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    FAQs for ICPSR

    Q. What does ICPSR stand for?
    A. It stands for Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. It maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction.

    Q. When should I use ICPSR?
    A. When you're looking for political or social statistics or data. You can find both statistics and data. Both sets of numbers are from the investigating agency (e.g., who did the survey). ICPSR just makes them available through their database.

    Q. What's the difference between statistics and data?
    A. In ICPSR, statistics refer to numbers that have been crunched, so you see totals for a given item. Data refers to the raw data before it's been crunched, so you can do your own cross-tabulations. For example, Census statistics may give totals for "Place of birth by citizenship status", and a separate total for "Educational attainment", but you would need to look at and analyze the raw data to see how much education recent immigrants from Asia have.

    Q. Do I need to know how to use SPSS or SAS?
    A. Not necessarily. You can also upload the raw data into Excel, or use the online "Data Analysis System" (DAS). Be sure to check with your professor for his or her requirements.

    Q. What kinds of data are there in ICPSR?
    A. There are many different datasets for political and social research. You will find a complete list of categories at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/access/subject.html . The most popular files are: American National Election Studies Cumulative File, 1948-2000; General Social Surveys, 1972-2002; World Values Surveys & European Values Surveys; Common Core of Data (CCD) Series.

    Other categories are: Census Enumerations; Community and Urban Studies; Conflict, Aggression, Violence, Wars; Economic Behavior and Attitudes; Education; Elites and Leadership; Geography and Environment; Government Structures, Policies, and Capabilities; Health Care and Facilities; International Systems; Legal Systems; Legislative and Deliberative Bodies; Mass Political Behavior and Attitudes; Organizational Behavior; Social Indicators; Social Institutions and Behavior.

    Q. How do I find out if what I need is in ICPSR?
    A. Go to the ICPSR home page at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/index-medium.html . There is a search engine there. As with all databases, if you don't find what you need, see a Reference Librarian for help searching, or Ruth Schooley (ruth.schooley@libraries.claremont.edu , or x77122) for help using the data.

    Last updated:8/31/2003
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