Social Science Data Bases

1. Social ScienceData Bases CSU Fresno October 30, 2009

2. Sponsored by http://www.ssric.org

3. Workshop Agenda • Overview of the SSRIC • Data Archives • ICPSR • Field • Roper • Other Workshops

4. SSRIChttp://www.ssric.org

5. The Council • Oldest CSU affinity group (since 1972) • Representatives from CSU campuses meet three times per year • Negotiates with data providers for access to data • Promotes use of data analysis in research and teaching

6. The Council • Annual student research conference • at Sacramento in 2009 • at Pomona in 2010 • Sponsors travel to ICPSR summer workshops in Ann Arbor, Michigan • http://www.ssric.org/participate/icpsr_summer • Works with Field Research • Question credits • Faculty fellow

7. Social Science Databases • The California State University subscribes to social science databases to support • teaching • research • administration • Available to campuses by annual subscription

8. Social Science Databases • Assistance from the SSRIC • Note: SSRIC members are not staff data consultants or technical assistance providers, but we will do what we can to help students, faculty and staff to access data • Campus representativeshttp://www.ssric.org/reps

9. Social Science Databases • Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) • Field Poll • Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

10. Accessing the data bases • On-campus access to data bases is IP authenticated • Off-campus access • Field: not available • Roper: uses library as proxy server -- works just like other library data bases • ICPSR: • first time, uses library proxy server • after that, you can access from anywhere but you must reauthenticate every 6 months

11. ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research

12. ICPSR • Primary social science data archive for the U.S. • Founded in 1962; CSU joined in 1972 • Over 600 member institutions worldwide • Services • Vast data archive accessible via the web (ICPSR Direct) • Summer program • Instructional resources

13. http://icpsr.org Find data Teaching

14. Using ICPSR Direct • Locate the study • Select the data for download • Download the data • Import the data for statistical analysis

15. Find and Analyze Data Find data Analyze data online Topical archives

16. Searching for Data • Type in key words • (e.g., gun control) • Click search Search terms are not case sensitive if all lower case

17. Search Results Sort by time period (newest) Click on link

18. Downloading the data View study description Download all files

19. Agree to the Terms of Use

20. Saving the Files

21. Select Folder Where you Want to Save it

22. Unzip the File • The file has been saved as a zip file • Unzip it by double clicking on the file name (xxxxx.zip) • Extract all the files

23. What’s in the File? • Look in the layers of subfolders until you find the DS0001 folder • It will include the: • Codebook (pdf file) • Questionnaire (pdf file) • SPSS file (in this case, it’s a .sav file) • Other files

24. Open the File in SPSS

25. Other Types of Files you Might Encounter • SPSS portable (.por) files • Will work on all platforms • Tell SPSS to look for a .por file • Raw data (ASCII) file with SPSS syntax (.sps) file • You’ll have to create your own .sav file • See next slide • Raw data file with only a codebook • You’ll have to create your own syntax file • SPSS Intro workshop discusses how to do this

26. What’s a Syntax File? • A syntax file is a set of commands to convert a raw ASCII data file into an SPSS system file • ASCII + SPSS syntax file = SPSS system file • For More Information: http://www.ssric.org/data/icpsr_direct#syntax

27. Other ICPSR Resources • SSRIC ICPSR Guide • ICPSR Data Use Tutorial • Social Science Variables Database

28. The Field Poll

29. The Field (California) Poll • Established in 1947 • Independent, non-partisan survey of California public opinion • Wide range of political and social topics • Multiple polls each year Mervin Field http://www.field.com

30. Accessing Field Data • Set up your browser • Find polls and data sets • Download data sets

31. Setting up your browser • Requires setting passive FTP access • Can set up browser for folder view or FTP directory view • See the instructions for details: http://www.ssric.org/data/field_polls • You will only need to do this once for your browser and user account

32. Finding Polls • Find the poll number • News Releases (www.field.com) • American Public Opinion Index • Check with your library for printed and/or microfiche versions • The CALPOLL window • Accessible via UCData • You will be using the poll number to select the data set for download.

33. Searching Polls with UCDATA Uses SDA Does not include last couple of years Gives you the frequency distributions of the variables you select

34. UC Datahttp://ucdata.berkeley.edu Click on Field Polls

35. Field Polls on UCDATA Click on search

36. Searching I selected 2000’s

37. Keywords Enter gun control

38. Search Results Click View

39. Results from SDA

40. Downloading the Data Click Download

41. Choosing the File Double click cal0003 since you want to download that folder Note that this is directory view

42. Saving the Files

43. Select the Folder

44. Open the Data in SPSS 2 1

45. Other Field Resources • SSRIC Field Poll Guide • Field News Releases and California Opinion Indexes

46. The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

47. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu Access to iPOLL Access to Roper Express Data

48. Searching for Data Sets Click Quick Links Then click search for datasets

49. Searching for Data Sets • Specify • Keywords • Date range • Country

50. Searching for Data Sets Enter keywords (gun control)