Library Briefings

Better access to social science data

SSDS, ICPSR, and Roper enhance web sites

Three of the most frequently used social science data service organizations have recently made it easier for researchers to access their micro data.

•SSDS: Over the summer, the web site was redesigned in terms of content and process. The left-hand navigational bar on the main SSDS web page was revised to include a link to a subject page of selected sources of data and links to the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and the Roper Center for Public Opinion, two primary sources of data files. This navigation bar is on all the pages of the SSDS site so that users are able to get to these data sources quickly. In addition, on the SSDS Subject page is a list of topics that represent individual web pages of selected data sources of downloadable micro data. There is a list of Frequently Used Data and 16 topical areas, such as art and culture, crime, demography, economics, education, physical and mental health, race and ethnicity, and sexuality. In addition, there is a list of sources of international data as well as other subject guides for data available on the Internet or in other academic archives. These subject pages are updated on a regular basis and new data sources are added as they are identified. The collection of international data is a particular focus of attention as the data collection is currently weak in that area.

•ICPSR: maintains and provides access to thousands of social science datasets for research. Over the last few years, ICPSR has been diligent in working to provide the capability to download data files in all three primary statistical formats (SPSS, Stata, and SAS) and most data files are available that way. In addition to making direct download easier and faster, ICPSR has provided increased ability to do some preliminary analysis of some data files online. While this is a relatively new feature, more and more data files are added with the capacity for online analysis built in. ICPSR also contains many tutorials for data management and provides a thesaurus and variable list to aid in searching for data. There also is a topical archive that may be of interest and a growing bibliography of related literature of studies that have used data from the ICPSR archive.

•Roper Center: maintains the most complete collection of public opinion information in the world and data can be downloaded by topic, by question, or by dataset. A particular strength of the Roper archive is the public opinion data from Japan and from various countries in Latin America. Roper has a “Topics at a Glance” feature that gives users rapid access to a listing of related subtopics, possible datasets, and even related literature. This packaging of data by topic is particularly useful for students just beginning their research or for journalists looking for information to back up a story. The newly revised Roper site has added a data analysis feature and although very few data files are formatted with this capacity, the goal is to provide more access to online analysis over time.

Students, faculty and staff have access to ICPSR and Roper by virtue of the annual memberships maintained by SSDS. Any questions about data services or suggestions for additions to the SSDS data website are welcome.

Kathleen Murphy
Data Services Librarian
kemurphy@northwestern.edu
847-491-4090