2007-2008 Social Sciences Specialty Center
(SSSC) Annual Report

July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Data
3. ICPSR
4. Roper
5. Field
6. Student Research Conference
7. Workshops
8. Web site

Introduction

Founded in 1972, the Social Science Research and Instructional Council (SSRIC) is the oldest of the disciplinary councils in the California State University system. With representatives from each of the CSU campuses, the Council is dedicated to assisting students and faculty in their learning, teaching, and research by:

• Facilitating access to social science data and computer-related instructional and research materials
• Promoting quantitative social science research by students via the annual SSRIC student research conference
• Initiating and conducting training programs
• Recommending computerized social science projects in the CSU curriculum
• Providing a forum for sharing information about social science data and computer products
• Advising CSU administrators on policies related to providing quantitative social science data for research and instruction

Data

The SSRIC is the CSU systems’ clearinghouse for social science data, notably data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the Field and Roper polling centers. These data sources provide data to support quantitative social science teaching, research and service by students, staff and faculty, and well as sponsored programs and grant development by CSU research centers.

All the functions described above are performed by faculty representatives as a service.  Dues requested of individual campuses primarily defray data subscription costs.

ICPSR

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is the largest social science data repository in the world. It is the primary source of social science data for every research oriented university and nearly every other university and college in the United States . Over the past few years, data access from the ICPSR has gone online and interactive under the ICPSR Direct system. During academic year 07-08, 5,062 datasets were downloaded from ICPSR by CSU students, faculty, and staff.  Additionally, 296.551 gigabytes of data were downloaded.  The following table summarizes utilization by campus for the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 academic years. 

Usage data always requires one important proviso. A single download may be used in a class with many students, but only shows on the usage chart as a single download. Additionally, a single faculty member may download a study to be used for research by multiple faculty members.

* San Jose did not subscribe in AY 2007-08.

ICPSR maintains a series of topical archives that allow the user to analyze data using the Data Analysis System (DAS) which was written at UC Berkeley.  DAS is an online program that allows individuals to access particular studies that have been set up for this program. Information is only available for the system and is not broken down by campus. 

ICPSR also offers an extensive summer program in quantitative analysis.  Our membership in ICPSR allows us to distribute $3,000 in travel funds to participants in the summer program to help defray their costs.  The following table summarizes the number of faculty and students (primarily faculty) that were enrolled in the ICPSR’s summer program in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Roper Center for Public Opinion

The Roper Center provides public opinion data for the nation and the world. More than half of the Roper holdings are international. Studies go back many decades providing the opportunity to do longitudinal research.  The CSU established a system wide membership in the Roper Center in October, 2004.  From October, 2004 through September, 2005 the CSU was limited to 50 data sets per year and data had to be ordered through one individual.  Starting in October, 2005, CSU students, faculty, and staff could download Roper data directly to their desktop through Roper Express (similar to ICPSR Direct).  This resulted in a large increase in utilization of Roper data. 

The following table summarizes the number of data sets that were downloaded from the Roper Center archive during 2006-07 and 2007-08.  During academic 06-07, 332 datasets were downloaded from the Roper Center by CSU students, faculty, and staff. During academic year, 249 datasets were downloaded.  The Roper Center also offers iPOLL which is a data base of survey questions which can be used for trend analysis and to select data sets for downloading.  This table also reports the number of times that students, faculty, and staff used iPOLL.  During academic year 07-08, students, faculty, and staff accessed iPOLL 412 times, while during 06-07 iPOLL was accessed 505 times.  The following table summarizes utilization by campus for the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 academic years.

The Field Institute

The CSU maintains a membership in the Field Institute which provides our students, faculty, and staff access to both current and past Field polls. The Field Institute is one of several state polls that provide current political opinion data for the state on issues of interest to policy makers, researchers, and students. In addition to access to these polls, our membership in The Field Institute provides faculty with the ability to place up to 18 questions per year on the Field Polls. Field hosts an annual Field Workshop in San Francisco which provides information on many topics of current interest to the state.

The CSU contracts with UC Berkeley to provide access to the data sets we receive from the Field Institute. The following table provides information on the number of times that students, faculty, or staff accessed the Field archive at Berkeley. This refers to the number of times that a person logged onto the Field archive to look for or download data for the 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 academic years.  During academic year 2007-08, 2,076 Field data sets were accessed.

Student Research Conference

The SSRIC sponsors an annual student research conference for both undergraduates and graduates where students can present their research in a supportive setting. For many students, this is their first opportunity to present their research at a professional conference. The 2007 conference was held in Northridge with 36 student presentations from 13 CSU campuses. The 2008 conference was held in Long Beach with 47 presentations from 8 participating campuses.

Training Workshops

Volunteer SSRIC representatives led training workshops on seven campuses during the 2007-08 academic year, with a total of 86 participants.  Those campuses were Channel Islands, East Bay, San Francisco, Dominguez Hills, Northridge, Fresno and Stanislaus. These workshops are intended to promote the use of data and teaching modules and to instruct participants in how to access these resources. Most of those attending were faculty although there were some graduate students.  More workshops are planned on numerous campuses this coming academic year.

Website

The SSRIC Web site is online at www.ssric.org. The site consolidates and expands information previously scattered on servers at the Bakersfield, Los Angeles, and Pomona campuses. The new site makes it much easier to communicate information about resources, events, and services provided to students, faculty, and staff through the Council. The site offers among other things:

• Announcements of upcoming events
• A contact list of Council representatives from each campus
• Information for research oriented social science faculty throughout the CSU
• Comprehensive information about the annual SSRIC Student Research Conference
• Instructions for ordering ICPSR, Field, and Roper data
• Information about the Field Fellowship and Question Credits program
• Information about the ICPSR Summer Program
• Curriculum materials contained in the SSRIC Teaching Resources Depository, including various modules and exercises, an SPSS primer, and an online textbook/Web site on research methods
• Curriculum materials contained in POWERMUTT, an online text for teaching research methods in political science and cognate disciplines