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An ellipsis of three dots is used to fill in a space within a question regardless of the size of the space shown in the questionnaire. See Transcribing guidance for further details.

ALSPAC

Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Archivist

In-house purpose built software for documenting questionnaire metadata using the DDI standard.

BCS

1970 British Cohort Study.

Breadcrumb

Navigational aid which appears at the top of a web page to show the current location and provide links back to each previous page.

CAI

Computer Assisted Interviewing.

CAPI

Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing.

CATI

Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing.

CLOSER

Cohort & Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources.

Code list

A list of categories which the respondent can chose from in order to answer a question.

Concatenate

To link text or words together in a chain.

Condition

A type of construct which narrow which respondents answer a question, usually based upon a previous question.

Construct

A type of element that has a position. It includes; sequences, loops, conditions, statements and questions.

Date mask

The format which a date is expected to be entered as. It can include a partially completed date. See Transcribing guidance for an example.

DDI

Data Documentation Initiative. A set of specifications used to document social science studies data in a standardised way.

Element

Refers to an Archivist element, which is a component used to build the questionnaire in Archivist. See Questionnaire Elements for further details.

Generic date

Most common date response domain used. See Date and Time Answers for further details.

Generic text

Most common text response domain used. See Text Answers for further details.

Generic time

Most common time response domain used. See Date and Time Answers for further details.

HASSET

Humanities And Social Science Electronic Thesaurus. Used as a basis for the topic controlled vocabulary. See Topics for further details.

HCS

Hertfordshire Cohort Study.

Instruction

Text contained within a question, which gives further information to the respondent about how to answer a question. It can be directed to the interviewer or interviewee.

Instruments

Most commonly the questionnaire used to collect the respondents answers. This could also be a test or form etc. See the controlled vocabulary Collection Methods for further details.

Label

The name assigned to an Archivist element.

Loop

A type of construct used to enter a series of repeating questions, or a set of questions which cannot be entered as a grid due to the lack of overarching question.

MCS

Millennium Cohort Study.

MeSH

Medical Subject Headings. Used as a basis for the topic controlled vocabularies. See Topics for further details.

Metadata

Metadata is data about data. It provides three main functions, context, discoverability and action. See the introduction to CLOSER Discovery for further details.

NCDS

MRC National Survey of Health and Development (1946).

NSHD

MRC National Survey of Health and Development (1946).

ONS

Office for National Statistics. Used as the basis for the topic controlled vocabularies. See Topics for further details.

Other

A type of text response domain which is used when the text answer is an addition to those which have already been provided. See Text Answers for further details.

Question Construct

When a question is entered it then must be positioned within the flow of the questionnaire, this is done through the question construct.

Question Grid

A question grid contains an overarching question and sub-questions with the same response domain. These are all contained within one construct, along with any instructions and headings.

Question Item

A question item contains a single question along with the response domain answer and any instructions.

Response Domain

The format in which the answer to a question is provided.

Scale

A scale has two meanings within the wiki. It is a response domain which has a continuum containing both extremes of the same spectrum. See Code Lists for further details. It is also a collection of related questions that measure an underlying concept. See Scales for further details.

Sequence

A type of control construct which groups the other constructs together, it is usually a section heading.

Sledgehammer

Proprietary software used to produce DDI Lifecycle compliant metadata from the datasets.

Statement

A type of construct which contains additional text, which does not contain important context to be part of the question literal nor does it meet the criteria of an instruction.

Sweep

A round of data collection in a particular longitudinal study, also known as a wave.

SWS

Southampton Women's Survey.

Topics

A controlled vocabulary listing the topic areas covered by the studies. CLOSER Discovery maps each question and each variable to a topic, so they can be used to search or refine results.

USoc

Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study.

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