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Appendix A

The NLSY data are publicly available and readily accessibly, as are the users guide, handbook and codebooks. The primary ways for accessing the NLSY97 data and its documentation are described below:

  1. The NLS can be accessed using an on-line search and extraction software known as Web Investigator. This software is on an Internet site where users can search, view, and extract NLS data. A users’ manual, also available online, shows researchers how to use Web Investigator to access and extract variables of interest.
  2. Data sets are available on a CD, using search and extraction software originally developed by CHRR, at the Ohio State University. Because the data sets are zipped on the CD, a single disc can hold data for all NLS cohorts. Users must unzip the cohorts of interest and install the data and search/extraction software on their hard drives. A new all-cohorts disc is pressed each time a new round of data is prepared for any of the active NLS cohorts. Each CD is distributed with a brief hard-copy users’ manual; a longer electronic guide to using the search and extraction software is included on the CD.
  3. Users may download the CD image from the order/download Internet site. This provides the user with the exact image that is on the CD for that cohort (all individual cohorts are separate downloadable files). The downloaded data are then stored on the user’s hard drive, and the search/extraction software is installed on the user’s computer as well. The downloaded image also includes a manual explaining use of the search/extraction software.

There is an NLS electronic bibliography accessible on the Internet at <http://www.nlsbibliography.org/>; the bibliography site is fully linked with the nlsinfo.org site for easy user access. The NLS bibliography database houses over 5,200 summaries of ongoing and completed research projects--including published journal articles, government reports, policy analyses, monographs, working papers, conference presentations, doctoral dissertations, and master’s theses.

Multiple search indices exist for the on-line NLS Bibliography. These include keywords; author names (including truncation); citation title; journal names; format of publication; cohort; year of publication; abstract; and full text. The list of formats includes full text on-line, in-progress research, journal article, master’s thesis, monograph or chapter, newspaper, conference presentation, Ph.D. dissertation, report, and working paper. An ‘advanced search’ strategy allows the user to integrate up to seven of these search types in a focused and targeted manner. The recently added abstract search option allows users to enter any words and search for abstracts containing these terms. This search is useful when the supplied term does not exist as a keyword or has not been assigned to a citation. These indices are offered on-line to the user as search types that provide access to the annotated bibliography.



 

 

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