If you’re new to Understanding Society data, or need to refresh your skills, we have a range of resources which can help.
New User Pathway
We’ve produced a pathway to introduce new users to Understanding Society and help you explore the dataset. The page highlights the various online resources we provide to get you started – including videos on variables and weighting, and a guide to our training courses.
Teaching datasets
We also produce datasets which are specifically designed to support teachers and lecturers to teach longitudinal data analysis. There are currently three available from the UK Data Service:
Regular training
We run training courses several times a year, and have a devoted training page on our website to help you find the support you need.
Our next training course is an introduction to panel data methods using Understanding Society, which is being held on 6-8 September at the University of Essex. You can find out more information and sign up here.
We also make our webinars available for catch-up. Subjects include:
- geographical data linkage
- choosing and using weights
- religion in Understanding Society
- youth and young adult data
Find all our training videos on our YouTube channel.
How to cite a dataset
Our video explains how and why to cite data. Citation gives people credit, ensures accuracy, and protects against fraud. If you use data from Understanding Society you need to cite it.
You can find out more
- in our User Guide – including a video about the importance of citation, and why it’s in your interests as well as ours
- on our Data and documentation pages, which include another video, and citations you can simply copy and paste into your work
- on our blog, which brings in people as diverse as Rosalind Franklin, Margaret Thatcher and Mark Twain to show how citation gives credit where it’s due – and offers a couple of cautionary tales about datasets that weren’t what they seemed…
The Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex is holding a Focus Week on research data, to help students increase their skills when using data in research. Many of the resources are open for all to use – find out more and explore the resources available on the Essex Library website
Biomarkers, genetics and epigeneticsCovid 19EducationEmploymentEthnicity and immigrationFamily and householdsHealth and wellbeingIncome and expenditureMoney and financesPolitics and social attitudesSocial mobilityTransport and environmentYoung people
