Online codebook browsing and conversational survey analysis
UC DATA has developed an automatic system for X-windows browsing of survey codebooks that links to an exploratory data analysis system, which can be used by undergraduates for secondary survey analysis and information discovery from microdata. The system uses multiple windows for displaying variable lists, codebook question text and marginal distributions, KWIC index subject access to questions; and specifying analysis parameters. The system is based upon a new machine-readable codebook format based on a standard generalized markup language (SGML) document-type definition (DTD) specialized for survey codebooks. Currently, more than 20 major microdata survey data sets, including the California Polls since 1980, the 1992 American National Election Study, the NCHS Health Interview Survey, and the 1990 Census PUMS 1% sample for California, have been installed into the system. The underlying analysis engine provides response times in seconds for up to 1 million observations.
codebook codebook browsing survey analysis data sets metadata management sgml application