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This document lists a few of the differences between the ANES 2002
Advance Release (distributed February 28, 2003) and the ANES 2002 Full
Release (distributed May 21, 2003). The list is not comprehensive,
however, as there were numerous changes, corrections, and additions
made during the Full Release processing that are not detailed below.
NES Advance Releases are intended to be very timely, and so lack much of
the processing, documentation, and variables that are usual to the Full
Release of a dataset. Thus, it is recommended that users who worked
with the Advance Release File check their results against the Full
Release file now that it is available.
When using the Full Release file, please keep in mind that the Advance
Release products - codebook, data, data descriptor files, and otherwise -
are not compatible for use with the Full Release. Furthermore, previous
setups and programs prepared while analyzing the Advance Release file
will require updating prior to applying them to the Full Release file.
The Full Release contains variables which were not in the
Advance Release, and column locations are different between the two
files. Additionally, variables are not named the same way in the
Full Release as the Advance Release. To be able to distinguish
between Advance Release variables and Full Release variables in
derivative files, Advance Release variable names begin with the
letter "A", while Full Release variable names begin with the
letter "V". In rare instances, there are also slight changes in code
values between the Advance and Full Release, even within the
same variable.
A limited amount of contextual data was available as part of the
Advance Release. However, this data is not present in the Full Release,
as it will instead be delivered in the future as a
supplemental file. The supplemental file will contain additional contextual variables
beyond those that were present in the Advance Release. When the
supplemental file is available, an announcement will be placed on the
ANES website and also sent out to the
ANES mailing list.
Weight variables were not present in the Advance Release, but
are available in the Full Release file. Users are advised to become
familiar with the weight variables, and apply them as appropriate
to their analyses to correct for non-response and other sampling
issues.
There were 1513 pre-election interviews and and 1347 post-election
interviews present in the Advance Release. During processing of the
Full Release, it was discovered that in two Panel cases the incorrect
respondent was interviewed. Those cases were dropped, resulting in
two less pre-election interviews and one less post-election interview.
Thus, there are 1511 pre-election interviews and 1346 post-election
interviews present in the Full Release.
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