ICPSR

About the ICPSR

Through the Department of Sociology, The University of Iowa maintains membership in the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), which is operated by the University of Michigan. This membership enables members of the University community to obtain a vast array of data for secondary data analysis regarding economic, education, health, international, legal, legislative, political, and other areas of social research.

Who to contact

Ben Earnhart is our Official Representative for the ICPSR at the University of Iowa. He may be contacted by e-mail (benjamin-earnhart@uiowa.edu) or by phone at 319-335-2887.

How to get data

Begin by browsing the ICPSR website to determine what data are of interest to you. Data are organized into topic areas. Also, the ICPSR site allows you to search the data by keywords. You can contact us at this stage and we will be happy to help, but browsing the holdings is generally the most efficient way to find the data you seek.

Next, look at the codebooks to see if the data really are suitable for your purposes. Codebooks are always available to the public, and most are available for download. Many of the datasets are also available for your immediate download along with command files for reading the data into popular statistics packages. If you would like to try accessing the data yourself, click here for additional information.

If you have found an interesting dataset that is restricted to registered users or you would like any assistance with the process, e-mail Ben Earnhart or call him at 319-335-2887. Our goal is to make the data acquisition stage of your research as painless as possible.

You may wish to also consult with the Statistical Consulting Center (SCC) at the University of Iowa provided by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. "The SCC provides consulting help in support of research that involves data collection and analysis. Free consulting is available to UI students for thesis and dissertation research, and (within limitations) for other UI unsponsored research." That is, we can help you get your data, but the experts at the SCC have the skills and knowledge to really help you to understand your data and apply the appropriate techniques to its analysis.

ICPSR Summer Program

Each summer, the ICPSR hosts a series of workshops in quantitative methods. These workshops range from one to eight weeks in length. Most of the workshops are held at the University of Michigan. Some of the them involve a competitive admissions process (i.e., a limited number of applicants are accepted, based on interest, prior training, and potential for research contributions) and carry a stipend to help offset lodging and other costs. Other workshops are filled on a "first-come/first-served" basis. Nearly all of the workshops require payment of tuition or fees (many of the workshops can be taken for credit). Participation in the ICPSR Summer Program is open to faculty, P & S staff, and graduate students.

As a member institution, the University of Iowa receives a small amount of funding to offset travel expenses for workshop participants affiliated with the University of Iowa. For further information regarding travel assistance, please contact Ben Earnhart.

Further information about the ICPSR Summer Program (including workshop dates and locations, application procedures, deadlines, and detailed descriptions of courses) is available at:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog/

Additional Resources

Below is a list of some of the more common non-ICPSR data sources that researchers have found useful in the past. In many cases, you can access the data directly without our assistance, but if we can help in any way, please contact Ben Earnhart.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and related National Longitudinal Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We have the NLSY-97, NLSY-79, and the original cohorts available on CD ROM, as well as a full set of hard-copy documentation. However, this is now moot, as the entire series (with the exception of the geocodes) is now available for download from the BLS.
The National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH). We have wave one available in whatever format you desire, and can assist you with accessing wave two files as well.
Census Data. Commonly used Census data is available through the ICPSR. Additional data is available directly from the Census Bureau. A very user-friendly way to access Public Use Microdata files, called the I-PUMS, is provided by the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota.
General Social Surveys (GSS). The complete GSS is available for download from the ICPSR; however, many users find that it is more convenient to browse the data on-line and download a subset, or even to perform analyses (from frequencies to multiple regression) on-line.
The UK Data Archive (also known to some users as the ESRC). A service of The University of Essex, this archive is similar to the ICPSR with a European focus. In order to access the data, you will need to register, which is free for academic users.