Please welcome PRI’s new data archivist, Sarah Wygant. Sarah’s first day was Oct. 26 and she’s been busy getting herself acquainted with our data archive and data users.

Stop by 706 Oswald Tower to meet Sarah, and feel free to contact her with your data questions.

Nature published a special issue on data sharing in September, examining the “cultural and technical hurdles that can get in the way of good intentions.”

Myron Gutmann, the University of Michigan historian who has directed the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) since 2001, has been appointed to head the National Science Foundation’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate.

Gutmann’s research interests include historical population studies, especially relating population to agriculture, the environment, and health; digital preservation; and protecting the confidentiality of research subjects when data about them is made available for secondary use.

Gutmann’s appointment with NSF will begin November 2, 2009.  ICPSR will appoint an interim director and has been a search for permanent director.

See: ICPSR announcement; NSF announcement

Kiet Bang, PRI data archivist, was elected president of APLIC – a global network of population information professionals at the association’s annual meeting in April. Bang will serve as president for the 2009-2010 term.

Bang previously served as APLIC president-elect and conference planning coordinator, and also serves on the association’s communications committee.

APLIC plays a critical role in keeping PRI’s Information Core staff updated on current best practices and innovations in library and information science and provides a network of professionals at other population research centers and nonprofit and government organizations.

The National Study of Fertility Barriers is a nationally representative telephone survey of women age 25-45. The focus of the survey is biomedical fertility barriers including subfecundity, repeated miscarriages, health conditions that preclude childbearing, and sterilization regret. The data is available to all researchers but registration is required before data is released.

For more information on the NSFB and instructions on registering to obtain access, see the NSFB SodaPop page.

The Population Reference Bureau and the Migration Policy Institute brought together four experts to talk about immigration data sources on Oct. 16. Webcasts and a report are available on the PRB web site.

The Social Sciences Library is offering a workshop on OECD.Stat on Nov. 14.

Kathleen DeBoer, from the OECD Washington Office, will present a 2 hour, hands-on training session on using the statistical resource OECD.Stat. OECD.Stat enables users to search for and extract data from across OECD’s many databases included in SourceOECD Statistics.

The PRI Information Core is offering 2 workshops as part of the PRI Workshop Series this semester:

Locating Demographic Literature will introduce you to the bibliographic databases commonly used in demography and how to locate full text of papers.

Finding Demographic Data will show you how to locate and access secondary data for your research.

For details on these and other PRI workshops, go to help.pop.psu.edu/workshops.

More workshops coming in spring 2009: Research Poster Design and EndNote: Advanced Training

See also: Penn State ITS workshops (includes basic EndNote and RefWorks training)

Biostatistician Andrew Vickers writes in the New York Times that many cancer researchers refuse to share their data, even when sharing it could potentially save lives.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) request that researchers they fund share their data:

The NIH expects and supports the timely release and sharing of final research data from NIH-supported studies for use by other researchers. Starting with the October 1, 2003 receipt date, investigators submitting an NIH application seeking $500,000 or more in direct costs in any single year are expected to include a plan for data sharing or state why data sharing is not possible. (NIH Data Sharing Policy)

Information Core staff will be attending the National Symposium on Family Issues October 8-9. The PRI Library will be open but unstaffed. If you have urgent requests, please contact us by the end of the day today.