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Award Abstract #0452279
A Proposal to Continue "A National Data Program for the Social Sciences"
NSF Org: |
SES
Division of Social and Economic Sciences
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Initial Amendment Date: |
August 31, 2005 |
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Latest Amendment Date: |
January 7, 2009 |
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Award Number: |
0452279 |
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Award Instrument: |
Continuing grant |
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Program Manager: |
Patricia White
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences
SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
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Start Date: |
October 1, 2005 |
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Expires: |
September 30, 2010 (Estimated) |
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Awarded Amount to Date: |
$10029143 |
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Investigator(s): |
James Davis davis-james@norc.org (Principal Investigator)
Tom Smith (Co-Principal Investigator) Peter Marsden (Co-Principal Investigator)
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Sponsor: |
National Opinion Research Center
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637 773/256-6000
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NSF Program(s): |
SCIENCE & ENGINEERNG INDICATRS, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT STATIST, ENG NNI SPECIAL STUDIES, ARCTIC SOCIAL SCIENCES, ANTARCTIC COORDINATION & INFOR, SPECIAL STUDIES AND ANALYSES, SOCIOLOGY
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Field Application(s): |
0116000 Human Subjects
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Program Reference Code(s): |
SMET, OTHR, 9251, 9178, 0000
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Program Element Code(s): |
T831, T374, T183, H286, 8804, 8802, 7773, 7681, 5221, 5130, 1385, 1331
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ABSTRACT
SES-0452279
James Davis
Peter Marsden
Tom Smith
National Opinion Research Center
This project continues the National Data Program for the Social Sciences (NDPSS), more specifically the General Social Survey. The NDPSS is a social indicators, infrastructure, and data dissemination program. Its gather data that allows us to (1) monitor and explain trends, changes and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes and examine the structure and functioning of society in general as well as the role of various sub-groups; (2) compare the United States to other societies, by developing cross-national models of human society; and (3) make high quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, and others with minimal cost and waiting. NDPSS data are collected through the General Social Survey (GSS) and its allied surveys in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The GSS is a regular, ongoing interview survey of U.S households conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. The mission of the GSS is to make timely high-quality scientifically relevant data available to social science researchers. Since 1972 the GSS (with NSF support) has conducted 25 in-person, cross-sectional surveys of the adult household population of the U S with approximately 44,000 respondents. GSS content is wide ranging with approximately 4,500 variables overall. There is broad base participation in the development of the GSS. Many prominent scholars help develop topical modules. For example, 74 researchers from 48 universities and research institutes have served on the GSS Board and 253 social scientists in a dozen disciplines from 147 institutions have participated in the design of the last 28 topical modules in the GSS.
The GSS has spurred cross-national research by inspiring other nations to develop data collection programs modeled on the GSS and by joining with the International Social Science Program (ISS). Since 1984 ISSP has grown to 39 nations. The GSSDIRS website is extremely popular with users, having over 4,000,000 visits in 2003. The ISSP website was visited over 203,000 times during the last 12 months. The user community includes researchers, college teachers, university students, business planners, media and public officials. Sociologists, political scientists, economists, statisticians, survey methodologists, anthropologists, geographers, biologists, engineers, psychologists, criminologist, legal scholars, medical/health researchers and business administration and management scholars use GSS data. This use of the GSS is widely documented in publications. The PIs have able to document over 8,500 uses of the GSS: approximately 4,862 journal articles, 1,664 books, 1,364 scholarly papers, 568 reports, and 188 dissertations and theses. Most users (82%) have been academics with college affiliations. Research usages reached 200 per annum in the late 1980s and 300 per annum in the early 1990s. Current use is now at over 600 per annum.
This renewal includes several enhancements, upgrades and innovations to the GSS. Specifically, it will 1) add contextual data to supplement individual-level information to place the individual in a social context; (2) expand our coverage of America's ethnic and cultural diversity by the development of Spanish versions of GSS instruments and conducting interviews in Spanish: (3) introduce a panel component to study change among individuals with a prospective panel; and (4) facilitate the collection of auxiliary data on other social units besides individuals and households.
Broader Impacts
The NDPSS has already had enormous impact beyond the boundaries of the survey itself. The GSS is held as the gold standard by which many other survey data collection activities are measured, and the ISSP program has led to innovations and developments in cross-cultural and cross-national research. The GSS thus serves as a model that is being emulated elsewhere, such as in the newly created European Social Survey program. The contributions of the GSS to the teaching of quantitative social science analysis are unprecedented. Its accessibility and ease of use has added value far beyond the original data collection efforts, and researchers in the social sciences continue to mine the data both old and new to advance knowledge and test theories. The GSS and ISSP program is part of the core infrastructure of social science research in the U.S.
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