Summarization (redirected from summarize)

Summarization 

(Russian, svodka), in statistics, the scientific processing of the raw data statistical agencies receive in the form of reports from socialist enterprises (seeREPORTING) and as a result of statistical surveys. The principal method used in summarization is grouping. The results of the summarization are presented in statistical tables. Summarization permits the systematization and generalization of information on all the units of observation considered. In addition, summarization makes it possible to obtain the composite indexes that are needed in planning and managing the national economy.

In Soviet statistics, the principles of Marxist-Leninist theory provide the scientific basis for summarization. V. I. Lenin called attention several times to the importance and complexity of the question of the methods used to summarize raw data (see Razvitie kapitalizma v Rossii [The Development of Capitalism in Russia], in Poln. sobr. sock, 5th ed., vol. 3, pp. 119, 120, and 140; “Kapitalisticheskii stroi sovremennogo zemledeliia” [The Capitalist System of Modern Agriculture], ibid., vol. 19, p. 326; and Novye dannye o zakonakh razvitiia kapitalizma v zemledelii [New Data on the Laws Governing the Development of Capitalism in Agriculture], ibid., vol. 27, pp. 182 and 190).

The bulk of the raw data is summarized at the computer stations and computer centers of the Central Statistical Board of the USSR. The organization of the summarization of statistical data will enter a qualitatively new stage with the creation of a national automated system for the collection and processing of information used in accounting, planning, and management in the national economy. A major functional link in this system will be an automated system of state statistics (see Materialy XXIV s”ezda KPSS [Materials of the Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU], 1972, p. 298).

M. A. KLUSHANTSEVA