RDC News: December 2018

Holiday Party

Please join us at our 8th annual RDC holiday party for some snacks and merry mingling. It will be held at the Phoenix Bar & Grill from 4pm to 6pm on Tuesday, December 18th. 

All are welcome! Hope to see you there.

Holiday Hours Changes

Please note the upcoming changes to the usual centre operating hours this month:

• early closing on Friday 21st, at noon
• CLOSED from Monday Dec. 24th - Tuesday Jan. 1st, reopening Wednesday Jan. 2nd
• Extended hours will start again on Tuesday Jan. 15th, 2019.

2018 McMaster Research Data Forum

On Wednesday December 12th, the McMaster Library, RHPCS, MacDATA, and the Tier 3 Research Data Management IT Committee will be hosting an event called “Common Challenges, Shared Solutions: 2018 McMaster Research Data Forum”. The purpose of this event is to encourage discussion around the common challenges that researchers face with their data and promote the development and use of shared solutions to these needs.

The event will begin with a keynote address by Jeff Moon, Director of Canada’s Portage Network, focused on the evolving national landscape of research data management and infrastructure. This session will be followed by an interactive panel discussion, where McMaster researchers and service providers discuss their research data challenges in the exploration of common solutions. In the afternoon session, facilitators from Statistics Canada will provide a workshop on disclosure control methods using confidential microdata at RDCs.

For more information and to register, please go to: https://library.mcmaster.ca/research-data-2018

New data sets at the RDC

In the upcoming weeks we will be receiving new data sets and surveys at the McMaster Research Data Centre. Please see the information below. Researchers interested in accessing these data sets are encouraged to submit proposals!

The Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Linkage Platform (ELMLP)

The Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Linkage Platform (ELMLP) is...

• A Platform – where keys are developed, to unlock access to more information about past cohorts of postsecondary students and registered apprentices, to better understand how their education and training affected their career prospects.
• Securely linked datasets – Linking datasets allows researchers to know more than what a single database or survey can provide. When administrative data are involved, the data can be mined for more meaningful information. The linkage process is in excellent hands and individuals cannot be identified, since personal identifiers are replaced with linkage keys and data are aggregated. New datasets will be linked to help answer the questions posed in the research as prioritized in the work plan.
• Longitudinal data – The data available within the platform is also linked longitudinally, allowing researchers to better understand the behaviours and outcomes of students and apprentices, including under-represented groups over time. For example: What was the family income of the student/apprentice before their studies/training? How did they navigate throughout their studies/training? Where did they end up after graduation?
• Open Data – All datasets and linkage keys prepared for the Platform will be made available to researchers through the Research Data Centres network across Canada. The costs associated with this access will be borne by the Government of Canada. In addition, a number of data tables will produced and disseminated annually, free of charge, on Statistics Canada’s website (CANSIM).

The platform centers around 3 administrative datasets: The RAIS (Registered Apprenticeship Information System), the PSIS (Post-Secondary Information System), and the T1 Family File (tax records). At the launch of the platform, all datasets will be available through 2015.


For more information on this data set, please see https://crdcn.org/datasets/elmlp-education-and-labour-market-longitudinal-linkage-platform. 

The McMaster RDC is now accepting proposals for work with this data. For information on the application process, please visit: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/rdc/process