[DDI-users] Re: some questions about ddi elements

Sanda Ionescu sandai at icpsr.umich.edu
Thu Jan 15 12:49:23 EST 2004


Hi, Csaba.

1.in DocDscr section 1.1.3.1 producer element seems to be a good place to
mention our databank as an archiving institution, can you confirm this?

-Section 1 refers to the xml document itself. So if your organization has 
actually produced the xml (DDI) yes, you can use that field.
If another organization has produced it, and your databank is only 
archiving/distributing it you should use the distributor field (tag).

2. and can we use distrbtr element in stdyDscr section to indicate tárki as
>the databank that distributes copies of spss data files themselves to users?

- Yes.
Also notice that section 2 refers to the study itself (not the xml version 
of it) so if there were more than one organizations distributing the study 
(data, documentation, spss, etc.)
and you wanted to mention them you could repeat the element and list 
several distributors. Same thing applies for producer, author - you repeat 
the element if you have more than one.

3.in DocDscr and stdyDscr sections the bibliographic citation elements can
be automatically generated from other elements. on the icpsr ddi-site some
u.s. standards are mentioned. could we use another (eg. national) standard
to generate a different citation form?

Yes, definitely, the citation element itself can be formatted any way works 
best for you, as long as you use the individual elements that generate it 
according to DDI specifications (i.e. use last name first in author, format 
date according to ISO standards, etc.)

4. we archived the 'creator of datafile' in our old meta-database. in my
interpretation, mainly 2.1.3.1 producer but partly 2.3.1.2 data collector
field corresponds with this. i know that we should really distinguish
between the two, but we have hundreds of "ancient" studies where their
paper-based documentations make it very difficult to find out both. so which
one should we use if we can find out about only one?

- you should use "producer" if unsure, or cannot distinguish;
also, for some studies producer and data collector can be the same 
person/organization. In that case, you can use both tags for the same name.

5.when we archive a study, we indicate two variable count fields: one of them
>refers to the total number of variables and the other refers to the number
>of variables not under embargo. how can we make it correspond with ddi if
>we don't want to use recGrps in our data sheet?

I assume you are referring to the <varQnty> tag here. It is also repeatable 
so you can list it twice, once with your total number of variables and once 
for your non-embargoed variables. You should also find a way of 
distinguishing between the two iterations. There are several ways to do 
this. You could simply enter the words "non-embargoed" together with the 
no. of vars. in the same tag. That would not be very elegant though, and it 
might hinder some searches. You could insert an internal Link <Link> after 
the actual number of vars and thus link to a note (3.3, repeatable) that 
explains the fact that those are non-embargoed variables. Then you would 
make sure that your stylesheet displays the note right after the number.

I hope this helps.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Sanda.

Sanda Ionescu,
Research Associate
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
The University of Michigan
P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, MI 48106

Phone: (734) 615-7890
Fax: (734) 647-8200



At 12:00 PM 1/15/2004 -0500, you wrote:
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>    1. some questions about ddi elements (Zsad?nyi Nagy Csaba)
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>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 23:15:36 +0100 (CET)
>From: Zsad?nyi Nagy Csaba <zsadanyi at tarki.hu>
>Subject: [DDI-users] some questions about ddi elements
>To: Data Documentation Iniative Users Group
>         <ddi-users at icpsr.umich.edu>
>Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0401142213300.6614-100000 at survey.tarki.hu>
>Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=iso-8859-2
>
>Dear I-Lin and Humphrey,
>
>thank you for your kind and helpful suggestions.
>
>having gone through relevant ddi elements and our old sql fields, we
>realized that converting from sql to xml could be solved. (ok. it's not
>unproblematic ;-)
>
>therefore i would rather write about some problems regarding specific
>elements.
>
>in DocDscr section 1.1.3.1 producer element seems to be a good place to
>mention our databank as an archiving institution, can you confirm this?
>
>and can we use distrbtr element in stdyDscr section to indicate tárki as
>the databank that distributes copies of spss data files themselves to users?
>
>in DocDscr and stdyDscr sections the bibliographic citation elements can
>be automatically generated from other elements. on the icpsr ddi-site some
>u.s. standards are mentioned. could we use another (eg. national) standard
>to generate a different citation form?
>
>we archived the 'creator of datafile' in our old meta-database. in my
>interpretation, mainly 2.1.3.1 producer but partly 2.3.1.2 data collector
>field corresponds with this. i know that we should really distinguish
>between the two, but we have hundreds of "ancient" studies where their
>paper-based documentations make it very difficult to find out both. so which
>one should we use if we can find out about only one?
>
>when we archive a study, we indicate two variable count fields: one of them
>refers to the total number of variables and the other refers to the number
>of variables not under embargo. how can we make it correspond with ddi if
>we don't want to use recGrps in our data sheet?
>
>thank you for your attention and any suggestions are welcome
>
>best regards,
>csaba
>
>--
>
>Csaba Zsadányi-Nagy
>TÁRKI Databank, databank assistant
>
>TÁRKI Social Research Center Social Science Databank
>H-1112 Budapest, Budaörsi út 45.
>tel: (+36-1) 309-7693, fax: (+36-1) 309-7666
>web: http://www.tarki.hu/adatbank-h/
>mail: zsadanyi at tarki.hu
>
>
>
>
>
>
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