Page 64 - The Importance of Common Metrics for Advacing Social Science Theory and Research

The Importance of Common Metrics for Advancing Social Science Theory and Research: A Workshop Summary
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13034.html

52 THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMON METRICS

Census Bureau shall always include the word “other” if it asks any race
questions.
Prewitt believes that the government must have a proper reason for
asking questions of its population. Consequently, he saw the need for a
connection between some kind of policy issue or possibilities and the con-
cepts that the government is trying to measure. He further observed that
the science of social measurement in the United States is most protected in
statistical agencies. He argued that they care more than program agencies
about data quality, continuity across time, standardization, and privacy
and confidentiality. He then addressed the issues surrounding the owner-
ship and management of digital data. While some Research Data Centers
have already started thinking about the relationship between administrative
and survey data, they have not yet addressed digital data. Prewitt raised
concerns about the quality control of digital data being used by the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, since without public access there is no
way to know how it is being maintained. He asserted that discussion is still
needed about how to make sure society’s information system is going to be
housed in a place that is concerned with quality protection.
In the future, the way administrative records and surveys are linked will
become increasingly important. Snipp cautioned that the scientific commu-
nity will face a number of ethical issues, such as confidentiality and privacy
concerns with respect to transactional data, survey data, and its linkages to
administrative data. He mentioned that Stanford University, like a number
of other institutions, has created a secure data center, but this kind of pre-
caution is not being undertaken in the scientific community at large.

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