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General Information

MISSY is an online service of the German Microdata Lab that addresses (social-)scientists working with official microdata. As this data is not primarily collected for scientific purposes, the documentation does not conform to established social science standards. This especially applies for the output-harmonized European surveys such as EU-SILC or EU-LFS which are conducted under varying circumstances in the different countries of the European Union.

MISSY closes this gap in documentation by providing a central source of structured documentation. This reduces the individual effort in data exploration and preparation as metadata, tool and links to the original documentation materials are accessible.

Support during all stages of the research process

MISSY supports researches on different levels throughout the research process in all phases of their project:

  • Find data: Answering the questions whether a series documented in MISSY is suitable to answer a certain research question.
  • Get data: Gathering information regarding regulations, restrictions and contact information to apply for data access.
  • Prepare data: i.e. by providing syntax-files to import the data into statistical software.
  • Understand data: by providing information about question wording, comparability over time, comparability over space etc.

The objective of MISSY is to support empirical researchers in their work with data from official statistics. The metadata provided facilitate both the findability and the analysis of the data. MISSY follows the FAIR criteria (see also Bohr, J., Balz, A., Thirolf, F., & Zloch, M. (2018): Microdata Information System MISSY: Benefits for Research with Official Microdata, DDI-based Implementation and Evaluation with Regard to the FAIR Criteria [.pdf]).

2018

Bohr, Jeanette; Balz, Anne; Thirolf, Florian; Zloch, Matthäus (2018): Microdata Information System MISSY: Benefits for Research with Official Microdata, DDI-Based Implementation, and Evaluation with Regard to FAIR Criteria.

2016

Bohr, Jeanette; Zloch, Matthäus (2016): Documenting Microdata from Official Statistics – Benefits of a DDI-Based Backend Infrastructure. EDDI16 – 8th Annual European DDI User Conference, Cologne, 07.12.2016.

2015

Bosch, Thomas; Zapilko, Benjamin (2015): Semantic Web Applications for the Social Sciences. IASSIST Quarterly, 38(4) & 39(1), 7–16.

Bohr, Jeanette (2015): Metadata for European integrated official microdata: MISSY. 2nd European Data Access Forum, Luxembourg, 24.03.2015.

2014

Bosch, Thomas; Zapilko, Benjamin (2014): Let’s Disco - Publish your DDI Metadata as Linked Data. EDDI14: 6th Annual European DDI User Conference, 01.12.2014, London. 

Bohr, Jeanette; Thirolf, Florian; Wolf, Christof (2014): Metadata for eurostat microdata. Eurostat Workshop on Microdata Access, Luxembourg.

2013

Bohr, Jeanette; Mack, Alexander; Thirolf, Florian; Bosch, Thomas (2013): The next generation of the microdata information system MISSY. An integrated solution for the documentation of European microdata. European DDI User Conference (EDDI) 2013, 03.12.2013, Paris. 

Bohr, Jeanette (2013): Information System MISSY – Metadata for the scientific community. New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics (NTTS), 5.-7.3.2013, Brussels. Session 4C – Improving researchers' access to Official microdata.

Bosch, Thomas; Bohr, Jeanette; Zloch, Matthäus (2013): The New Microdata Information System (MISSY): integration of DDI-based data models, an open-source software architecture, and Independent persistence service implementations. 5th European DDI User Conference (EDDI 2013), 03.12.2013 - 04.12.2013, Paris. 

Bosch, Thomas; Zloch, Matthäus; Wegener, Dennis (2013): A Business Perspective on Use-Case-Driven Challenges for Software Architectures to Document Study and Variable Information. 39th International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST 2013), 28.05.2013 - 31.05.2013; Cologne. 

Zloch, Matthäus; Bosch, Thomas; Wegener, Dennis (2013): A technical perspective on use-case-driven challenges for software architectures to document study and variable information. 39th International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST 2013), 28.05.2013 - 31.05.2013, Cologne. 

Zloch, Matthäus; Bosch, Thomas; Wegener, Dennis (2013): The Next Generation Microdata Information System (MISSY) - Towards a Best-Practice Open-Source Software Architecture for DDI-Driven Data Models, 39th International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST 2013), 28.05.2013 - 31.05.2013; Cologne. 

Zloch, Matthäus; Bosch, Thomas; Wegener, Dennis (2013): Towards a DDI Backend Architecture - Sharing DDI-Related Software Modules, 4th European DDI User Conference (EDDI 2012), 03.12.2012 - 04.12.2012; Bergen. 

