Methodology Report and User's Guide - American National Election ...

the question the first time, but if they clicked “Next” a second time, they were allowed to
continue the survey without answering the question. This equivalent to a refusal to
answer the question.
“-8 Don’t know” is a code assigned to telephone recruitment if the respondent answered
the question by saying they did not know how to answer.
“-9 Refused” is a code assigned to telephone recruitment if the respondent refused to
answer a question.
In addition to the standard missing data codes descried above, a few variables use other
values for missing data, and some alphanumeric (string) variables use “.” or the “system
missing” value instead of a number. On some state variables that use two-letter state
abbreviations, “X” denotes missing state data.
Restricted-use data
As with other ANES studies, most variables from the Panel Study are included in the
public-use data file that is available to the public for free. Access to some variables is
restricted to protect respondents’ privacy. Data that could identify a respondent as part of
a small and recognizable population or that could identify a respondent as a resident of a
small geographic area have been redacted from the public-use data file. Such variables
include the respondent’s city and county of residence, date of birth, and detailed
racial/ethnic identity when the respondent is a member of a small minority group. Such
variables are labeled “RESTRICTED ACCESS” on the data file, and the data are coded -
3. When respondents typed a response to an open-ended question and their response
included information that could pose a risk, the potentially problematic response was
redacted and marked as “[REDACTED].” For details concerning redaction, see DeBell,
Krosnick, and Lupia (2010).
Data analysts interested in obtaining access to restricted access variables may do so by
following the special access request procedures described on our website at
http://www.electionstudies.org/rda/anes_rda.htm.
Item time data
For many questions, the elapsed time the respondent took to answer was recorded. Times
recorded are the elapsed time in seconds between the question appearing on the screen
and the time that the “Next” button was clicked to advance to the next screen.
If the respondent clicked “Next” without answering and received the item nonresponse
prompt (asking the respondent to please answer the question), then the recorded time
reflects the time that “Next” was clicked a second time to actually move on to the next
question.
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