December 2012

Telephone and mobile questionnaires, internet panels and political polls all form part of the great family of survey research.  On the front page of this month’s newsletter we discuss the importance of best practice in survey design and execution and compare this to the history of political polling in the US.  On a more formal note, the Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS) recently commissioned Data Analysis Australia to develop the Society’s newest professional development resource, Sampling Design and Weighting for Australian Household/Consumer and Business Surveys - A Better Practice Guide.  With thanks to the AMSRS, Data Analysis Australia has an edited excerpt from the Guide for this month’s Analytical Ideas article.  It discusses Representativity of a Sample, and Sampling and Non-Sampling Errors.This month we profile Linda Eaton, one of our very talented senior consultants.

September 2012

This month we describe the contribution of Data Analysis Australia to the Australian Statistical Conference which celebrated 50 years, held in Adelaide in July 2012.Six of our staff presented at the conference.The presentations consisted of examples of project work and showed the diversity of the work Data Analysis Australia in involved in. We feel we have a unique work environment and one presentation gave an overview of life as a Data Analysis Australia statistician.The case study describes how microsimulation was used to estimate the number of healthcare card holders held within each collection district in metropolitan Perth.  This involves using data only available for a larger area and weighting it by incorporating information from other sources.This work provided valuable socio-economic information about the Perth metropolitan area.  This month we profile Taryn Major who has just celebrated four years with Data Analysis Australia.