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Abstract

UC DATA has developed an automatic system for X-windows browsing of survey codebooks that links to an exploratory data analysis system, which can be used by undergraduates for secondary survey analysis and information discovery from microdata. The system uses multiple windows for displaying variable lists, codebook question text and marginal distributions, KWIC index subject access to questions; and specifying analysis parameters. The system is based upon a new machine-readable codebookformatbased on a standard generalized markup language (SGML) document-type definition (DTD) specialized for survey codebooks. Currently, more than 20 major microdata survey data sets, including the California Polls since 1980, the 1992 American National Election Study, the NCHS Health Interview Survey, and the 1990 Census PUMS 1% sample for California, have been installed into the system. The underlying analysis engine provides response times in seconds for up to 1 million observations.

Keywords

codebook codebook browsing survey analysis metadata management SGML application data sets

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References

Computerized Survey Methods Program. (1993 ). Conversational survey analysis user's manual. Unpublished document from the Computerized Survey Methods Program, Information Systems and Technology, University of California, Berkeley.

The Field Institute. (n.d.). California Opinion Index. San Francisco.

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International Organization for Standardization. ( 1986). Information processing, text and office systems, standard generalized markup language (SGML Geneva, Switzerland : International Organization for Standardization.

Sniderman, P.M. , & Piazza, T. (1993). The scar of race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Sniderman, P.M. , Tetlock, P.E. , & Piazza, T. (1994). Race and politics, 1991: National survey (machine-readable data file). Berkeley: Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley [producer and distributor].

Online Codebook Browsing and Conversational Survey Analysis

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