About ICPSR
With over 550 member institutions, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is the world's largest social science data archive. Through the CSU's membership in the ICPSR, students, faculty, and staff can download data using ICPSR Direct from on campus. Some campuses also allow off-campus access through a proxy server.
ICPSR data are made available through a license to the CSU, and are not to be provided to non-CSU personnel.
Accessing ICPSR Direct.
Note: Some campuses provide students, faculty, and staff with off campus access to ICPSR through a proxy server. Check with your SSRIC campus representative.
Go to http://www.icpsr.org or http://www.icpsr.com.
Under “Search the Web Site and Data Holdings,” type in the needed key words (e.g., “gun control,” with or without the quotation marks).
Unselect the “Web Site” box and click on the “Search” button.
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Pick the study or studies you want. For each study, you will see links to “description,” “download,” and “related literature.” The last of these refers you to relevant entries in the bibliography of previous publications using ICPSR data.
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Click on “download.” You will then see a page asking for your e-mail address and your password. If you do not have a password, you should click on “create account” and create your password. You will also be asked to complete a brief form. After you have supplied your e-mail address and password, complete steps 1 through 4 above and download your files.
Syntax (setup) files. In some cases, you can download a file that can be opened directly in SAS or SPSS. In other cases, you will be provided with a fixed-format ASCII file and a SAS or SPSS command file. The instructions that follow apply to SPSS command (or “syntax” files). Once you have downloaded your files and, if necessary, unzipped them:
- Start SPSS and open the syntax file (the one with the “.sps” extension).
- Find the “FILE HANDLE” command and replace “data-filename” with the path to your data file (the one ending in “.txt”). For example, if you download ICPSR Study 4131 (ABC News Pennsylvania Poll, Sept. 2004) in a directory on your “C” drive called “Temp,” the path created will be "C:\Temp\5268001\ICPSR_04131\DS0001_ABC_News_Pennsylvania_Poll,_September_2004__\04131-0001-Data.txt." (This is admittedly pretty unwieldy, and it might be a good idea to move and rename the file before proceeding). The FILE HANDLE:
FILE HANDLE DATA / NAME="data-filename" LRECL=225.
would become:
FILE HANDLE DATA / NAME="C:\Temp\5268001\ICPSR_04131\DS0001_ABC_News_Pennsylvania_Poll,_September_2004__\04131-0001-Data.txt " LRECL=225.
- Find the “SAVE OUTFILE” command (probably the last one in the file), and replace “spss-filename.sav” with the name and path of the SPSS system file you wish to create. If the command is preceded by an asterisk, remove the asterisk. For example,
SAVE OUTFILE="spss-filename.sav".
would become:
SAVE OUTFILE="C:\Temp\5268001\ICPSR_04131\DS0001_ABC_News_Pennsylvania_Poll,_September_2004__\04131-0001-Data.sav".
From the menu bar, click on “Run” and “All.”
If no "SAVE OUTFILE" command exits, create one from scratch. Note that all SPSS commands end with a period.
Data without syntax (setup) files. ICPSR is experimenting with creating setup files on request for datasets that come with neither system for syntax files. The following information was provided on October 11, 2006 by ICPSR Director of User Support, Mary Morris:
"ICPSR is pleased to announce a new service to create statistical package setup files on demand. We are providing this service to assist users at member schools who want to work with particular studies in the ICPSR holdings that currently lack these setup files. To request setup files for a specific study, please contact netmail@icpsr.umich.edu. Our User Support staff will discuss the request with you and then respond with a rough estimate of how long it will take to deliver the needed files and, if applicable, your place in the queue.
"We caution that the estimates are only approximate since the time and effort involved in generating setup files vary greatly from study to study and depend on several factors, including the number of study variables and files and the condition, clarity, and format of the documentation. We produce these setup files solely from the study documentation, independent of the data. Much of the work is manual, with staff entering variable-level information into spreadsheets and then running a program to generate setup files from the spreadsheet contents. The setup files then undergo a series of basic quality control checks.
"This service is part of a larger effort to retrofit the ICPSR holdings with these files. Your requests will help us to prioritize that work, which is quite large in scope."
Additional Resources
ICPSR Member Institutions: http://www.icpsr.com/membership/ors.html
ICPSR Home Page : http://www.icpsr.com/
Using SPSS Syntax Files and Other Setup Files to Read ASCII Data: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/help/newuser.html#05
SSRIC ICPSR Guide: http://www.ssric.org/data/icpsr_direct
Data Use Tutorial: http://www.icpsr.com/help/newuser.html
Social Science Variables Database: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ssvd/index.html
Bibliography of Data-Related Literature: http://www.icpsr.org/citations/index.html
Ilona Einowski's article on ICPSR Direct (pdf format): http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/org/publications/bulletin/spr03.pdf
Last Updated May 11, 2007
