There is a growing trend to make public-use data of all kinds directly available to consumers of those data without the need for skilled, technologically-proficient programmers to deliver reports. This project will produce a fast, user-friendly, web-based query and reporting service for three of the most widely cited drug abuse datasets: the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM, formerly Drug Use Forecasting or DUF), the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, formerly National Household Survey on Drug Abuse or NHSDA), and Monitoring the Future (MTF). User-friendly features will be provided, such as pull-down menus, a convenient variable naming convention, and point-and-click variable selection. Phase I of the project will involve preparing the ADAM data and piloting the development of a state-of-the-art internet site. Phase II will involve preparing the NHSDUH and MTF data sets and the addition of features and refinements to the web interface. The proposed product will substantially lower the difficulty of accessing these data by 1) combining all years of these surveys into integrated data sets, 2) renaming variables uniformly across years, 3) re-coding to remove skip logic in the original questionnaire, 4) providing important variable transformations which have appeared in published analyses, 5) providing a support system for relatively inexperienced or non-technical users, as well as advanced analysts, to conduct efficient online analyses of these data sets, 6) generating pop-up table notes, which will also appear in all relevant printed reports, that document changes in the survey; 7) producing standard analytic reports and charts, and 8) creating lists of bibliographic citations addressing the methodological issues relevant to a given data set. These novel features will allow users to more easily complete and correctly interpret their analyses. This product will be of interest to and likely to be purchased by police and other criminal justice administrators, public health officials, Federal, state and local government officials, policy analysts, substance abuse researchers, and graduate programs in criminal justice, sociology, and psychology that specialize in substance abuse and related issues.
