ICPSR - InterUniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research
Established in 1962 at the University of Michigan in ANn Arbor, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a membership-based organization providing access to the world's largest archive of computer-based research and instructional data for the social sciences. ICPSR further serves social scientists around the world by offering training facilities in basic and advanced techniques of quantitative social analysis and other resources that facilitate secondary analysis. ICPSR includes among its members over 500 colleges and universities from around the world. Member institutions pay annual dues that entitle faculty, staff, and students to acquire the full range of service.
The data archive includes a broad range of disciplines, including political science, sociology, demography, economics, history, education, gerontology, criminal justice, public health, foreign policy, and law. See the Data Use Tutorialfor help in getting started.
The data archive is searchable as well as browseable by subject (See FAQ for hints). Once you locate a study of interest, click on the description link to see details, including: study number, principal investigator, summary, subjects, geographic coverage, time period, date(s) of oollection, unit of observation, universe, data type, methodoology, extent of collection , and restrictions (if any).
Click on the Download tab to save the files of this study. You see this message:
Authorized Download - Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
"As a student, faculty or staff member at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, you are authorized to access the data resources of ICPSR. The study you have requested is the property of ICPSR's member institutions. By downloading the data, you signify that you agree not to share the data with anyone other than faculty members, students, or staff of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. You further agree to the terms of use specified in ICPSR's Responsible Use Statement."
You must have a MyData account in order to proceed further. New users will be asked to enter name, email adress, affiliation, department/unit, and downloads preference ( SAS, SPSS, Stata) and to choose a password. Returning users will authenticate usng their previously created MyData email address and password.
Now you are ready to download.
Step 1. Select available data formats(documentation files are automatically included)
Step 2. Select datasets
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Your files will be saved as a zipped file and will have to be unzipped before you can access them.
The local Virginia Tech Official Representative iis Dave Beagle (located in room 3045 Newman Library; 540-231-9231).
Portions of the ICPSR collection are freely available to all users, including persons unaffiliated with a member institution. Most of the studies in the ICPSR archive are restricted, however, to faculty, staff, and students at member institutions.
Special Topics Archives
- Census 2000 at ICPSR
- Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (CCEERC)
- Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS)
- Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR)
- Election 2000 at ICPSR
- General Social Survey Data and Retrieval Information Systems (GSSDIRS)
- Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA)
- Homicide Research Working Group (HRWG)
- International Archive of Education Data (IAED)
- National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA)
- National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)
- Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)
- Site for Instructional Materials and Information (SIMI)
- Substance Abuse & Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA)
Bibliography of Data-Related Literature
A searchable database that contains over 37,000 citations of known published and unpublished works resulting from analyses of data held in the ICPSR archive The purpose of this project is to facilitate the use of the ICPSR holdings by providing a means to investigate previous research based on ICPSR data. Instructors often direct students to begin data-related research projects by reading some of the major works based on the data. Advanced researchers also find reading the existing literature to be an effective way to begin using a dataset.
