Practical and educational problems in sharing official micro data with researchers

Abstract

Many commentators have noted the need for reform in statistical education. They tend to focus on the analytical techniques that are critical to understanding and producing good quality statistical outputs. This paper adds to these discussions and looks at some of the main analytical issues that transpire from researchers accessing the particular form of statistical data sets in a national statistical office. However the conclusions are much more widely applicable to other data sets. It also considers the more practical, but very important skills and knowledge, applicable to all types of data, that a researcher needs, such as fashioning the data set into a format that is most useful to them, and ensuring they obtain access to data that will allow them to fulfil their research objectives.