Making data available Jeugd&Cultuur Project (2007)

Owing to a subsidy from the DANS KDP Fund, a large and important panel file with data on approximately 7500 pupils and consisting of more than thirty data files in a user-friendly manner was made available for secondary analysis.

The application was submitted by Dr. Ineke Nagel and Prof. Dr. Harry Ganzeboom, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Both were involved in the research project right from the start in 1998.

As the subsidy was granted, the following documentation- and archiving activities, among other things, could be carried out:

• Full inventory and description of the data files and the original survey instruments;
• Unambiguous definition of respondent numbers, school numbers, class numbers, teacher numbers;
• Unambiguous naming of variables, so that (a) a clear correspondence with the questionnaire is achieved or maintained, and (b) no double names occur when coupling waves or actors;
• Removal of verbatim information from the original files and collection thereof in coding files. Objective is removal of the directly identifying information and using coding to make the information accessible again. This regards occupational titles, professional titles, country of origin, titles of films, books and museums, titles of theater and concert performances, and replies to 'other, than …' questions;
• Description response relationships between the files.

The files can meanwhile be downloaded via DANS EASY. Work on the completion of the documentation is still ongoing.