10. Generating the survey documentation in PDFΒΆ

Once you are confident that all necessary checks have been completed, you may generate the survey documentation in PDF. The Metadata Editor includes a useful tool for producing a PDF document summarizing all metadata entered in the Editor (see Documentation > PDF Documentation). Generating this report is one of the final stages of properly preparing a survey for publication and dissemination. If previous versions exist and changes have been made to the data files or the metadata make sure you re-run the PDF generator.

This report should be generated, saved and attached as an External Resource.

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The PDF report will include a list of all external resources related to the study. This list should include this PDF report itself. Before you generate it, make sure you create one entry in the External Resources for documenting this report. Immediately after you generate the PDF report, import it in the Editor.

One thing to keep in mind is that in a survey with a large number of variables may produce a document that is very long. If the report is in excess of 300 or 350 pages, you may want to split this report (e.g., produce one report with the study metadata, and one with the files and variables metadata), or change the content options (e.g., not including a frequency table for all variables).

If your agency has a website, you may upload this PDF directly to the web server. The IHSN recommends the use of a proper DDI-compliant cataloguing system, such as the one provided by its National Data Archive (NADA) application. NADA is an open source package, available free of charge at www.surveynetwork.org.