Development of Data Archiving Software for Public Use

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the last 18 years, Sociometrics Corporation has produced seven topically focused data archives that embody the best research in a given substantive area. Each data archive is a planned collection with dataset acquisition guided by a National Advisory Panel of scientist-experts. Sociometrics Corporation's extensive experience in the production of electronic data archives has resulted in an industry-wide reputation for high quality and easy to use data products. The successful growth of Sociometrics' data archives as valuable data resources could not have occurred without the development of technological standards, products, and procedures that ensure the proper handling of our contributors' data. Sociometrics has developed a comprehensive set of procedures and software for the archiving of large social and behavioral science data sets that provides users of secondary data with substantial added value and ensure the highest data quality. This archiving system has utilized database applications, statistical programs, and proprietary executable files that automate many archiving processes, and has established data quality standards that have been achieved by very few organizations. We now propose to create a publicly available software suite of products that incorporates our proprietary archiving software and methods. The proposed Data Archiving Software Suite will provide individual researchers with a stand-alone system for archiving data, documenting metadata, and making data sets publicly available.