Harmonized U.S. Natality and Linked Infant Death Microdata, 1990-2024

v2.7.0 (this release) combines the v2.6 schema upgrade and v2.7 pre-release audit fixes since the v2.5.0 deposit. A harmonized dataset of 138,819,655 U.S. birth records (1990-2024) and 74,943,824 linked birth-infant death records (2005-2023), derived from NCHS public-use natality files. The pipeline resolves five fixed-width record layouts, two birth-certificate revisions, and dozens of field-name and coding changes into a single stable schema with explicit cross-year comparability documentation. Schema: V2 natality is 71 harmonized + 13 derived = 84 columns. V3 linked is 78 harmonized + 16 derived = 94 columns (V2 plus 7 death-side harmonized + 3 derived). Validation: 183 of 183 V2 NVSR external targets pass; 35 of 35 V3 linked user-guide targets pass; 41 of 41 internal invariants pass on V2 (V3 linked: 38 pass clean, 1 within a documented 2-row exception budget, 3 V2-only invariants skipped per documented file-format differences). What changed since v2.5.0: v2.6 (schema upgrade): Schema grew from 82 to 84 columns (V2) and 92 to 94 columns (V3) with two new variables (father_age_cat_from_rec11 and maternal_race_detail_15cat). Field-position fixes restored about 14 million previously-null cells (2004 ATTEND read from byte 408 instead of 410; 2013 FAGECOMB at bytes 182-183 and RF_CESAR at byte 324). 2016 onward, diabetes and hypertension now derive from RF_PDIAB/RF_GDIAB instead of the stale URF tail block. 2016 onward, the linked-cohort merge uses the composite (CO_SEQNUM, CO_YOD) key per NCHS guide. v2.7 (audit fixes): Documentation drift corrected across paper drafts and schema CSV, including per-era field counts (37/35/36/43/75), invariant counts (41), 1990-2002 smokers-with-unknown-intensity (428,755), and URF/RF fallback year (2016+). Three new V3 caveats added to the schema: maternal_race_bridged4 coverage ends 2019 (NCHS dropped the MBRACE field in 2020+); V3 payment_source_recode and father_education_cat4 are 100% NULL in 2009-2010 because the LinkCO09 and LinkCO10 zips ship with those bytes blank (verified by raw-byte probe). Validator V3 mode-detection hardened to require both infant_death and record_weight; output filenames now carry v2 / v3_linked mode tags. Convenience writer Kleene-trap fixed and PROVENANCE preservation logic added. Harmonizer --years defaults restored to full ranges. Data integrity: parquet row content is byte-identical between v2.5.0 and v2.7.0 for the columns v2.5.0 already had; v2.7.0 adds the v2.6 columns and restored cells. Verify against SHA-256 checksums in PROVENANCE.md. Reading order for new researchers: README.md, then GETTING_STARTED.md, CODEBOOK.md, COMPARABILITY.md, VALIDATION.md, and FAQ.md. The quickstart.ipynb notebook has working examples. REPRODUCING.md explains how to rebuild from