How to use ICPSR: How to use ICPSR collection

• ICPSR 101 Videos

• Depositing Data With ICPSR a video to guide users

• How to Cite ICPSR Data This page offers guidelines and best practices for citing social science research data in order to promote vigorous and consistent attribution of datasets.

• A Guide to Interpreting SPSS Output How to interpret frequency distributions, crosstabulations, comparison of means tests, correlations, and OLS regressions done in SPSS. Used in teaching undergraduate Introduction to Statistics course.

• How to Read a Journal Article - Tips and tricks to make reading and understanding social science journal articles easier.

• Get Help with ICPSR Data

• Resources for Teachers

What is ICPSR?

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)is an international consortium of about 800 academic institutions and research organizations, ICPSR provides data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community. Each member institution has an Official Representative (OR).

What is ICPSR Official Representative (OR)?

The OR role at a member institution is to assist faculty, staff and students with using ICPSR resources. Rui Wang is the ICPSR Official Representative at CMU. Please contact her wang1r@cmich.edu for using ICPSR collection. For more information about OR, please read her publication "The Evolving Role of ICPSR Official Representatives."

What are in the ICPSR collection?

Most of the datasets in the ICPSR archive are raw data from surveys, censuses, and administrative records. They were originally gathered in research projects and for administrative purposes. ICPSR preserves them because they have value for "secondary analysis" - that is, reexamining old data to address new questions or to employ new analytic methods. You will not get reports, charts, publications, or other studies from ICPSR. Rather, you will get raw numerical data which can be analyzed. Some datasets have been used in published studies.