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Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): Home

This describes the resources available through the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

Introduction to the ICPSR

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a consortium of over 750 universities and research organizations based at the University of Michigan.  It has a data archive of more than 250,000 files of social and behavioral science research as well as 21 thematic data collections.  It provides courses on quantitative methods, research design, statistics, data analysis, and social methodology as well as supporting data use in undergraduate teaching.  It supports data management, curation, and stewardship.

For a brief (and somewhat hokey) introductory video, see the ICPSR introductory video.

Create an Account

You will need to create a MyData Account in order to be able to download data available only to ICPSR members and use online analysis tools.  To create an account, go to the ICPSR home page and in the upper right click on “Login”.  On the page that comes up, scroll down to “New User?” and click on “Create Account” and follow the instructions.

Data Files and Collections

You can find what data is available at the Find Data page.  You can search using keywords or you can browse by topics, series, or thematic data collections. Some data files are available for anyone to download, while many require being part of a member institution (which you are, as part of SU). 

Teaching and Learning Resources

The ICPSR provides materials for assignments and also class exercises as well as resources for students.

Data-Driven Learning Guides

Resources for Students

Exercise Sets (Modules):

Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research

Data Management and Deposit

ICPSR can help you with data management for grants and will preserve/curate your data; see the Data Deposit page at Data Deposit page and the Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving.