Access to DSS Longitudinal Datasets
The National Centre for Longitudinal Data (NCLD) is responsible for four major Australian longitudinal studies:
- The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey
- Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)
- Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC)
- Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA): The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants
The NCLD provides access to new releases of data for the four longitudinal studies through the Australian Data Archive Dataverse platform. Dataverse provides no cost data access and allows authorised data users to download the datasets to their password-protected PC, secure network or approved cloud.
All four NCLD studies are now available on Dataverse:
- Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey is available at https://dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse/hilda
- Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is available at https://dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse/lsac
- Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) is available at https://dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse/lsic
- Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants (BNLA) is available at https://dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse/bnla
For further information please visit the NCLD Dataverse page https://dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse/ncld or contact NCLD@dss.gov.au
To apply for NCLD datasets
To apply for any of the NCLD datasets simply follow these steps:
- Read the NCLD Data Access and Use Guidelines (the Guidelines)
- Register on Dataverse
- Sign a Confidentiality Deed Poll and email the scanned, signed copy to NCLD (ncldresearch@dss.gov.au) and ADA (ada@anu.edu.au)
- Submit an application for data access for the dataset(s) and release(s) of interest. Application forms can be accessed from the individual releases’ Dataverse pages by clicking ‘Request Access’ button.
Organisations
NCLD no longer offers organisational licences for its datasets. All prospective users must apply for datasets as individuals.
Available versions of the data
The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey and Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) offer two versions of the data: the General Release and the Restricted Release.
The General Release datasets are available to persons both in Australia and overseas.
The Restricted Release (Unconfidentialised) datasets are only available to Australian users. They contain more detailed information than the General Release dataset, including date of birth and postcodes of residence which are not included in the General Release datasets. Other variables such as income and occupation may be top-coded or otherwise transformed in the General Release datasets to ensure confidentiality is maintained. Only researchers with a demonstrated need will be granted access to the Restricted Release data.
Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) also offers Special Purpose Datasets, which can be requested as an additional file accompanying either General or Restricted Release of LSAC.
To understand which dataset best suits your research needs, please refer to the Guidelines.
For Assistance
If you have any questions about applying for the DSS longitudinal datasets, please email NCLD@dss.gov.au.
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