its partners. ICPSR staff will also host several live chats. The preliminary 2009 OR Meeting program has been posted.

Live sessions will be broadcast using GoToWebinar technology. This webinar technology requires no downloads to your computer and provides up to 1,000 "seats" per session. All sessions will be recorded and posted should you desire to view the presentations at a later date. And, still more pre-recorded tutorials and talks will be posted for clicking and viewing at your leisure. For more information on the virtual conference and how it will work, view our short, pre-recorded webinar "Orientation to the ICPSR Virtual Meeting." (WMV 8.1MB)

We look forward to meeting you online in October!

Regards,

Linda Detterman
Marketing & Membership Director
2009 OR Meeting Chair
ICPSR

Important WRDS Alert- WRDS Scheduled Downtime for Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Notice from WRDS:
The WRDS server will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 12:00pm-8:00pm ET on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. We apologize for any inconvenience.

During this period, the WRDS website will be unavailable. However, access will remain for those users accessing WRDS through UNIX and PC SAS Connect. Interactive queries during this period should continue to run unaffected.

WRDS will be adding additional network hardware to expand capacity.

As a result of this upgrade to the new WRDS website (http://wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu), users will experience the following:
• Improved execution time for queries when WRDS is under heavy load.
• New users will have the ability to apply for WRDS accounts from the new website home page:
http://wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu/wrds/index.cfm
• WRDS Reps will be able to review and approve new account requests through the enhanced Rep Tools under MyWRDS>Rep Tools>Pending Approval.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to enhance your WRDS service and performance.
We will post information once this downtime has been completed.

New MassGIS Acute Care Hospitals Layer

MassGIS distributes a selection of free GIS Layers. The latest datalayer, Acute Care Hospitals shows the location of 82 acute care hospitals in Massachusetts. The datalayers are formatted to be compatible with ArcGIS and are freely downloadable.

Other health related layers include Long Term Care Residences and Community Health Centers


Additional datalayer topics:
Crime Statistics By Municipality
Crime Statistics By Colleges and Universities
Police Employment By Municipality
Police Employment By Colleges and Universities
Schools
School type: Public, Private, Collaborative Program, Charter, Approved Special Education
Colleges and Universities

For more information or GIS training contact: Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Manager

The Future Of Work - It’s Data, Baby - NYTimes.com

This August 12th NYTimes.com article talks about value of data skills for future jobs:


The Future Of Work - It’s Data, Baby - NYTimes.com

MBA 's and WRDS accounts Policies

A change in Wharton policy now allows MBA's to directly set up a WRDS account.

Go directly to: http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu

Click the "request a user account" link
For Account type select Masters.
Fill in the remainder of the form and click on "submit request"

Generally accounts require 24-48 for confirmation.

Questions? Contact: wrdsreps@bc.edu

OECD Health Data 2009 Released

OECD Health Data 2009, released on 1st July 2009, offers the most comprehensive source of comparable statistics on health and health systems across OECD countries. It is an essential tool for health researchers and policy advisors in governments, the private sector and the academic community, to carry out comparative analyses and draw lessons from international comparisons of diverse health care systems.

Available via SourceOECD! See New Statistics and Databases.

WRDS Scheduled Downtime for Saturday, August 1, 2009

Message from Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) for WRDS users:
The WRDS server will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 11am-11pm (ET) on Saturday, August 1. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please feel free to view the new WRDS Beta (http://wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu), as we continue to add datasets daily. We expect to have all data on the new site by December 31, 2009. Based on feedback, we have enhanced many tools allowing WRDS Reps to have more control over user accounts and extract additional usage data.

Questions? Contact WRDS Rep Barbara Mento

Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) Series-ICPSR

The Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) Series is a data collection stemming from the work of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (MIDMAC). The primary objective of MIDMAC is to identify the major biomedical, psychological, and social factors that permit some people to achieve good health, psychological well-being, and social responsiblity during their adult years. There are seven studies in this series:

4652 Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS II), 2004-2006
Ryff, Carol, Almeida, David M., Ayanian, John S., Carr, Deborah S., Cleary, Paul D., Coe, Christopher, Davidson, Richard, Krueger, Robert F., , ...

