Every two years, the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) Research Conference gathers experts from the U.S. and around the world to discuss current research on statistical and methodological issues relevant to federal statistics.   The most recent conference was held in Washington, D.C., in January.

This year’s event featured a record 38 sessions. Census Bureau researchers participated in 26 of the 38 sessions, authoring a total of 44 research papers on a wide range of topics.

Several presentations highlighted Census Bureau research on the use and quality of administrative records in various programs. Census researcher Amy O’Hara presented preliminary results from the 2010 Census Simulation study, which compared results from the 2010 Census with a simulated population count employing administrative records from several sources.  Other presentations examined use of administrative records for the Annual Social and Demographic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and state prison records studies.

The conference program also included two paradata sessions. Census researchers Barbara O’Hare and Matthew Jans described Census Bureau efforts to develop paradata-based management applications that can inform decisions while cases are still  in the field.  They discussed the operational and analytical challenges and shared lessons learned in the use of real-time paradata in a large-scale computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) survey.  Other Census Bureau presenters discussed the use of  control charts techniques to monitor and improve processes, and the creation of dashboards to monitor response rates.

The multi-day event culminated with sessions on Bayesian statistical methods, the linking and quality of administrative records data, and detecting and correcting nonresponse error and bias.

Visit the FCSM website to view a full listing of conference papers (including Census Bureau-authored papers): <//www.fcsm.gov/events/2012%20FCSM%20Final%20Program.pdf>.