Transparency of 

Official Statistics: 

Part of the recent emphasis 

on reproducibility of 

scientific activities

FCSM Session G-2

October 29, 2022
Panel Members

Dan Kasprzyk (NORC at the University 

of Chicago) 

Philip Ashlock (GSA)

David Barraclough (OECD)

Christopher Chapman (NCES)

Dan Gillman (BLS) 

Linda Jacobsen (Population Reference 

Bureau)

H.V. Jagadish (University of Michigan)

Frauke Kreuter (JPSM and the 

University of Mannheim)

Margaret Levenstein (ICPSR) 

Peter Miller (Northwestern)

Audris Mockus (University of 

Tennessee) 

Sarah Nusser (Iowa State)

Eric Rancourt (Statistics Canada)

Lars Vilhuber (Cornell University)

With special thanks to sponsor NSF NCSES and 

CNSTAT staff Michael Cohen & Michael Siri
PANEL ON REPRODUCIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

Transparency: 

Current Contexts &

Future Directions

Sarah M Nusser

Iowa State University
Transparency in Official Statistics

Transparency

... the provision of sufficiently detailed 

documentation of all the processes of 

producing official estimates. (p. 2)
Transparency in Official Statistics

Transparency: 

the provision of sufficiently detailed documentation of 

all the processes of producing official estimates

Archived “documentation” includes 

survey program description, data (inputs, analysis, public use, ...), 

data treatments (editing, imputing, processing, linking, privacy, ...),

official estimates, assessments and indicators of quality, et al. (Ch 7)
Transparency in Official Statistics

Goal

Enable consumers of federal statistics to 

accurately understand and evaluate 

how estimates are generated

(reuse)
Transparency in Official Statistics

Goal: enable consumers of federal statistics to 

accurately understand and evaluate how estimates are generated

Federal statistical system and its policies have 

promoted transparency for decades.

So why now?
Paradigm Shifts in Scholarship

• Focus on Openness and Rigor for scientific 

activities has evolved and deepened

– Long-standing practices that support scrutiny, debate, 

self-correction, new discoveries being modernized

– Scholarly articles now expected to include access to 

data, metadata, methods, software, and other outputs

– International principles for data sharing widely 

accepted and maturing through implementation

Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) 

– Greater emphasis on research integrity, reproducibility 

and replicability in scholarship
• Transparency is the primary mechanism 

to fostering & demonstrating rigor, 

advancing knowledge, ensuring 

equitable access

• Changing how academic researchers 

conduct research

– Higher expectations of openness

• 2022 White House OSTP public access 

policy expands prior mandates by 

removing embargos and broadening 

data & agencies subject to mandate

– With protections for confidential, 

proprietary, national security concerns https://www.whitehouse.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-AccessParadigm Shifts in Scholarship
Other Transformations

• Continued innovation in approaches, 

standards & tools for official statistics

– Expanding use of non-survey data sources in 

creating statistical products

– International official statistics community 

practice and standards development

• Government policy for data sharing and reuse

– Evidence-based Policy Making Act

– Federal Data Strategy 

– National Secure Data Service development
What is our Current State?

• Transparency practices vary widely 

– Across agencies and throughout the life cycle 

• Documentation not always prioritized 

– Internal documentation in better shape than external 

documentation

• User and their needs not always considered
Documenting

Quality &

Processes

for Users

Metadata 

& 

Standards

User needs

Methodologies

Quality assessments

Describing data

Standards

Collaborative systems

Federal Statistics & Transparency

Report calls upon the federal statistical system to update 

its underst

anding and implementation of transparency

Archiving 

Practices

Internal, external use

Where, when

Paradata
What is to be Gained?

(beyond alignment with shifts in current practices)

• Enables understanding, quality and resilience in 

operations (efficiency and effectiveness)

• Promotes trust and credibility with users, public

• Undergirds the ability to innovate and improve 

methods 

• Supports reuse and potential integration of data 

for new applications
How? (system)

• Dedicated leadership from stewarding bodies 

(e.g., OMB, ICSP, agencies ...)

– Prioritize & continually reinforce updating of 

transparency practices

– Provide resources & training to adopt practices and tools

– Organize pilots as collaborations across agencies

– Encourage staff involvement in emerging standards and 

tool development communities
How? (agency/program practice)

• This is a long game – report offers several smaller steps

• Proactive planning for data management and archival (Ch 3)

• Understanding user documentation needs and usability (Ch 4)

• Learning to use systems for collaborative software development 

& document workflow and methodologies (Ch 4)

• Adopting incremental approaches to metadata standards 

development (Ch 5)

• Establishing contract terms to support transparency and 

openness in deliverables (Ch 6)

Talk 2: 

Lars Vilhuber

Talk 3: 

Dan Gilman
Best practices (Ch 7)

• Tables outlining information needed to support 

transparency in production of official statistics

– Internal vs external users

– Varying data types

(survey, admin, digital trace)

– Data integration

– Paradata

– Data archival
PANEL ON REPRODUCIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

Transparency: Current Contexts 

& Future Directions

Sarah M Nusser

Iowa State University

nusser@iastate.edu