2012

Bosch, Thomas; Zloch, Matthäus (2012): Create Your Own Information Systems on the Basis of DDI-Lifecycle. Create Your Own Information Systems on the Basis of DDI-Lifecycle, 4th European DDI User Conference (EDDI 2012), 03.12.2012, Bergen. 

Wegener, Dennis; Zloch, Matthäus; Bosch, Thomas (2012): DDI & Model-View-Controller: An Architectural Perspective. DDI Lifecycle: Moving Forward, 21.10.2012 - 26.10.2012, Wadern. 

Zloch, Matthäus; Bosch, Thomas; Wegener, Dennis (2012): Towards a DDI backend architecture. sharing DDI-related software modules. EDDI12 – 4th Annual European DDI User Conference. 03.-04.12.2012, Bergen. 

2010

Bohr, Jeanette, Oliver Hopt, Andrea Lengerer, Julia Schroedter und Andias Wira-Alam (2010): Mikrodaten-Informationssystem MISSY: Metadaten zu den Mikrozensus Scientific Use Files (Abschlussbericht MISSY II). GESIS-Technical Report 2010/07. Mannheim: GESIS.  (2.5 MB)

Bosch, Thomas (2010): MISSY - Microdata Information System - Use Case. The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) XML Standard: Using DDI 3 to Support Production, Management, Dissemination, and Preservation Systems for Data in the Social Sciences and Economics, 24.10.2010 - 29.10.2010, Wadern. 

Wira-Alam, Andias und Oliver Hopt (2010): Implementing DDI 3.0: The German Microcensus Case Study. IASSIST Quarterly 2009 (33): 16-22. 

2009

Wira-Alam, Andias und Oliver Hopt (2009): Implementing DDI 3.0: a case study of the German Microcensus. 1st Annual European DDI Users Group Meeting: DDI - The Basis of Managing the Data Life Cycle. Bonn. 

2007

Bohr, Jeanette, Andrea Janßen, Andrea Lengerer, Paul Lüttinger, Julia H. Schroedter und Christof Wolf (2007): Verbesserung des Zugangs der Wissenschaft zu Mikrodaten. Pilotprojekt zum Aufbau eines Servicezentrums für Mikrodaten der GESIS bei ZUMA. ZUMA-Methodenbericht 2007/05. Mannheim: ZUMA.  (577 KB)

Bohr, Jeanette (2007): Abschlussbericht MISSY Nutzerstudie. ZUMA-Methodenbericht 2007/01. Mannheim: ZUMA.  (875 KB)

2006

Bohr, Jeanette, Andrea Janßen und Joachim Wackerow (2006): Problems of Comparability in the German Microcensus over Time and the New DDI Version 3.0. IASSIST Quarterly 2006 (30): 13-19. 

Janßen, Andrea und Jeanette Bohr (2006): Microdata Information System – MISSY. IASSIST Quarterly 2006 (30): 5-11. 

The first MISSY project started in 2003. Several projects, funded by different public institutions such as the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and the DFG (German Research Foundation), helped to improve the accessibility of documentation of official microdata and related services continuously. The following sections contain a short description of the development of MISSY so far.

MISSY (pilot study)

Period of time 2003 to 2006
Funding BMBF
Coverage German Microcensus Scientific Use Files 1995 and 1997
Milestones
  • Prototype for an online information system
  • Development of data model to represent all relative metadata of the German microcensus
  • Implementation of a "variable-availability-matrix" to identify breaks in comparability over time
Cooperation
Team

Jeanette Bohr, Nadja Granato (Lead), Andrea Janßen (Lead), Achim Wackerow

MISSY II

Period of time 2008 to 2009
Funding BMBF
Coverage German Microcensus Scientific Use Files since 1973
Milestones
  • Integration of all available microcensus scientific use files
  • Addition of complementary services for data-preparation and -analysis
  • Adoption of DDI standards in metadata structure
  • Update of the technological infrastructure
  • Development of desktop application to enter data in the MISSY datadase
Cooperation German Federal Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), Group VIII C
Team

Jeanette Bohr, Nina Chudziak, Oliver Hopt, Andrea Lengerer, Julia H. Schroedter, Andias Wira-Alam, Christof Wolf (Lead)

MISSY III

Period of time 2011 to 2014
Funding DFG
Coverage Official microdata of European statistics
Milestones
  • Extension of metadata units on variable level
  • Expansion of structured documentation on study level
  • Coverage of multiple series
  • Change of the MISSY Editor from desktop to web-based application
  • Development of different import and export interfaces
Cooperation DwB (Data without Boundaries)
Team

Jeanette Bohr, Thomas Bosch, Florian Thirolf, Alina Weber, Christof Wolf (Lead), Matthäus Zloch