Wolfgram Subject Guides: Database Tutorials: ICPSR

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Work Hours: M-F: 9:00am-5:00pm;
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Subjects: Archives and Distinctive Collections, Chester, PA, History, Humanities, Law, Public Policy, Social Justice, Social Work, World History

ICPSR: The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research

Mission

ICPSR advances and expands social and behavioral research, acting as a global leader in data stewardship and providing rich data resources and responsive educational opportunities for present and future generations.

This consortium provides an archive of data sets for analysis in the social and behavioral sciences. Studies cover a wide range of disciplines, including education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, health care, economics and political science. Data collections consist of raw, unanalyzed data files, and codebooks. ICPSR data sets can be downloaded directly to a user's computer for use with statistical software such as SPSS or SAS.

One of the world’s oldest and largest social science data archives, includes:

10,500+ studies
77,000+ datasets
75,000+ data-related publications in a bibliography

Researchers can archive their data with ICPSR for free! Deposit Digital Data.

To Access

Access to ICPSR is limited to current students, faculty and staff at Widener University.

Navigate to ICPSR

Library Home Page ► A to Z Database List ►ICPSR

Child & Family Data Archive Launched in 2019, the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData) preserves and disseminates data on topics related to young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them.
CivicLEADS CivicLEADS provides a centralized repository for this multi-disciplinary research area, with data being created across education, political science, developmental sciences, and other disciplines. Researchers can access quantitative and qualitative data on a broad range of topics for secondary analysis as well as sharing their own primary research data. CivicLEADS includes datasets from other ICPSR archives and seeks out emerging data collected by studies still in the field.
Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) aims to serve the demographic community by archiving, preserving, and disseminating data relevant for population studies.
Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA) The data collections in HMCA include large-scale surveys of the American public about public health, attitudes towards health reform, and access to medical care; surveys of health care professionals and organizations, public health professionals, and nurses; evaluations of innovative programs for the delivery of health care.
National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP) The National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program acquires, preserves and disseminates data relevant to drug addiction and HIV research. The scope of the data housed at NAHDAP covers a wide range of legal and illicit drugs (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, synthetic drugs, and others) and the trajectories, patterns, and consequences of drug use as well as related predictors and outcomes.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) archives and disseminates data on crime and justice for secondary analysis. The archive contains data from over 2,700 curated studies or statistical data series.
National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture (NADAC) The National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture (NADAC) is a repository that facilitates research on arts and culture by acquiring data, particularly those funded by federal agencies and other organizations, and sharing those data with researchers, policymakers, people in the arts and culture field, and the general public.
Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) The mission for the Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) is to provide educators, researchers, and students with data resources so that they can produce analysis of issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States.
US Census Bureau Data Repository The United States Census Bureau Data Repository preserves and disseminates survey instruments, specifications, data dictionaries, codebooks, and other materials provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.

These resources were created especially for undergraduate faculty and students. They make it easy for instructors to set up data-driven learning experiences.

Data Instruction for Teachers
Includes links to YouTube Videos about Data Instruction for Undergraduates
Data Driven Learning Guides
These exercises introduce key concepts in the social sciences that guide students through a series of questions and related data analyses.
ICPSR YouTube Channel
Features Instructional Videos and Webinars on all aspects of ICPSR.
Data Related Publications
Features citations of works using data held in the ICPSR archive, including journal articles, books and government and agency reports.

Additional Learning Opportunities

Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research
Research Paper Competition

The ICPSR Summer Program in 2022 and beyond The ICPSR Summer Program has undergone a lot of changes in the past few years, and 2022 was no different. It was our first ever hybrid program; most of our short workshops ended up online, and all of our 4-week workshops were in-person and online. We're thankful to everyone who joined us for another summer of training in statistics and data analysis!

The ICPSR Research Competition is an annual event open to undergraduate and graduate students and recent graduates. The competition seeks to highlight exemplary student research papers based on quantitative analysis of ICPSR data. Each of the four competition categories addresses a particular research topic and has specific eligibility requirements for entry. Awards include cash prizes and publication in the ICPSR Bulletin for first-place winners and on the ICPSR website for all winners.

2023 ICPSR Research Paper Competitions (Undergraduate & Master's categories)

For papers on any topic using data from the ICPSR General Archive or Thematic Collections.

Awards: $1,000 for first place, $750 for second place. There are separate undergraduate and master's prizes for this competition.

Eligibility:

Entrants must be current master’s or undergraduate students, or recent graduates who graduated on or after April 1, 2022. (Students who graduated before April 1, 2022, are not eligible.)
Entrants must be from ICPSR member institutions.
Entrants may be from the US or outside the US.

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2023 - Submit Form

ICPSR 2023 Research Paper Competition Flyer

New and Updated Data Releases

How to Search ICPSR

You must create a MyData Account in order to:

Download data sets and use online analysis tools
Generate utilization reports and download statistics
Access your past searches and downloads

To create an account: Select Login and under New User? click Create an Account. Complete the form using your Widener email address and a password that you can remember! Create Account symbol

Finding Data Sets:

Select Find Data
- Search Using Keywords, use the Thesaurus to find specific Social Science Terminology: Ex: eyewitness returns 154 studies
- Search the Variables tab in your results to get more specific data:
  - Searching for eyewitness returns 154 studies and 504 variables.
  - Searching for eyewitness reliability returns 85 variables and 4 variables (these include studies that have both these concepts included:)
    - Variables Results
      - 21. EYEWITNESS RELIABLE
      - 23. PHYSICAL VS. EYEWITNESS
      - 24. EYEWITNESS VS. PHYSICAL
      - 22. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE RELIABLE
- Browse by Thematic Collections, Geography, Series Data, Study, or Topic.

Topics Include:

Image of the United States

Census Enumerations

cartoon Image of people with signs

Mass Political Behavior
and Attitudes

Social Institutions
and Behavior

image of people tugging a rope

Conflict, Aggression,
Violence, Wars

cartoon image of book with international buildings

Community and
Urban Studies

Cartoon image of blue and red arrows

Economic Behavior and
Attitudes

Cartoon image representing education

Education

Cartoon image of hospital

Health Care and Facilities

Cartoon image of White House

Legislative and
Deliberative Bodies

Cartoon image representing external data resources

External Data
Resources

Select the Data-Related Publications tab after you select a study to obtain full-text articles, books and other resources that used that data set.
- Keywords: Eyewitness Reliability
- Study: National Survey of Eyewitness Identification Procedure in Law Enforcement Agencies, 1994-2012
- Data-Related Publication: Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) A National Survey of Eyewitness Identification Procedures in Law Enforcement Agencies. NCJ 242617, Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.

Steps for downloading data:

Login to your ICPSR account
Select the Data and Documentation Tab.
Choose the dataset(s) in the study that you want.
Look at the notes to ensure the data is not restricted.
Select your desired data format (SPSS, SAS, etc.)
Once you select Download, the Terms of Use document will appear.
Before selecting Agree, read this document to ensure that the study and terms of use meet your needs.
After you click on agree, the datasets will be downloaded into a .zip file.
The tutorial below describes how to move the Zip file into SPSS.

Reading Data into SPSS