Social Sciences Data Analyst

Posted to IASSIST on: 2008-04-02

Employer: Arizona State University

Employer URL: http://www.asu.edu/

Description

The Arizona State University Libraries seeks a social sciences data analyst to join its Department of Informatics and Cyberinfrastructure Services. Reporting to the Cyberinfrastructure Services Manager, the successful applicant will play a lead role for the University in developing and managing an archive of quantitative data from local, state, federal and private sources for use by ASU researchers, their partners, and Arizona policy makers and analysts in general. The incumbent will work in a highly collaborative environment and maintain effective working relationships with ASU’s Institute of Social Sciences Research (ISSR), other ASU centers and research groups that collect or create numeric data, and organizations outside the University who compile and make available numeric datasets. Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborates with University and external stakeholder communities to determine and articulate scope and policies for data collection
• Identifies sources of quantitative data that represent economic and social indicators relevant to the needs of ASU researchers and external collaborators, and which are essential to ASU research projects, particularly the Arizona Indicators project ( http://www.asu.edu/indicators/ )
• Works with faculty teams to determine data acquisition priorities for supported projects (Arizona Indicators) and general University research needs to assure timely delivery of data
• Collaborates with informatics specialists at the ASU Libraries and the Institute for Social Sciences Research to establish a data archiving pipeline for datasets collected by researchers making use of ISSR services
• Collaborates with researchers and informatics specialists in the Libraries, the Institute for Social Sciences Research, the High Performance Computing Institute, and the University Technology Office to establish appropriate models for metadata, data representation, and data management within the ASU Digital Repository, and to create optimal means for the dissemination of datasets (download, visualization, etc.)
• Reviews source data and validates integrity; normalizes datasets to formats amenable to broad dissemination and preservation using an appropriate suite of software tools (Stata, SPSS, Excel, DBMSCopy, etc.)
• Using best practices and standards established by the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), prepares metadata for numeric datasets to document source of data and to describe datasets; compiles and provides codebooks for datasets as needed
• Collaborates with systems analysts and software engineers to specify requirements for workflow tools related to data acquisition and data curation

MINOR Duties and Responsibilities

• Consults with University researchers regarding specialized needs for numeric datasets, data formats, or special data analysis requirements and provides assistance as appropriate
• Maintains broad awareness of current trends in data collection and organization, data preservation, and numeric data analysis by participation in appropriate professional activities and contributing to research in the field; collaborates with informatics specialists at the ASU Libraries, ISSR and the High Performance Computing Institute to implement procedures and technologies that assure the long-term sustainability and accessibility of datasets

Relationships

• Reports to the Cyberinfrastructure Services Manager in the Libraries’ Department of Informatics and Cyberinfrastructure Services;
• Collaborates specifically with the Geospatial Data Analyst, Digital Library Software Engineers, Web applications developers, and other technical staff, within and outside of the Libraries;
• Supports the Arizona Indicators Project and advances project activities within the scope of the position.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in economics, statistics, education, or another area of the social sciences
• Knowledge of formats for numeric data and experience in converting and normalizing numeric data formats
• Expertise in the use of ubiquitous applications software for managing and analyzing numeric data (SPSS; SAS; Stata; DBMSCopy)
• Knowledge of metadata standards used to describe numeric datasets and codebooks, particularly Data Documentation Initiative version 2.0

Desired Qualifications

• Graduate degree in an area of the social sciences with a focus on quantitative analysis
• Knowledge of economics desirable
• Familiarity with spatial data formats, metadata, and software applications
• Familiarity with XML data processing tools, including XSLT, XPath and XQuery
• Familiarity with desktop and web-based software tools for data visualization
• Knowledge of geographic information systems
• Familiarity with Arizona data and data providing agencies of the State of Arizona and other Arizona entities collecting and providing data
• Experience in organizing and classifying data in a content-management context
• Two or more years experience in an team-oriented, collaborative work environment
• Academic research, academic library or special library experience

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of formats for numeric data and experience in converting and normalizing numeric data formats
• Expertise in the use of ubiquitous applications software for managing and analyzing numeric data (SPSS; SAS; Stata; DBMSCopy)
• Knowledge of metadata standards used to describe numeric datasets and codebooks, particularly Data Documentation Initiative version 2.0

Archived on: 2008-04-04