MIDAS Online Data Analysis

The Multivariate Interactive Data Analysis System (MIDAS) provides access via the Internet to online exploration, selection, and analysis of social science, health, and demographic variables from a pool of over 150,000 variables available in studies from seven of Sociometrics' topically-focused national data archives. MIDAS includes search and retrieval programming and highly organized variable-level and study-level links to supporting documentation such as original instruments, codebooks, methodology reports, and data set User's Guides.

The Advantages of Using MIDAS for Online Data Analysis

  • The MIDAS "point and click" interface allows you to quickly and easily interact with the system through most Internet browsers*. You do not need to know SAS, SPSS, or any other complicated statistical package.

  • Online data analytic procedures include:
    • univariate statistics such as frequencies and percentiles;
    • measures of dispersion (e.g., variance, standard deviation, min, max, range, and standard error of the mean);
    • measures of central tendency (e.g., mean, median, mode);
    • two-way and n-way contingency tables that include cross-tabulations, statistics, and several popular measures of associations (e.g., Pearson chi-square, likelihood-ratio chi square, Eta, Gamma, Tau-b, Tau-c, Somers' d);
    • Two group t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), including relevant statistics; correlation and comparison of correlations, and
    • multiple regression, including relevant statistics.

  • You can define case subsets, recodes, or aggregations for analysis, and produce output, which can be downloaded or printed.

  • MIDAS incorporates archive-level, study-level, and variable-level links to metadata documentation such as user's guides, codebooks, original reports, and original data collection instruments. This provides you with quick and easy to access to the information that you need.

  • Each variable is linked to an image of the page in the original data collection instrument where that question was asked, making it very easy to determine the exact phrasing of the original question.

  • If you are unsure about which data set or variable will best meet your needs, MIDAS helps you find the data you need. MIDAS includes the ability to search one-page text summaries of each archived study and one-page text records of each archived variable.

  • MIDAS is extremely cost-effective. You have access to nearly all of the datasets in each of the Sociometrics' archives. If these datasets were purchased separately the cost would equal nearly $3,000. You can access these same datasets for 24 hours for only $19.95!

  • Most datasets available in MIDAS are national in scope and all were originally chosen by national panels of experts using strict criteria of scientific merit, substantive utility, program or policy relevance, and suitability for secondary data analysis. · The available data sets are each fully processed and documented according to Sociometrics' archiving procedures, including expanded variable and value labels, and the assignment of standardized substantive Topic and Type codes.

  • The system also supports custom variable extraction and custom dataset download exclusively for SSEDL subscribers.

Great Uses for MIDAS

  • MIDAS is the perfect tool for investigating and appraising a dataset prior to purchase. Since you have access to every variable and dataset in Sociometrics archives, you can easily determine whether a given variable or a given dataset meets your needs.
  • You can conduct extensive secondary data analysis of major national data sets.
  • You can view original instrument pages from hundreds of studies.
  • Teaching statistical concepts to undergraduate and graduate students. The easy to use interface is great for students.

How much does MIDAS cost?

MIDAS is available by subscription via password. You will automatically be assigned a login after the completion of your online purchase so that you can begin accessing MIDAS immediately.
ONE DAY SUBSCRIPTION
You can purchase a one-day subscription for only $19.95. This allows you unlimited access to the MIDAS system for 24 continuous hours.
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION
You can also purchase a one-year subscription to MIDAS for $499.00. This subscription allows you unlimited access, twenty-four hours a day for 365 days. If you choose this option you can make arrangements for subscription by IP address in addition to the usual password system.

The MIDAS Demo

You can preview MIDAS by viewing the MIDAS demo. Although it does not provide you with access to the actual MIDAS system, it simulates the experience through static web pages. It gives you a great idea of what MIDAS can do and allows you to learn to use MIDAS prior to the start of your subscription period. Click here to view the MIDAS Online Data Analysis demo.

members
SSEDL Subscribers: Click the Key for Free Access to MIDAS. To subscribe to SSEDL (The Sociometrics Social Science Electronic Data Library) or to find out if your college or university is already a subscriber, ask your data librarian to call Thomson Gale, worldwide exclusive distributor of SSEDL subscriptions, at 1-800-877-4253.

*Please Note: At this time MIDAS does not support Macintosh users, or users of Netscape 6 or above. The minimum system requirements include: a recent pentium class computer, 64 MB of RAM, and a recent version of Netscape Navigator (4.7 or higher) or Internet Explorer (5.01 or higher).