Guide to the document types

Here you can find out more about the different types of documents we publish on our website for each of our studies.

User guides

These are guides we’ve produced to help researchers use our data. They include information about the measures which were included, response rates achieved and datasets which are available.

Data documentation

This includes:

• Data notes: reports providing an in-depth description of some features of the study data.
• Coding frames: guidance on the way in which open answers to questions were coded by the survey agency.
• Derived variables: guides to the derivation of variables.

Questionnaires

These are full versions of the questionnaires or other data collection instruments completed by cohort members. Variable names are included next to their corresponding questions.

Survey documentation

These are all documents associated with the data collection questionnaires and other data collection instruments. They include:

• Technical reports: reports on the design, development and fielding of surveys. These describe the target sample, procedure, response rate and other important aspects of the data collection procedure.
• Showcards: these are given to cohort participants, for example to show the types of physical activities which constitute exercise, or income categories.
• Ethical review and consent: details of the ethical background at data collection.
• Laboratory procedures: procedures used to process biological samples collected (eg, blood, saliva, tooth samples).
• Interviewer instructions