raw NCHS source files using the open-source pipeline at https://github.com/yoelplutchok/natality-harmonization Note on file-internal DOI references: Some files inside this deposit (README.md, REPRODUCING.md, FAQ.md, ABOUT_THIS_RELEASE.md, quickstart.ipynb, requirements.txt) contain links written as 10.5281/zenodo.19363075 — that is v2.5.0's version-specific DOI, not the concept DOI. The correct concept DOI for "always the latest version of this dataset" is 10.5281/zenodo.19363074. The GitHub repository (https://github.com/yoelplutchok/natality-harmonization) and the v2.7.0 release notes (https://github.com/yoelplutchok/natality-harmonization/releases/tag/v2.7.0) cite the correct concept DOI. This documentation inconsistency will be corrected in the next release.本版本v2.7.0整合了自v2.5.0版本存档以来的v2.6模式升级与v2.7预发布版审核修复内容。 本数据集为经过统一规范的数据集，包含138,819,655条1990年至2024年的美国出生记录，以及74,943,824条2005年至2023年的关联出生-婴儿死亡记录，数据源自美国国家卫生统计中心（National Center for Health Statistics, NCHS）的公共使用出生记录文件。本数据处理流水线将5种固定宽度记录格式、2版出生证明修订案以及数十项字段名与编码变更整合为单一稳定的模式，并附带明确的跨年度可比性说明文档。 数据模式：V2版出生记录数据模式包含71个统一字段与13个衍生字段，总计84列；V3版关联记录数据模式包含78个统一字段与16个衍生字段，总计94列（在V2版基础上新增7个死亡端统一字段与3个衍生字段）。 验证：V2版的183项NVSR外部验证目标全部通过；V3版关联记录的35项用户指南验证目标全部通过；V2版的41项内部不变量验证全部通过（V3版关联记录中，38项完全通过，1项符合已文档化的2行异常预算，另有3项仅V2版的不变量因已文档化的文件格式差异被跳过）。 自v2.5.0版本以来的变更内容： v2.6版本（模式升级）：V2版数据模式从82列扩展至84列，V3版从92列扩展至94列，新增2个变量（father_age_cat_from_rec11与maternal_race_detail_15cat）。字段位置修复恢复了约1400万条此前为空的单元格数据（2004年ATTEND字段从第408字节而非第410字节读取；2013年FAGECOMB字段对应字节为182-183，RF_CESAR字段对应字节为324）。2016年起，糖尿病与高血压相关字段现基于RF_PDIAB/RF_GDIAB生成，而非过时的URF尾部块。2016年起，关联队列合并采用符合NCHS指南的复合键（CO_SEQNUM, CO_YOD）。 v2.7版本（审核修复）：修正了稿件草稿与数据模式CSV文件间的文档不一致问题，涵盖各时期字段计数（37/35/36/43/75）、不变量计数（41）、1990-2002年强度未知的吸烟人数（428,755）以及URF/RF回退年份（2016年及以后）。在数据模式中新增3项V3版注意事项：maternal_race_bridged4字段的覆盖范围至2019年结束（NCHS于2020年及以后移除了MBRACE字段）；2009-2010年期间，V3版payment_source_recode与father_education_cat4字段完全为空，因LinkCO09和LinkCO10压缩包中对应字节为空白（经原始字节探测验证）。强化了验证器的V3模式检测逻辑，要求同时包含infant_death与record_weight字段；输出文件名现已附带v2 / v3_linked模式标签。修复了便捷写入器的Kleene-trap问题，并新增了数据溯源（PROVENANCE）保留逻辑。恢复了数据统一处理器的--years参数默认值为完整范围。 数据完整性：对于v2.5.0版本已包含的字段，v2.5.0与v2.7.0版本的Parquet行内容字节完全一致；v2.7.0版本新增了v2.6版本的字段并恢复了缺失单元格数据。可通过PROVENANCE.md中的SHA-256校验和进行验证。 新手研究者阅读顺序：先阅读README.md，依次为GETTING_STARTED.md、CODEBOOK.md、COMPARABILITY.md、VALIDATION.md与FAQ.md。quickstart.ipynb笔记本包含可运行的示例代码。REPRODUCING.md说明了如何使用开源数据处理流水线，从原始NCHS源文件重建数据集，流水线仓库地址为https://github.com/yoelplutchok/natality-harmonization 文件内部DOI引用说明：本存档中的部分文件（README.md、REPRODUCING.md、FAQ.md、ABOUT_THIS_RELEASE.md、quickstart.ipynb与requirements.txt）包含指向10.5281/zenodo.19363075的链接，该链接指向v2.5.0版本的专属DOI，而非概念DOI。指向“本数据集的最新版本”的正确概念DOI为10.5281/zenodo.19363074。GitHub仓库（https://github.com/yoelplutchok/natality-harmonization）与v2.7.0版本发布说明（https://github.com/yoelplutchok/natality-harmonization/releases/tag/v2.7.0）均引用了正确的概念DOI。该文档不一致问题将在下一版本中得到修正。