As mentioned over here, I’m proposing shorter text for the nine census questions. Here’s the 8th suggestion
Question 8: Is the data provided on a timely and up to date basis?
Current:
This means if the data is relevant to the year/time it is suppose to represent? Click “Show more” to learn about how to find information for this question. For instance, if the latest national budget made available is from 2010, then it is not up-to-date. However, not all datasets need to be updated in the same frequencies. Transportation data can be updated on a daily basis while postal codes might not change for many years. Refere to the tutorial if you are having difficulties to decide the best time option for this dataset. How to find when the data was published?
- If the dataset was found on a government portal, there will most often be a timestamp attached to it. - If the data was on the a government site, sometimes the date will be written next to the dataset link or in the news section.
- Sometimes the date stamp is in the dataset itself. For example, a tab that is named after the date it suppose to represent (you can also try to download the data and see the creation date of the file, although that might not represent the right date - use your judgement and again, leave good comments about your assessment).
- Lastly, sometimes there are no timestamps at all. In that case,it might be most fair to mark it not timely or up-to-date
Proposed:
Is the data current for the census year? You can determine or estimate when the data was last updated and its update frequency by reviewing:
- the metadata displayed for the data in an open data portal or web page
- the dataset title or filename e.g. Budget 2013-14 or Election_4July2015.csv
- metadata tags embedded in the web page that contains the data
- date values within the data to find the most recent date value
- the timestamp on the data file (although this may not be accurate)
Some data is not updated on a regular basis. e.g. Pollutant emissions may be updated daily while postal codes may not change for many years. You may need to use your judgement to determine if the data is timely and up to date. Document your rationale in the assessment comments.
If you cannot determine a date, answer, “No” i.e. the data is not timely or up-to-date.
I left out the reference to the the tutorial as it’s focused on the Global Index but I believe this help text spans Local and Regional census.