Abstract

DOUGLAS R. WHITE Societal Research Archives System : Retrieval, quality control and analysis of comparative data* ’.i I ’4 . !.!J. ,-’ . ,d, I N T R O D U C T I O N I’~~d.. i r1!’ · The Societal Research Archives System (SRAS) was created by the author in 1966 as a computer-based retrieval and research facility for comparative data in social science. The basic idea was to integrate all of the available cross-societal coded data from published and unpubli- shed sources into a single data base, and secondly to develop computer programs which would facilitate all of the steps in comparative research, from sample selection and data retrieval to correlation, data quality control, and testing for genetic, diffusional, or functional sources of cor- relation. This paper will serve to explain the present operation of the system. Additional work is being done at the University of Pitts- burgh’s Cross-Cultural Cumulative Coding Center, beginning in 1968, on the refinement and expansion of the system, which will be the subject of a future report. 1. -c . f: : r W i : , I ’r 1_., :1’ ,J’,. -:..df~’~’1 i.~:r..’, t i:: !rL~I~}, ,_,;d * This article also appears in R. NAROLL and R. COHEN (eds.), Handbook of method anthropology, New York, Natural History Press, 1968, and is published here with the permission of the editors. Part of the funds which made the underlying research possible was made available through an NtMtt Predoctoral Fellowship Grant 5-FI-MH- 25, 516-03 ; another part through the University of Minnesota Graduate School. The author would like to thank Dr. E. Adamson Hoebel, whose sponsorship was instru- mental in establishing the project, in addition to others who worked on the project. The original Societal Research Archive System, at Minnesota, is still operative under the direction of Fay Cohen, Administrative Fellow, Department of Anthropology. in cultural

Highlights

  • The Societal Research Archives System (SRAS) was created by the author in 1966 as a computer-based retrieval and research facility for comparative data in social science

  • The basic idea was to integrate all of the available cross-societal coded data from published and unpublished sources into a single data base, and secondly to develop computer programs which would facilitate all of the steps in comparative research, from sample selection and data retrieval to correlation, data quality control, and testing for genetic, diffusional, or functional sources of correlation

  • Comparative psychology, sociology, political sciences, and anthropology are already well represented by the research topics presently included and rated in the archive

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Summary

, INTRODUCTION

The Societal Research Archives System (SRAS) was created by the author in 1966 as a computer-based retrieval and research facility for comparative data in social science. 1967, the comparative ratings from 55 of the major books and articles in the cross-cultural field have been incorporated into the SRAS computerized archive (see bibliography, and White, 1967a). With the coming diffusion of console units across the country, it will not be long before the console system is available for research and experimental teaching use on a national basis This will be one of the objectives of the Center at Pittsburgh

Theoretical
Applied
Sampling and integrating data fi-om different sources
Data quality control
Structural controls for comparability of societal units
Distributional analysis
Mapping data and results
Third factor controls
Findings
Reformulation of study design

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