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Glossary

Wave

A wave is a round of data collection in a particular longitudinal survey (for example, the age 7 wave of the National Child Development Study refers to the data collection that took place in 1965 when the participants were aged 7). Note that the term sweep often has the same meaning.

Source: Closer Learning Hub (Panel studies).

Wearable devices

Body-worn computers connected to the internet, such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart rings, and smart glasses. They monitor health metrics, display notifications, and facilitate touchless interactions using AI.

Web scraping

An automated method of collecting large amounts of data from websites using software called web scrapers, which analyse HTML code to convert unstructured web content into structured data formats such as JSON, CSV, or SQL.

Weighting

Weighting is a statistical adjustment made to survey data to improve accuracy of survey estimates. Weighting can correct for unequal probabilities of selection and survey non-response.

Source: SAGE Research Methods.

Wide-format data

In wide format data, each subject’s responses are listed in a single row, with different variables spread across multiple columns. Longitudinal data in wide format would contain one row of information per person, and measurements of the same variable at different time points would be contained in different variables. Contrast with Long-format data.