[DDI-users] Cross-reference and DDI

[Jostein Ryssevik]

Dear Jeong,

We would be happy to deal with this issue in Nesstar. The problem is, as 
described by Wendy, that the current DDI do not have any mechanism to link 
comparable variables across studies and for this reason it has been 
difficultly to implement a Nesstar specific solution.

I will however mention two existing possibilities:

1) In the Nesstar Publisher you have a variable repository that allows you 
to create and store variable descriptions independent of datasets. You can 
use this repository to enforce standardization of variable descriptions 
from one dataset to the next.

2) In the existing DDI you have the possibility of adding concepts to the 
variable descriptions. If these concepts comes from a controlled 
vocabulary, they can in fact be used to at least associate variables that 
are identical or measuring the same underlying concept. This is a mechanism 
that we are using in the European Madiera project to make it possible to 
easily find potentially comparable variables. The next version of Nesstar 
that comes out in a few weeks will have better support for this use of the DDI.

Cheers,
Jostein Ryssevik







At 13:15 28.09.2005 -0500, JEONG YEOB HAN wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>I am developing datawork using Nesstar publisher and the work is going
>great. But other concerns I have now are cross-referencing
>between variables across different datasets. For example, we want to
>make sure our current self-efficacy measure is measured in a same
>manner with older data and how the questionnaires measuring that
>variable
>changed. It seems like that Nesstar software does not directly deal
>with this issue. Did you deal with this kind of issues upon doing your
>data work?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jeong Yeob Han
>Doctoral Student
>School of Journalism and Mass Communication
>University of Wisconsin - Madison
>         &
>Research Assistant
>Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research (CECCR)
>University of Wisconsin - Madison
>1131 WARF Building
>611 Walnut Street
>Madison, WI 53726
>Tel: (608)265-3270
>jeonghan at chsra.wisc.edu
>http://chess.chsra.wisc.edu
>
>_______________________________________________
>DDI-users mailing list
>DDI-users at icpsr.umich.edu
>http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/mailman/listinfo/ddi-users

Jostein Ryssevik
Managing Director
Nesstar Limited

Nesstar Norwegian Office
C/O NSD
Hans Holmboesgate 22
N-5007 Bergen, Norway
Tel: +47 555 82 654
Fax: +47 555 89 650
Mobile: +47 918 17 197
E-mail: Jostein.Ryssevik at nsd.uib.no
Website: www.nesstar.com
*********************************************************
Legal disclaimer:  Any views expressed by the sender of this message are 
not necessarily those of Nesstar Limited.
This E-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended 
solely for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom they are addressed.
*********************************************************