The Multinational Time Use Studies MTUS Project

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The Multinational Time Use Studies (MTUS)
Project A poster presentation for Work Time
and Leisure Time Dynamics and Convergence in
Changing Contexts IATUR meeting 15-18 October
2002, Lisbon Dr. Kimberly Fisher and Professor
Jonathan I. Gershuny, Institute for Social and
Economic Research (ISER) Professor Anne H.
Gauthier, Department of Sociology, University of
Calgary
What is MTUS? Researchers have used time diary
methods for analyzing peoples behaviour since
the mid-1920s in many countries. During these
early efforts, a spirit of co-operation developed
among people performing time use research. This
spirit of cross-national and cross-institutional
co-operation in the production of time use data
as well as the development of many time use data
and information archives inspired the development
of the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS). In
the late 1980s, Jonathan Gershuny and Sally
Jones, then at the School of Social Sciences at
the University of Bath, collected time use data
sets performed in 20 countries and prepared a
version of these data sets which would allow
cross-national comparability. The multinational
file has in the past limited the age range and
the detail of demographic variables to allow for
maximum comparability of the files. The upcoming
versions building on this original base will
include more variables and the complete age
ranges collected in the various studies. From
the summer of 1998, time use researchers from the
University of Melbourne in Australia, the
University of Essex in the UK, and two Canadian
universities, St. Mary's and The University of
Calgary, have collaborated to expand and improve
the MTUS. Team members at Calgary have rechecked
the original syntax used to convert the original
data into earlier versions of the MTUS. The
Essex team has assembled a document of the
technical details of time use studies, acquired
recent documentation of time use studies and
scanned older documentation for distribution, and
constructed the projects website. The Melbourne
and St. Mary's teams have joined the Essex team
in designing and coordinating the project, as
well as in acquiring new data sets for inclusion
in the file. _______________________ The
structure of the MTUS files for each survey are
as follows WORLD 5.0 Covers the original MTUS
variables and covers the age range common to all
the studies, ages 20-59. WORLD 5.1 Covers the
same variables in the World 5.0 series, but
covers the full age range included in each of the
original studies. WORLD 5.5 Covers the full
age range included in each of the original
studies but includes extra variables in addition
to the original MTUS variables. Syntax file
Shows how the data from the original studies was
converted into the MTUS data series 5.0, 5.1,
and 5.5. ________________________
What are the current activities of MTUS? The MTUS
team has created and included several new
variables in the World 5.5 series of datasets
that allow for an enhanced level of analysis and
information to be extracted from the original
data files of the surveys in the archive. The
first release of the MTUS Users Guide is set for
Fall, 2002 and will include the complete
documentation of all the MTUS variables in 25 of
the over 50 surveys in the archive.
Accompanying the release of the Users Guide,
the release of the newly checked and cleaned
datasets from the 25 surveys will be available to
registered users of MTUS.
Who has access to MTUS? Some data may be
accessed by any interested user. Other data may
only be accessed by authorized academic users.
Any researcher wishing to use the MTUS data
should complete the general registration form and
apply to the original data producers for
permission to use the restricted data sets. The
MTUS is a collaborative project, and as a
condition for receiving the data for free, all
registered users undertake to give back to the
project any improved or enhanced data files as
well as the citations of publications they
produce using the MTUS data. Also, all
registered users must agree not to divulge any
MTUS data to a third party. Each researcher
proposing to use any element of data connected
with the MTUS needs to apply separately for
permission to use the data. Research assistants
are covered by agreements signed by lead
researchers. The main MTUS data file includes
aggregated data. There are two levels of
aggregate data available Class A aggregated
microdata covers unrestricted information that
may be distributed to all registered users of the
study, provided they acknowledge the original
data sources in publications and abide by other
conditions of registering as an MTUS user.
Class B aggregated microdata requires the
registered user to sign an additional agreement
with the original data provider. You will need
to complete separate forms with each provider,
and may be asked to destroy the data after a set
period. In many cases, the MTUS coordinators
also have the original episode data files on
which the MTUS aggregated file is based. At this
time, researchers can gain access to any Class A
country episode file for data collected in the
1980s or earlier by submitting a separate
request. Permission to use more recent Class A
sequence files may require permission from the
data depositor. Permission to use sequence data
from a Class B country should be requested from
the data producer directly.
What are the future plans of MTUS? The next
versions of the MTUS will include more countries,
more demographic detail, sequence data, and more
ancillary characteristics associated with
activities in time. The MTUS team is also
working with a larger team, including the UK Data
Archive, Statistics Sweden and Statistics
Finland, to develop prototype data tables, a
customized time use table production web site,
and a harmonized data file for the Harmonized
European Time Use Study (HETUS) project.
Where can I find MTUS? http//www.iser.essex.ac.uk
/mtus/index.php
Who created MTUS? Professor Jonathan I. Gershuny
(UK) Professor Anne H. Gauthier (Canada) Michael
Bittman (Australia) Anita Bortnik (Canada) Cara
Fedick (Canada) Dr. Kimberly Fisher
(UK) Professor Andrew Harvey (Canada) Professor
Duncan Ironmonger (Australia) Sally Jones
(UK) Fiona Lui (Canada) Tingting Lu
(Canada) Leslie MacRae (Canada) Monica Pauls
(Canada) Faye Soupourmas (Australia) Dr. Oriel
Sullivan (Israel) Charlemaigne Victorino (Canada)
NOTE The survey years above correspond to the
value of the variable SURVEY. Some surveys may
have spanned more than the year indicated.
Poster design by Cara Fedick with information
taken from the MTUS website at http//www.iser.ess
ex.ac.uk/mtus/index.php