22840 Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS II): Milwaukee African American Sample, 2005-2006
Almeida, David, Ayanian, John S., Carr, Deborah S., Cleary, Paul D., Coe, Christopher, Davidson, Richard, Krueger, Robert F., Lachman, Margie E., ...

3596 Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS): Boston Study of Management Processes, 1995-1997
Lachman, Margie E.

2911 Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS): Psychological Experiences Follow-Up Study, 1998
Wethington, Elaine, Kessler, Ronald C., Brim, Orville G.

2856 Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS): Survey of Minority Groups [Chicago and New York City], 1995-1996
Hughes, Diane L., Shweder, Richard A.

25281 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS II): Cognitive Project, 2004-2006
Ryff, Carol D., Lachman, Margie E.

2760 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), 1995-1996
Brim, Orville G., Baltes, Paul B., Bumpass, Larry L., Cleary, Paul D., Featherman, David L., Hazzard, William R., Kessler, Ronald C., Lachman, ...

Questions? Contact ICPSR representative Barbara Mento

New ICPSR Studies as of June 29, 2009

ICPSR Study No.: 21862
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) was designed to capture various aspects of firm creation and entrepreneurship across countries. The data have been collected over a number of years (1998-2003) and include responses from 4,685 experts in over 38 countries and three subnational regions. This study seeks to measure the national attributes considered critical for new firm births and small firm growth.

ICPSR Study No.:25701
Do Older Adults Know Their Spouses’ End-of-Life Treatment Preferences?
When terminally ill patients become mentally incapacitated, their surrogates often make treatment decisions in collaboration with health care providers. The authors examined how surrogates’ errors in reporting their spouses’ preferences are affected by their gender, status as durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC), whether they and their spouses discussed end-of-life preferences, and their spouses’ health status.

B.C. faculty and students have access to over 6,000 studies via ICPSR

Compustat University On-Demand Training for June

The Training department has recently released seven on-demand training modules to the new On-Demand Training Center; Six of these tutorials cover aspects of Compustat Data and two provide training for Xpressfeed. Look for new classes to be released in the coming months.

To view all the news in the Compustat University Newsletter

ICPSR Summer Program - CPES Workshop 2009

The Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES): Investigating Cultural and Ethnic Influences on Mental Health workshop will be held June 22-25 as part of the 2009 ICPSR Summer Program. Interested applicants may apply through the registration portal. The registration deadline is JUNE 8, and registration requires a CV and statement of interest. There is no tuition cost to participants.

New from OECD: Society at a Glance reveals evolving social trends in OECD countries

Press release on 04/05/2009 - The French spend more time sleeping than anyone else in OECD countries. They also devote more time to eating than anyone else and nearly double that of Americans, Canadians or Mexicans. The Japanese sleep nearly an hour less every night than the French and also spend longer at work and commuting than they do indulging in leisure activities.
These are some of the insights into the differing ways in which OECD countries use that most fundamental of resources, time, in the latest edition of Society at a Glance.

See Data and indicators link for spreadsheets of latest social indicator data.

ICPSR Webinar May 19: Multi-record and Hierarchical Set-up Files for ICPSR studies in SPSS

Join ICPSR for a Webinar on May 19:
Title: Multi-record and Hierarchical Set-up Files for ICPSR studies in SPSS
Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time: 1:00 AM - 2:00 PM EDT

This webinar will discuss the similarities and differences between multi-record and hierarchical set-up files for ICPSR studies. Codebooks for ICPSR studies will be reviewed to illustrate the similarities and differences of the set-up files being discussed. We will create a multi-record set-up file and consider the obstacles in creating a hierarchical one.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/462579450

This webinar is open to the public - please forward this invitation to all who might be interested.

