Are you interested in determining the average age at which men versus women begin smoking? What if you need to know whether age at marriage differs between your region of the country and other regions, or about differences in political attitudes based on age, gender, education, race, or ethnicity? These and countless other questions can be answered by studies in the ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) data holdings. DePaul University is one of 700 member institutions that have access to download numeric raw data from ICPSR. Data can be downloaded to be analyzed in common statistical software, such as SPSS, Stata, R, and Microsoft Excel.
ICPSR, established in 1962, provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction and offers training in quantitative methods. ICPSR also provides user support to assist researchers in identifying relevant data for analysis to conduct secondary research and write articles, papers, and theses. In addition to the general archive, ICPSR hosts a number of special topic archives on their web site, including the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA), Child Care and Early Education (Research Connections), Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS), Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR), the Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD), the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA). The ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research in Ann Arbor, MI offers courses in research design, statistics, data analysis, and social science methodology.
All staff, students, and faculty have access to the extensive ICPSR data holdings via any campus computer. Access is direct and quick by accessing the ICPSR website at www.icpsr.umich.edu. First-time users will be asked to create an ICPSR MyData account; thereafter, you will need your email address and password to download data. Local assistance in locating, accessing and analyzing ICPSR data is available; contact personnel are listed on the ICPSR Web page.
For questions or information about ICPSR, please contact Kindra Morelock, Data Services Librarian at (773) 325-4668 or kmoreloc@depaul.edu.