Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Supporting the SPSD/M

June 15, 2022

Question:
I'm currently in the Research Analyst program and I am currently working on a research project. My project is on basic income and I'm hoping to use Statistics Canada's SPSD/M product to simulate a basic income program and see how it would affect low income populations. I've read the user manual and I am still very lost. Do you have any experience with it or do you know if there are additional training materials? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer:
Our user-guide is a comprehensive document which describes all facilities included in our SPSM application. I am providing a roadmap here regarding some important/essential facilities which might be useful for this student’s project.

  1. The SPSM contains rich build-in variables already which can be directly used by our researchers. However, our users are also able to create user-defined variables. For example, based on the description provided in the email, the student might want to create a low-income flag in the SPSM when doing the simulation, and he/she can use the “User-defined Variables” facility to do so. In terms of how to access and use that facility, please see the section called “User-defined Variables Facility” on the user-guide for more details.

  2. There are two default tables created in the SPSM after each simulation (i.e., total expenses in Canada and by province). However, our researchers can also create their own tables based on the purposes of the projects. One of the example which might be relevant to this student’s project is looking at the expenses of this basic income program by people’s demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age group, and education levels). “User-specified Tabulation facility” is the one to create these additional tables. Please see the section called “Specification of User-defined Tabulations” on the user-guide for more details.

  3. Another useful facility is “Record selection facility” which can facilitate researchers to select a subsample in the SPSM. For instance, if users would like to do the simulation only among a specific group (i.e., people not working), then this is the one to use. Please see the section called “Selection Facility” on the user-guide for more details.

  4. Researchers are also able to output microdata from the SPSM to see how the data or variables look like. Please see the section named “Test output facility” for more details.

  5. Generally speaking, whenever a researcher start a new simulation in the SPSM, he/she need to choose a base year,  variant scenario (can choose both base and variant scenarios if would like to compare the changes due to the policy, please see section called ”variant and base” for more details) in a small pop-up window. Then the researcher will be able to see the SPSM interface and access to those facilities mentioned above. Once the user-defined variables or/and tables are specified,  the researcher can save the simulation and click the “execute” button on the left top to run the simulation. Finally, the default and user-specified tables will been output when the simulation is done.

  6. If the user have also specified the “Test output facility”, then he/she can click “View” on the left top and then “microdata” to output the data.

NOTE: Each detail of the SPSM is not covered here; please feel free to reach out to spsdm@statcan.gc.ca & provide us with specific description of the questions should any come up.

Looking for TV Ratings Data

June 15, 2022

Question:
I have a student looking to get some sort of TV ratings data, and they do not have funds to purchase data from Nielsen ratings. From the conversations we’ve had it sounds like if we can’t get ratings data another popularity ranking would work, but they are wanting to get the most popular TV shows aimed at teens for 1950, 1960, …etc to 2020 which is proving to be difficult. Has anyone encountered any data that might help with this?

Answer:
Unfortunately, television ratings data is not available. Please see the detailed data pertaining to your inquiry available by selecting the following hyperlinks:

Statistical program: Radio and Television Broadcasting Survey (RTBS)
This survey collects financial and operating data for radio, television stations and networks and discretionary and on-demand services.

Information collected by the annual Radio and Television Broadcasting Survey serves the following broad objectives: to measure the financial performance of radio and television broadcasters and the economic contribution of this sector to the Canadian economy. The principal outputs of the survey are revenue, expense and operating statistics at the establishment level (individual radio or television undertaking). The level of detail collected varies with the size (revenues) of the undertaking.

Statistical program: [INACTIVE] Annual Cable Television Survey (ACTS)
This survey collects financial and operating data for statistical measurement and analysis of the broadcast distribution undertakings sector (cable and wireless).

Information collected by the Annual Cable Television Survey serves the following broad objectives: to measure the financial position and performance of broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and wireless) and the economic contribution of this sector to the Canadian economy. The principal outputs of the survey are revenue, expense and operating statistics at the establishment level (individual system). The level of detail collected varies with the size (revenues) of the undertaking.

Statistical program: Survey of Service Industries: Film, Television and Video Production (PROD)
This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.


Statistical program: Survey of Service Industries: Film, Television and Video Post-production (POST)
This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.


Service Cable Television and Other Program Distribution Services | Catalogue no. 56C0002
This service provides custom tabulations for the Canadian cable and other program distribution industry. For example, this could consist of statistics on revenues, expenses, subscription and employment by region, community size or type of broadcast distribution undertaking. The availability of information is subject to rules of confidentiality.

Price notes: The cost of each custom product is based on the time required to produce it according to the client's requirements. The hourly rate is $81.85.
To view/ manipulate the variables available in a data table:

  • Click on "Add/Remove data"
  • Click on the “ + ” icon next to a checkbox to expand the list of variables (if applicable)
  • Select at least one variable in each tab and click on “Apply” in order to view your customized table

To download the data:

  • Click on “Download”
  • Select one of the three output formats then click on the hyperlink and save the table

 Discover the display and functionality of Statistics Canada data tables: How to use the data tables

Perceptions of Sexual Assault - Data that Covers Undergraduates

May 26, 2022

Question:
A student is looking to see if there are any datasets about rape myths or perceptions surrounding sexual assault held within Canadian Society. There is particular interest in data that covers undergraduates. 

Answer:
I believe the best source of information for your client would be the 2019 Survey on Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population (SISPSP).

From this initiative there have been a number of analytical pieces published.  Specifically:

If ever you would like to conduct your own analyses with the data then you may submit a proposal to access the master data file via Research Data Centres (statcan.gc.ca).

New videos available from the Data Literacy Training Initiative

May 27, 2022

As mentioned in the StatCan Daily on May 24:

“A new suite of training videos from the Data Literacy Training Initiative is now available. It includes topics on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles, data ethics, and confidence intervals.”

Monday, June 6, 2022

Scholars Portal Dataverse is becoming Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository / le dépôt Dataverse canadien

 June 1, 2022


Scholars Portal Dataverse is becoming Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository / le dépôt Dataverse canadien.


This new name is the culmination of a collaborative effort with representatives from the four regional library consortia, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, and community members (like you!) and reflects the new identity as a national service connecting Canadian researchers.


This change is planned to go live on June 23 at borealisdata.ca.


For full details, please visit the Borealis blog post.