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alexsandroTHE IMPORTANCE OF DATA MANAGEMENT
These example come from the medical literature but we will discuss exactly analogous examples from economics. One of the aims of the practical side of this course is to instruct you in scientific research management. If you can manage this, as well as being good at theory, you can begin to go and do some cutting edge research. However, failure to manage this seemingly mundane side can leave you open to months of misery and potentially very embarrassing consequences if work that you have produced is plagued by basic data management errors. Imagine….(from Sven Juud).
• that you worked two years collecting data for your project and then discovered that some of the data collected were in a mess. You spend two months trying to reconstruct them, but you need to go back and retrieve 500 medical records and re-enter data from them tomake sure you get the information right.
• that you finished a successful research project three years ago. Now you get a very promising research idea, which can be examined by re-analysing the data already collected. You get surprised when you learn that you hardly recall what the data mean and regret that you did not spend more time on documentation during the initial project;now you must spend two months to find out.
• that you finished a successful research project three years ago. Since then you moved to another place of work. Now you get a very promising research idea which can be examined by re-analysing the data already collected. However, you cannot find the data. You believed they were kept at your previous workplace, but nobody there recalls any arrangement, and the person who used to take care of your data has left, tempted by the much higher salaries in business.
• that you cooperate with researchers at three other hospitals on a multi-centre study. Data were coded and entered at each site. When you combine the four files you discover several inconsistencies: At one site your colleague had 'improved' the questionnaire by replacing two questions with three others. Another site used ICD-8 instead if ICD-10 for coding of diagnoses. You spend two months . .
• that you were conducting a randomised controlled trial. There were 247 candidate patients; 57 did not want to participate, 2 moved out of the region, 3 died before randomisation, and 39 were excluded for various reasons. This should leave 146 patients for the trial, but when you start analysing the data you discover that you have data on 144 patients only. You have a hard time finding out what happened to the last two patients and their data.
• that you spent a lot of time developing, designing and pilot-testing a questionnaire. When the first questionnaires return you discover that you had sent an old, erroneous version of the questionnaire to the printing office.
• that you are a progressive person who finds paper antiquated. You conduct 200 lengthy telephone interviews, entering data directly into the computer during interview. However, due to hardware breakdown data from 25 interviews are lost. When you call the persons, most of them refuse to be interviewed again.
• that you published a research paper in a decent journal. After publication a correspondence correctly points to inconsistencies in the data presented, and the editor asks you to respond. Now you spend two months trying to determine what actuallyhappened in the process between data collection and the results presented in the paper.
• that you published a research paper in a decent journal. However someone (because of jealousy) accuses you of scientific fraud. You know that you did not cheat, but you are asked to document how you arrived at your published results. Now you spend two months trying to determine what actually happened in the process between data collection and the results presented in the paper, only to admit that you cannot reconstruct it, but you certainly did not cheat.
• that your office burned. You had made backup on CDs, but they were stored next to your computer, and both the computer and your CDs melted down. Fortunately you moved your questionnaires to another building the day before the fire. You spend . . .
These example come from the medical literature but we will discuss exactly analogous examples from economics. One of the aims of the practical side of this course is to instruct you in scientific research management. If you can manage this, as well as being good at theory, you can begin to go and do some cutting edge research. However, failure to manage this seemingly mundane side can leave you open to months of misery and potentially very embarrassing consequences if work that you have produced is plagued by basic data management errors. Imagine….(from Sven Juud).
• that you worked two years collecting data for your project and then discovered that some of the data collected were in a mess. You spend two months trying to reconstruct them, but you need to go back and retrieve 500 medical records and re-enter data from them tomake sure you get the information right.
• that you finished a successful research project three years ago. Now you get a very promising research idea, which can be examined by re-analysing the data already collected. You get surprised when you learn that you hardly recall what the data mean and regret that you did not spend more time on documentation during the initial project;now you must spend two months to find out.
• that you finished a successful research project three years ago. Since then you moved to another place of work. Now you get a very promising research idea which can be examined by re-analysing the data already collected. However, you cannot find the data. You believed they were kept at your previous workplace, but nobody there recalls any arrangement, and the person who used to take care of your data has left, tempted by the much higher salaries in business.
• that you cooperate with researchers at three other hospitals on a multi-centre study. Data were coded and entered at each site. When you combine the four files you discover several inconsistencies: At one site your colleague had 'improved' the questionnaire by replacing two questions with three others. Another site used ICD-8 instead if ICD-10 for coding of diagnoses. You spend two months . .
• that you were conducting a randomised controlled trial. There were 247 candidate patients; 57 did not want to participate, 2 moved out of the region, 3 died before randomisation, and 39 were excluded for various reasons. This should leave 146 patients for the trial, but when you start analysing the data you discover that you have data on 144 patients only. You have a hard time finding out what happened to the last two patients and their data.
• that you spent a lot of time developing, designing and pilot-testing a questionnaire. When the first questionnaires return you discover that you had sent an old, erroneous version of the questionnaire to the printing office.
• that you are a progressive person who finds paper antiquated. You conduct 200 lengthy telephone interviews, entering data directly into the computer during interview. However, due to hardware breakdown data from 25 interviews are lost. When you call the persons, most of them refuse to be interviewed again.
• that you published a research paper in a decent journal. After publication a correspondence correctly points to inconsistencies in the data presented, and the editor asks you to respond. Now you spend two months trying to determine what actuallyhappened in the process between data collection and the results presented in the paper.
• that you published a research paper in a decent journal. However someone (because of jealousy) accuses you of scientific fraud. You know that you did not cheat, but you are asked to document how you arrived at your published results. Now you spend two months trying to determine what actually happened in the process between data collection and the results presented in the paper, only to admit that you cannot reconstruct it, but you certainly did not cheat.
• that your office burned. You had made backup on CDs, but they were stored next to your computer, and both the computer and your CDs melted down. Fortunately you moved your questionnaires to another building the day before the fire. You spend . . .
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-14 09:56 pm (UTC)Тебе нужно больше спортом заниматься, регби, американским футболом или, на крайняк, боксом
И тяжелый металл почаще слушать
no subject
Date: 2007-02-15 11:07 am (UTC)