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Pages 1-11

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From page 1...
... : Federal statistical agencies must have credibility with those who use their data and information.
From page 2...
... These important sources all recognize the importance of transparency and the closely related concept of reproducibility, and they all call for agencies to strive to achieve transparency in their work. TRANSPARENCY AND REPRODUCIBILITY The panel could find no formal definition of the term transparency when used in conjunction with official statistics, though its desirability is often cited.
From page 3...
... The credibility of official estimates is undermined if questions about their genesis cannot be answered or if it is impossible to check them. The recent National ­Academies of S­ ciences, Engineering, and Medicine report on Reproduc ibility and Replicability in Science (2019b)
From page 4...
... They are also used to inform and assess the effectiveness of policies to improve public health, education, the economy, employment, agriculture, and commerce. One critical component of trust -- both of building trust and earning it -- is for federal statistical agencies to BOX S-1 Benefits of Transparency to Federal Statistical Agencies 1.
From page 5...
... In addition, NCSES asked the panel to consider how NCSES could work with other federal statistical agencies to facilitate the adoption of currently available documentation and archiving standards and tools. The use of metadata standards and tools has been widely found to assist in both
From page 6...
... federal statistical agencies and various international statistical offices are to benefit from sharing methods, data, and results with each other, such efforts would be eased by making use of common tools for documentation and exchange. TRANSPARENCY AS A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF FEDERAL STATISTICS The panel reviewed federal legislation, OMB statistical policy directives and memoranda, best practice documents, including Principles and Practices, and other sources to identify what is variously required and recommended for running an effective federal statistical agency.
From page 7...
... The records schedules, which describe the plans for retaining, preserv ing, and making accessible microdata and associated metadata, should be easily accessible on each statistical agency Website so that users know when and where microdata and associated metadata will be made available, and when they are scheduled to be destroyed. By doing this, the federal statistical agencies can then leverage their records schedules to improve transparency in their statistical programs.
From page 8...
... Since the federal statistical agencies use software processes to help to collect data, treat data in preparation for use in estimation, and estimate a set of official statistics, these tools should be examined for their utility in supporting greater transparency of official statistics. Recommendation 4.1: Agencies that produce federal statistics, includ ing the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, should review and make a priority of adopting modern information technology tools that assist in collaborative software development and documenta tion of workflow and methodology.
From page 9...
... prioritize and emphasize the importance and benefits of federal statistical agency staff engaging in international metadata stan dards and tool development, and (2) organize a discussion among statistical agencies that leads to an effective, coordinated, and account able approach for staff in agencies that produce federal statistics to contribute to international metadata standards and tool development.
From page 10...
... However, more than one program requested users to go to a technical ­report to find out what data treatments were used to address nonresponse or failed edits. Further, it was not always clear where the input data or resulting official estimates were archived.
From page 11...
... Recommendation 6.5: The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics' (NCSES) information technology staff and NCSES's program staff should collaborate to standardize the inclusion of language in their contracts and interagency agreements requiring that contractors pro vide machine-actionable metadata and code so that NCSES can meet acceptable standards of transparency about its data products for users and other agencies and achieve consistency in the metadata used across NCSES's statistical programs.


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