This guide is intended to introduce you to the Beyond 20/20 Web Data Server interface by carrying out a simple and hopefully typical research task using the OECD STructural ANalysis (STAN) dataset.

Visualise and download data on employment shares in finance, insurance, real estate and business services between 1990-2003, for a select group of European countries.

It is divided into three stages:

1. Finding and selecting the data
2. Visualising the data
3. Downloading the data

Approx. time to complete: 20 minutes.

An A4 worksheet version of this task can be printed in pdf format.

For help, please contact the ESDS International team.

Stage i) Finding and selecting the data

Choose OECD data from the 'Direct Links to data' drop down list on the ESDS International website, or via the following url - http://esds.mcc.ac.uk/wds_oecd to access the OECD STAN data.

Input UK HE/FE institutional username and password in the login window. If you do not have a UK HE/FE institutional id, please visit the login help pages within the Access and Preservation section of ESDS.

If you have not already registered with the ESDS you will then be automatically redirected to complete an online registration after which you will need to agree to the OECD special conditions prior to being able to access the data using only your UK HE/FE institutional username and password.

On entering the Beyond 20/20 Web Data Server site for the OECD data you should see a list of OECD datasets.

 

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Expand the STAN (STructural Analysis) folder to display six OECD STAN tables – two volumes of Research and Development Expenditure in Industry, Bilateral Trade, STAN Indicators, and two volumes of the database for Industrial Analysis.

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Click on OECD STAN Indicators database, and you will be taken directly to the default view.

At the top of the screen you will see three tabs:

• Reports: returns to list OECD datasets.
• Table: displays the tabular view of the selected data (current view).
• Chart: displays the diagrammatic view of the selected data.

Below these tabs you will see the table’s available dimensions. The dimensions in OECD STAN Indicators table are as follows:

Columns: Time Period
Rows: Industry
Others: Country, Variable

Use the 'i' icon to view further information about the dimension.

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Select the 'Country' dimension by using the 'Select Items to View' icon . A list of countries should appear. Deselect all by using the 'Clear all' tool . Using the search box, search for 'Italy' and press enter. By placing a tick in the appropriate tick box, select Italy. Do the same for the following countries: Greece, Portugal and Spain.

Move onto next dimension 'Time Period' by clicking ‘Time Period’ under the 'Columns' heading.

Use the 'Clear all' tool to deselect all. Use the 'Select Range' tool at the top of the screen by placing a tick in the appropriate tick box.

Click first the 1990 check box and then scroll down to select the 2003 check box - giving you a fourteen year range from 1990-2003.

Select the 'Variable' dimension by either using the 'Select items to View' icon or by clicking on the variable dimension name. Deslect all by using the 'Clear All' tool. Using the search box, search for 'Employment Share'.

You should get two matches: Employment shares in the total economy (EMPSH) and Employment shares in total manufacturing (EMPSHM). Select Employment shares in the total economy (EMPSH) by placing a tick in the appropriate tick box.

Select the 'Industry' dimension and deselect all. Again, use the search box to search for finance. This search should return the industry 'finance, insurance, real estate and business services'. Select this.

Note: There is a new profile function in Beyond 20/20. Profiles enable you to save your selections from each dimension (for example, country or series) of the database. When you return to the database you can re-activate your previously saved profiles. Selections in each dimension are saved individually so you can save selections in as many or few dimensions are you want.

For example, say you wish to select data for a number of countries. Once you have selected your countries you can then save this selection as a named profile by clicking on the profile icon then choosing 'Save current selections as a profile' option: Beyond 20/20 will then remember the countries you have selected and store this selection as a named profile for you to use in future sessions. The procedure can be repeated for any other dimension of the database.

Each time you log on, Beyond 20/20 will recognize who you are and can retrieve your previously saved selections for that database. This means that the next time you wish to run the same query you can click on the profile icon then select 'Activate profile' to reopen your saved selections. The profiles will be saved until you choose to delete them.

Use the 'Set Dimension Order' tool to order the dimensions as shown below. Select a dimension with a click of the mouse and use the arrows to move it to the appropriate area. Select 'Apply' to set the dimension order.

You can also go back to the main table view by using your browser's back button or pressing cancel.

Note: You can also switch dimensions by clicking on and dragging the dimension name to the appropriate area.

You have now completed the Finding and Selecting data stage and can move on to visualising your data.

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Stage ii) Visualising the data

There are two ways of visualising data in Beyond 20/20 WDS - in chart or table format.

View the report in table format by using the 'Show Table' tool at the top of the screen. In the table which appears, the dimensions are set according to the dimensions specified in the Set Dimensions Order stage.

In the 1990-1994 data cells for Greece you will see the following: - . This indicates that there is a footnote available. If you hover your mouse over the cell, the footnote text will appear saying 'Default missing data'.

Rearrange the format of the table by dragging and dropping the dimension headings. To do this, hover your mouse over, for example, the 'Time Period' dimension heading until your cursor changes into a four pointed arrow. Left click to drag the dimension heading over the 'Country' dimension and drop.

This will result in the reformatting of the table so that the 'Time Period' is shown as rows and the 'Country' dimension is shown as columns.

Swap the dimensions back again by dragging and dropping the 'Country' dimension over the 'Time Period' dimension.

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View the report in chart format by clicking the 'Chart' tab at the top of the screen.

In the example screen shot below, the line chart shows employment shares in Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, and Business Services for Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy in chart format.

Use the 'Chart Types' icon to change chart type and the 'View printable version' icon to print the chart.

To save the chart image, use Alt + Print Screen and paste into a paint program as right clicking to 'Save picture as' only saves the chart itself and not the chart key or heading.

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Stage iii) Downloading the data

Return to the 'Table' tab to download the data to your pc. Manipulate the table into desired format using the dimension headers as the table layout and contents are downloaded exactly as they appear on screen.

Use the 'Download' icon and select your desired download format.

The rest of the process is the same as downloading any file from the web.

Once you have downloaded the data, you can see information on how to cite the data towards the top of the file.

Congratulations you have successfully completed the OECD STAN tutorial - now you are ready to do some serious work with your downloaded data!

Please see the OECD STAN dataset user guide for further information on the contents of the database.

If you would like to move to another database you can select the 'Quick links to macro data' drop down box at the top of the page then select the database you require.

Tested on Netscape 7 and Internet Explorer 7

Note: All Beyond 20/20 images used on this page are Copyright © Beyond 20/20 Inc. All rights reserved.

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