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Not receiving these invitations directly? Sign up for icpsr-announce.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newe

ICPSR Webinar April 28 : When Setup Files Go Bad…. Debugging your SAS, SPSS, and STATA code so it works!

You found your study… you download your data… you run the setup file ICPSR provides… and the screen fills with errors. This webinar will address common problems in the setup files provided by ICPSR for data files.

Because most of ICPSR’s data processing is automated and the volume of data files is large and very heterogeneous in quality, size, and characteristics, the setup files and “ready-to-go” files do not always work perfectly. This webinar will help you to anticipate and fix many of these common problems.

When Setup Files Go Bad…. Debugging your SAS, SPSS, and STATA code so it works!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/765557907

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Webinar on March 24: Finding What You Want or Wanting What You Find at ICPSR

Have you ever found it challenging to find data, documentation, or help files at the ICPSR site? Do you approach the ICPSR site in the same way every time you search? Have you found things you didn’t expect when searching the site?

In this Webinar, an experienced ICPSR researcher who has spent a lot of time helping students and faculty find data, will work through a collection of search strategies for finding the types of information you need from ICPSR.

Serendipitous discoveries and orderly search logic will be explored during this webinar

Title: Finding What You Want or Wanting What You Find at ICPSR
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

To register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/480944329

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

ICPSR Releases Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) Website

ICPSR announced the launch of the Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) project website, which is located at:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/IFSS/

"With funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the Integrated Fertility Survey Series project seeks to produce a harmonized dataset of U.S. family and fertility surveys spanning the 1955-2002 period, including the 1955 and 1960 Growth of American Families (GAF); the 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Surveys (NFS); and the 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002 National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG). The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) and its associated data products will facilitate analyses across time, yielding new insights into changes in fertility and the family."

Introduction to Nvivo8 Qualitative Analysis March 13, 2009 12:00 to 1:00 pm, O'Neill 245

This workshop provides an introductory demonstration of how to use Nvivo8 for qualitative analysis. Nvivo8 can be used to eliminate the problems of managing large amounts of qualitative data, can be used to code and re-code qualitative data, keep an audit trail of the analysis process, and supports both individual researchers and research teams in discussing coding and analysis issues. This course is intended for beginning users of Nvivo 8.

This workshop will be given in a demonstration (non-hands on) format:

• Getting started with Nvivo8
• Thinking about qualitative research design
• Source Preparation
• Nodes
• Attribute Variables
• Data importing and data analysis examples
• Comparison with other qualitative research packages such as HyperResearch and Atlas.ti

To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial that you are interested in attending.

TAQ is back

March 2, 2009 – TAQ available again on WRDS

From WRDS:

TAQ is once again available on WRDS. We’re continuing to look into the issues affecting the TAQ data.

More information will be forthcoming and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Problem report from WRDS: TAQ - hardware issue

February 27, 2009 – TAQ hardware issue.

WRDS has experienced a hardware issue affecting access to the TAQ data.

We are troubleshooting the issue and Sun experts have been contacted. An update will be posted on the WRDS website when access to TAQ has been restored.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

ICPSR Webinar: Analyze Data Online on Demand - an Introduction to SDA! Free Webinar on February 24

SDA is an online (Web-based) data analysis tool developed at UC Berkeley and offered by ICPSR. In this webinar, we will introduce the tool, locate studies that have this option, and demonstrate how to use it. This tool is offered on select studies that are freely available and those limited to ICPSR members-only access.

This webinar is open to the public - please share this invitation with any who may be interested.
To register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/886620306


Title: ICPSR Webinar: Analyze Data Online on Demand - an Introduction to SDA!
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh-based attendees
Required: Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger) or newer

Secondary Data Research Resources February 11, 2009

Date: February 11, 2009
Time: 12:00 - 1:00p.m.
Place: Gasson 9

Registration: To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial.

