|
Researcher Information
Pricing | Dissertation Fellowships
| General
The following information is provided for researchers who have received approval for their projects.
Pricing Policy
There are substantial financial costs involved in opening and operating a Census Research Data Center.
The CCRDC has minimal funding and must become self-supporting through the collection of user fees in order to
continue operating. For most researchers, the cost of using the RDC will be directly related to the amount of
time the researcher needs to complete their project; lab time is billed at a standard rate established by the
Census Bureau for use at all Census Research Data Centers.
Standard Rates for Research Data Center Access
The rates for RDC access are established by the Census Bureau and are based on an estimate of the real costs
incurred by the RDC to support a project. The rate, which is the same for all RDCs, is $3,125 per month for
a full-time seat. However, most projects do not require full-time access and the rate is prorated based on
the amount of time needed to conduct the project. For example, a project that requires a 40% level of
access (approximately two days per week) for a period of one year would cost $15,000. Researchers who need
to submit a proposal to obtain funding for their project are encouraged to use the $15,000-per-year amount
as this is the amount of time typically requested by an average project. There is a minimum fee of $7500
because even shorter research project require significant time and effort from CCRDC staff to help with
proposal development, security measures, and required paperwork. Researchers may contact the CCRDC to
obtain a more detailed cost estimate for their proposed project.
Due to the startup time involved in most RDC projects it is unlikely that any part-time research project
could be completed in less than three months. This is because the data is usually in a form that is more raw
than researchers expect. Extensions are rarely granted for projects using economic or administrative record
data. Thus, it is better to overestimate a bit than to risk running out of time before the research is
completed.
Additional Fees
Additional fees may be charged to projects that use data sets outside the core or that impose other special
costs on CES, the Census Bureau, or the RDC.
CCRDC Dissertation
Fellowship Program
The policy of the CCRDC is to strongly encourage all researchers to identify
external funding for their projects. However, researchers without funding are
still encouraged to submit their proposals along with a request for special
consideration. Each year the CCRDC will support a limited number of projects
that do not have funding. These "awards" will be available to all
researchers in California and the western region of the United States, regardless
of their discipline or institutional affiliation. These special CCRDC awards will
consist of a reduction or complete waiver of the normal RDC access fees. They do not
include a stipend, reimbursement for travel expenses, or any other compensation.
Funding decisions will be made by the principal investigators and Project Review
Boards and will be based on the merits of the proposed research and ability of the
CCRDC to support the work. Projects that develop and document new data sets that can
be used by other researchers are more likely to receive CCRDC support.
The CCRDC is committed to providing access to graduate students at a
reasonable cost. Currently, we are able to offer fellowships that cover the
cost of RDC access to a limited number of graduate students from California and the
western region of the United States.
Fellowship Terms and Conditions
CCRDC Dissertation Fellowships are essentially a waiver of the lab access
fees normally associated with a research project. They do not include a
stipend, reimbursement for travel expenses, or any other compensation. The
fellowships also do not cover special fees charged by the Center for Economic
Studies for data development or use of non-core data files. The CCRDC
Dissertation Fellowships are not transferable to another Census Research
Data Center
or between the CCRDC's two locations. Fellowships
are for dissertation research only; they cannot be used for projects
conducted jointly with other investigators. The continuation of the CCRDC
graduate student fellowship program is entirely dependent on the continued
support of our funders. The procedures for awarding
graduate student fellowships may change at any time without notice.
Fellowship Applications
Students who wish to apply for a fellowship should follow all of the usual
RDC proposal submission guidelines. Fellowship applicants should enter
"Applying for CCRDC Dissertation Fellowship" in the funding section
of the RDC proposal cover sheet. In addition, students should submit the
following items to the RDC administrator:
- Cover letter
requesting a fellowship. The cover letter should specify the student's
organizational affiliation, the title of the project, the purpose of the
research, the amount of access needed (number of days or hours per week
and period of time), and the RDC site to be used (UCLA or UC Berkeley).
- At least one letter of
recommendation from a faculty advisor or mentor. Faculty letter(s)
should discuss the student's research experience and potential.
- An official or
unofficial copy of the student's graduate school transcript.
- A copy of the
student's curriculum vitae.
Applications should be submitted to the appropriate RDC Administrator
General Information
Obtaining Special Sworn Status
Researchers are required to obtain special sworn status
prior to beginning research at the California Census
Research Data Center. To obtain special sworn status,
researchers must be fingerprinted, make a sworn
statement in the presence of a notary public, and
provide additional information for background checks.
Once completed, this process establishes the researcher
as a temporary uncompensated employee of the U.S. Census
Bureau. While working on projects at the CCRDC,
researchers should consider themselves to be temporary
uncompensated Census Bureau employees.
Researcher Agreements
Researchers with approved projects sign an agreement
with the University of California and the Center for
Economic Studies that stipulates the conditions under
which data may be accessed at the Research Data Center.
Any violation of the terms of this agreement will result
in the termination of the project.
Disclosure Analysis
All statistical output researchers that is removed from
the CCRDC must undergo disclosure analysis prior to
removal. No printed or other output may be removed from
the research data center without approval from the RDC
administrator. Coordinating disclosure analysis with the
RDC administrator with sufficient lead time before
conference presentations or submission of journal
articles is the responsibility of the researcher.
Post-Project Certification
All approved projects submit with their proposal a
description of the benefits their project will provide
to the Census Bureau. At the end of the every project,
a write-up must describing how the promised benefits
were provided (or in some cases, why the researchers
were not able to provide them). Please remember that,
under the U.S. Code, Title 13, Chapter 5, the Census
Bureau is allowed to give the confidential data to
researchers ONLY if the project will provide suitable
benefits to the Bureau. Thus, documenting the benefits
your project provided is VERY important. Researchers
not completing this description of benefits will NOT be
approved for future projects.
Discussion Papers
Researchers are required to submit to the Center for
Economic Studies a working paper describing the results
of work completed at the California Census Research Data
Center. Submission of a working paper does not preclude
publication elsewhere. If a working paper has been
published elsewhere, researchers are encouraged to
contact CES with the new citation, and the working paper
will be removed from circulation. Click here for
discussion paper guidelines. For reference, please
see the
CES Working Papers Series.
Disclaimer
The following disclaimer must be included with all
researchers' publications resulting from use of data at
the California Census Research Data Center:
"This paper (chapter) reports the results
of research and analysis undertaken while the author(s)
was a research affiliate at the Center for Economic
Studies at the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It has
undergone a Census Bureau review more limited in scope
than that given to official Census Bureau publications.
Research results and conclusions expressed are those of
the author and do not necessarily indicate concurrence
by the Census Bureau." |
