BCC - Building an Interdisciplinary Equal Employment Opportunity Research Network and Data Capacity

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

SMA- 1338423 Donald Tomaskovic-Devey M.V. Lee Badgett Fidan Kurtulus University of Massachusetts Amherst This project will accomplish two tasks. The first is to create an interdisciplinary social science network to advance organizational-level analyses of employment dynamics. The second is to create a mechanism for permanent data archiving and broad scientific access to data products, metadata and confidential source data. The overall goal is to provide large scale data capacity and access to future generations of scientists, policy makers, with information spillovers to citizens and employers. The research network spanning the social sciences will collaborate in the development and scientific use of data collected by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Since 1966 the EEOC has been collecting panel data on employment patterns from private sector workplaces, unions, state and local governments, and elementary and secondary schools. Collectively these represent the largest and longest collection of organizational panel datasets in the world and are an extraordinary source of data for scientific and policy studies of organizational employment dynamics. The network is expected to result in collaborations on methodological and data quality issues, new research on employment distributions and discrimination, organizational population dynamics, and new opportunities for researchers in multiple scientific areas. The research network will also create a metadata repository to reduce the barriers to entry for researchers, as well as to open up the use of data in creative ways. Currently, data access restrictions limit the formation of collaborative research networks among scientists. Researchers new to the data typically invent (or reinvent) data management, measurement, and sampling protocols. As a result replication is rare and research programs are individual rather than collective. The project will create a virtual metadata repository to insure that current published work and non-confidential data products are broadly disseminated to the scientific community. The project will also develop plans for the creation of a permanent data archive and research portal to preserve and magnify these scientific synergies. Together the network and virtual metadata repository will generate new connections across currently siloed research communities and will connect the data to entirely new areas of scientific research. Broader Impact: The core contribution of research using the EEOC data is to further our understanding of gender, racial, ethnic, religious, age, disability and sexual orientation employment integration and discrimination. This will be accomplished by encouraging scientific exploration and making data more accessible to both the scientific community and to the public. The broadest impact of the project will be to enhance the public's and policymakers' understanding of the societal and organization processes which lead to diverse workplaces and reductions in discrimination and inequality.