Co-taught by:
Rani Dalgin, ITS, Research Services and Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian

Details: Boston College offers many sources and repositories of data for secondary research in the social sciences, education, nursing, economics, business and other disciplines. This workshop is particularly geared to researchers who need to access, analyze and manipulate data from BC's subscription data repositories. This tutorial will help you: find the data you need for your research or class project; learn about the Boston College collection of data resources in the Statistical Data Catalog; and how to download the data onto your desktop, including how to import into quantitative analytical tools such as SPSS. Get a tour of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, a data archive that includes over 5,000 datasets. We will also discuss the library’s guides to key Business, Economics, Education, Health, and General U.S. and cross-national data sources. Topics may be customized based on attendees’ research interests.

Demographic Analysis with ArcGIS: Geostatistics on February 9th, 2009

Date: Monday, February 9th, 2009
Location: O'Neill 245
Time: 2:00 - 3:30

Registration

To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial that you are interested in attending.

Co-taught by:
Constantin Andronache, ITS Research Services and
Barbara Mento,Data/GIS Librarian

Details: The focus of this workshop will be on the use of ArcGIS to analyze demographic data. The session will highlight GIS data available for research and include demonstrations of ArcGIS using cases based on Census and related data. GIS is an analysis tool which complements other quantitative methods used to analyze population data. The data that the Census Bureau collects during the decennial census and other population surveys has grown extensively over the years and has become an important resource for researchers and government agencies. Besides providing the basis for congressional redistricting, Census data are used in many other ways. Since 1975, the Census Bureau has had responsibility to produce small-area population data needed to redraw state legislative and congressional districts. Other important uses of Census data include the distribution of funds for government programs; planning the right locations for schools, roads, and other public facilities; helping real estate agents and potential residents learn about a neighborhood; and identifying trends over time that can help predict future needs. Most Census data are available for many levels of geography, including states, counties, cities and towns, ZIP codes, census tracts and blocks.

Census data and GIS applications are used by community planners, marketing, managers, scientists and researchers in education, economists, sociologists, social workers, health care managers, librarians, and data administrators.

International population data are available also to address demographic issues in a specific country, at regional or at global scale. We will discuss these resources with those interested. No prior knowledge of ArcGIS is required.

Introduction to ArcGIS- February 2, 2009 2:00 – 3:30 pm, O’Neill 245

Learn about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and how this tool is used for research in all disciplines.

Co-taught by:
Constantin Andronache, ITS Research Services and
Barbara Mento,Data/GIS Librarian

This session will introduce users to:

• Basic GIS concepts
• GIS software and technical support at Boston College and license options
• An overview of ArcGIS features and capabilities
  
• Finding GIS data
• Hands on GIS experience using Census data

Registration
To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial(s) that you are interested in attending.

ICPSR Webinar: Get Set-Up! - Creating set-up files for SPSS

DATE: Tuesday, January 27, 2009
TIME: 1:00-2:00pm EST


From ICPSR: Does the idea of dealing with raw data give you a headache? This webinar is a step-by-step demonstration of how to create a set-up file for an ICPSR study. You will learn how to begin with an ASCII data file and transform it into a file that’s ready to use in SPSS.

We will create a simple set-up file for a dataset . We will consider important issues in creating a set-up file, make decisions about how to proceed when faced with challenges, and explore alternatives if appropriate. This webinar describes the necessary parts of a simple set-up file and where to find the needed information in the study’s codebook.

This webinar is open to the public.
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/684102132

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. Note system requirements when you register.

Questions: email Barbara Mento at :barbara mento@bc.edu

WRDS announces upcoming E-LEARNING training sessions

Register for upcoming E-LEARNING sessions from WRDS and learn how to navigate major business databases such as Compustat, CRSP, Executive Compensation and I/B/E/S.

General sessions are also available on how to use WRDS in Research and Teaching and using the SAS statistical software with WRDS data.

To register go to: http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu/elearning/calendar.html


For information on setting up a WRDS account contact Barbara Mento at: barbara.mento@bc.edu