Field Polls

About The Field Poll

The Field (California) Poll has operated continuously since 1947 as an independent, non-partisan, media-sponsored public opinion news service and has issued over 2,000 different reports.

During its long history, The Field Poll has acquired a national reputation as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of public opinion trends in California. News stories quoting The Field Poll appear regularly in national and state media. References to findings derived from the poll appear in hundreds of published works by scholars, political and social writers.

Except for surveys conducted during the last few years, Field Polls are publicly available for download in raw data or SPSS format at http://ucdata.berkeley.edu:7101/new_web/FTP/index.html or in SDA format at http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7503/calpolls.htm.

An archive of Field Poll data that includes recent polls is available through a license from Field to the CSU. These are proprietary data, and are not to be provided to non-CSU personnel. Access by CSU users is through an arrangement with UC Berkeley.

Accessing the Field Polls at UC Berkeley.

Notes:
  • Access to Field Poll files is IP authenticated, and is not available from off-campus computers.
  • The instructions provided here are for Microsoft Internet Explorer running under Windows. Other browsers (e.g., Mozilla, Navigator, Safari, etc.), may also be used to access the Field Poll data.

Setting up your browser

Your browser must be configured properly in order to access the Field poll data at UC Berkeley. The first requirement is that your browser be set to use passive FTP.

  • Go to Tools>Internet Options and select the Advanced tab.
  • Scroll down to the “Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility)” option and make sure that it is checked.

Your second browser configuration choice is to decide whether to set your FTP access for folder view, which will display the FTP directories as folders, much like your Windows desktop. If you choose to leave this turned off, then your FTP directories will display as an FTP directory listings with links from the directory names to the directory contents (much like DOS for you old-timers). You will be able to access the data whichever option you choose, but you will have a few more download options with the FTP directory listings.

When you have made your configuration changes, click OK.

Note: Some university labs may be set up so that users cannot change the Internet Options. In those situations you will need to work with your system administrator to get these changes made.

Accessing the Field Poll files

  • Go the UC Data web site at http://ucdata.berkeley.edu
  • Click the "Data" link on the left side of the Data homepage.
  • Click the "CSU Only/Field Polls" link on the FTP navigation column on the left side of the Data page. You will see a page with the FTP navigation column, a center column named "SEARCH UCSD's CALPOLL INDEX" and a "RETRIEVE DATA" column. Depending on how your browser is set up, the RETRIEVE DATA column will display a set of folders or an FTP directory listing with links to the folders.
  • Use the SEARCH column to locate a poll of interest to you by entering the appropriate keywords. When you find a study you’d like to download, note its number. Do not click the links on the SEARCH column, as these are for other users. Instead, use the RETRIEVE DATA column to access your poll’s files.
  • Scroll down the RETRIEVE column to find the link to your poll.

If you have an FTP directory listing:

  • You may click on the poll name to access the poll’s directory. The names of the files should appear in a directory listing. These will be the .sav, .sps, .dat, etc., files, depending on what is available for that poll.
  • You may open the files to inspect them by clicking their names, or you may download them by right-clicking and choosing the Save Target As… option.
  • If you are planning to download files from several polls, you might wish to open the poll directories in separate windows. Right-click the poll’s name in the directory listing and select the Open in New Window option. The files for that poll should appear as an FTP directory listing in a new window.

If you have a folder view:

  • Double click the folder with your poll name. The folder contents should display.
  • To download a file, open the file by double clicking. The contents of the file should appear in the window. You may download to your computer by using the File>Save As… option.

Access to the Field Poll data has been tested with the following combinations of browsers and operating systems:

Windows: 2000, XP: Internet Explorer 6 service pack 1 MacOS: 8.6 Netscape Navigator 4.7

Additional Resources

Field Poll Home Page: http://www.field.com/

SSRIC Field Poll Guide: http://www.ssric.org/data/field_polls

UC DATA Home Page: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu:7101/

Field Poll News Releases and California Opinion Indexes: http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/

Last Updated: October 14, 2006