Quantitative data sources

1. Quantitative data sources James McBride

2. Qualitative research • Life stories • Official documents • Film / audio / photographs • Newspaper back issues • Irish Qualitative Data Archive, NUI Maynooth • http://www.iqda.ie • Digital Humanities Observatory, RIA • http://dho.ie/ • A “methodology for the study of non-naturalistic or artefactual data” (Heaton, p. 6) • Fieldnotes • Interviews • Focus Groups • Open-ended questions in surveys • Diaries

3. Quantitative research • Empirical, evidence-based research • Statistical analysis of survey and microdata, eg: • Opinion polls • Election studies • Secondary analysis • Use of existing data to test new ideas • Verification of existing research

4. Example • Attitudes to migration • Run your own detailed survey (primary research) • European Social Survey • c. 1,200 respondents • c. €300,000 • Use pre-existing survey (secondary analysis) • ESS Round 1 (http://ess.nsd.uib.no/) • Data (in SPSS, SAS, Stata, ASCII formats) • Bibliography of research using the data

5. Advantages • Efficient use of resources • Ready availability of high-quality data, adhering to professional standards • Data collected for one purpose can, within reason, be reanalysed across a range of other subject areas • Ability to study trends over time

6. Limitations • Data not always available • Danger of mismatch between primary and secondary uses of data • See Seamus McGuinness and Philip O’Connell,Note on “The Costs of Working in Ireland” by N. Crilly, A. Pentecost and R. Tol: http://www.esri.ie/about_us/the_costs_of_working_in_i/Review_of_Costs_of_Working_WP_Final.pdf • Availability of documentation • Danger of errors slipping in unnoticed during data collection and processing

7. Availability of secondary data • Data archives • ISSDA: http://www.ucd.ie/issda • ICPSR: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ • CESSDA: http://www.cessda.org • Data producers • CSO (2011 Census): http://www.cso.ie • WHO: http://www.who.int/en/ • Data project websites • ESS: http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org • SHARE: http://www.share-project.org/

8. issda • Founded in 2000 as a joint initiative of UCD and the ESRI, with the support of the CSO • Based at Geary Institute until July 2012 • Now part of the UCD Library • Makes quantitative data available to academic and non-profit research sectors • Aim: To facilitate secondary analysis of key quantitative datasets

9. How it works DATA SUPPLIERS (CSO, ESRI, etc) issda DATA USERS (Students, Researchers, Policymakers … )

10. Initial target: Academic researchers and third level students in social sciences in Ireland Actually: Researchers working on academic, non-profit, and consultancy projects Students: Some secondary school requests At all undergraduate and postgraduate levels Government departments/agencies Across a wide range of subject disciplines Social sciences, business/commerce, psychology, public health, engineering, agriculture, etc. International demand for Irish data –UK, USA, other EU countries Target audience

11. Official statistics data: Census Quarterly National Household Survey/Labour Force Survey EU-SILC Household Budget Survey Data from major government funded research projects: Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) Survey on Lifestyle And Nutrition (SLAN) The Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging (TILDA) Living In Ireland Irish social science and public health research projects: Irish National Election Study Irish Social and Political Attitudes Survey Irish Survey of Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy  Health Research Board National Psychological Wellbeing and Distress Survey, 2006 Commission for Energy regulation Smart Metering Project data http://www.issda.ie issda@ucd.ie Twitter: @issda Irish Datasets

12. Eurobarometer http://www.gesis.org/en/eurobarometer/ http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/ ISSP http://www.issp.org http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/ European Values Survey http://www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu/ http://zacat.gesis.org/ European Social Survey http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org http://nesstar.ess.nsd.uib.no/webview/ CESSDA member catalogues http://www.cessda.org Comparative Datasets

13. ICPSR –http://www.icpsr.umich.edu

14. ICPSR

15. Accessing ISSDA datasets • Large scale datasets currently shipped on CD-ROM • See dataset pages on ISSDA website for details • Internet: • Documentation available in Acrobat format via the web • http://nesstar.ucd.ie/webview • ICPSR: go to http://www.icpsr.umich.edu from a campus PC to set up an account and download data • http://www.issda.ie

16. Selection of PhD requests (i) • For use in a PhD Quantitative Research Methods assignment • Profile of mental health and well being in young people • ‘Middling’ migration in a globalising city: a study of Polish migrants in Dublin • Analysis on the well-being of children and the factors affecting well-being at school • Language change in Co. Donegal

17. Selection of PhD requests(ii) • An analysis of the evolution of the black economy in Ireland over the last 20 years, using consumer demands approaches • Examination of income equalities in the utilisation of preventive screening services under the broad umbrella of preventive health behaviour • Higher education participation in the Republic of Ireland • Analysis of low-income households