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Social Science Data Services

Social Science Data Services provides data, software and software training to support research and instruction in those social sciences that require analysis of quantitative or qualitative data.

Sources of Data:

  • ICPSR:  the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, established in 1962, is the world’s largest archive of social and behavioral science datasets, with more than 500,000 files from 9600 studies.  ICPSR hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.  NU-affiliated faculty, staff and students have access to these datasets for analysis and teaching.  ICPSR also provides an annual Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research, as well as support for data management planning required by many federal funding agencies and data archiving.
  • Roper Center for Public Opinion Research: The Roper Center provides access to public opinion survey data collected 1930’s to present.  Opinion data from more than 50 countries is available.  Access is limited to NU-affiliated users.

These and many more resources are linked to our data user guides:

Northwestern faculty, students, and staff seeking assistance identifying data pertinent to their research available from these subscription data sources, data available from the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, other federal agencies, international organizations, or other sources, contact datalibrarian@northwestern.edu.