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Secondary Data Analysis

Date: 1st December 2011
Duration: 1 day
Delivered by: Dr Les Humphreys

Registration deadline has passed.
Please contact psc@lancaster.ac.uk for more information about this course.

Cost
The course fees include all supporting documentation and refreshments.
  • External from industry/commerce - £255
  • External from academic institution/public sector/charity - £220
  • External postgraduate student - £150
  • Lancaster University staff - £60
  • Lancaster University postgraduate student - £30
  • Members of Mathematics and Statistics at Lancaster University - £ 0
Course description

This course introduces the skills and techniques involved in sourcing and analysing secondary data. The course consists of two parts. The first part is concerned with using the internet to discover secondary data sources and other material both in the UK and in other countries, and in finding both quantitative resources for research. The major British social surveys will be covered. Online access to the UK census data will also be demonstrated

The second part of the course explores in detail two publicly available datasets, the Home Office Offenders Index birth cohort series and the ESRC British Household Panel survey. The course will show methods of merging and aggregating datasets to produce information sources suitable for secondary analysis. Problems of data quality will also be addressed.

Learning
Students will learn through the application of concepts and techniques covered in the course to real data sets. Students will be encouraged to examine issues of substantive interest in these studies.
Successful students will:
  • be familiar with the major sites for information on secondary data sources in the UK
  • understand how to search for data at the ESRC data archive
  • be aware of how to obtain UK Census data
  • be able to download data and follow data documentation
  • be able to construct data subsets by merging and aggregating data files from a major social science dataset
  • using SPSS
  • be aware of data quality issues in secondary data
  • gain experience of using a simple GIS system for displaying spatial data.
  • learn how to aggregate and merge and transform datasets to convert complex secondary datasets to those ready for statistical analysis
Cancellation Policy
Registrations are transferable to another course or individual at any time. Full refunds will be given for cancellation 10 or more working days before the course start date. Otherwise the full course fee will be charged.