A template for campus presentations. Please feel free to customize to your needs - or contact us and we can broadcast via webinar to your institution.

1. An Introduction to ICPSR
Data Services
Fall 2012

2. Introduction
• ICPSR’s Elevator Story
– What is an “ICPSR”
– Why do people use ICPSR
• ICPSR Website
– The Study Home Page
– Data Tools
• ICPSR in Education
• Other Data Services

3. What is ICPSR?
- Then and Now -
• One of the world’s oldest and largest social
science data archives, est. 1962
• Data distributed on punch cards, then reel-
to-reel tape, now:
– Data available on demand
– Over 8,200 studies with over 68,700 data sets
• Membership organization among 21
universities, now:
– Currently about 715 members world-wide
– Federal funding of public collections

4. What We Do – It’s About Data!
• Seek research data and
pertinent documents from
researchers (PIs, research
agencies, government)
• Process and preserve the
data and documents
• Disseminate data
• Provide
education, training, &
instructional resources

5. Why People Use ICPSR
• Write articles, papers, or theses using real
research data
• Conduct secondary research to support findings
of current research or to generate new findings
• Use as intro material in grant proposals
• Preserve/disseminate primary research data
– Fulfill data management plan (grant)
requirements
• Study or teach quantitative methods

6. Supporting a growing number of
disciplines
• Anthropology • Health & Medical Policy
• Business/Economics • History
• Communications • International Relations
• Criminal Justice • Law/Legal Services
• Demography • Political Sciences
• Education • Psychology
• Foreign Policy • Public Policy
• Gerontology • Sociology

7. We are Not Alone!
Another Acronym: CESSDA
Council of European Social Science Data Archives

8. Niche Archives
• ARDA – Association of Religion Data Archives:
http://www.thearda.com/
• The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research:
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/

9. Back to ICPSR - Most Popular Downloads this Past Year:
• National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
• General Social Surveys (1972-2010 Cumulative)
• National Survey on Drug Use and Health
• World Handbook of Political & Social Indicators III
• National Survey of Midlife Development in the US
• Chinese Household Income Project
• American National Election Study: 2008 Pre- and Post-Election
Survey
• Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study
• Globalization Comparative Panel Dataset
• India Human Development Survey

10. What’s in a “Download?”
• Documentation files - pdfs • Data in many forms!
– Questionnaire – SPSS, SAS, Stata
– Codebook – ASCII
– Description & Citation

11. “Shopping” for Data: The MyData Account
• MyData account – operates as authentication and like a
shopping cart!
• Authenticate once every six months on campus and you
can carry it with you

12. Supporting the Data
• Free user support
• The HELP Page offers:
– User support (at ICPSR) email and phone contact
information
– Data User Help Center: Short Tutorials & Webinars
available 24/7
– Local Support: Who to contact at your local institution
– Glossary of Terms
– Social Networks: Where you can find us on YouTube,
Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare, and more

13. The “Front Office”

14. Our Front Office: ICPSR Web site
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/

15. The Challenge – Hoards of Data & Metadata
How does one make sense of:
• 8,200 studies
• 68,700 datasets
• 585,000 files
• Millions of variables
• 62,500 bibliographic citations

16. Data Tools to Find & Analyze Data

17. The Study Home Page

18. The Bibliography of Data-related Literature
It’s really a searchable database . . .
containing over 62,500 citations of known published
and unpublished works resulting from analyses of
data archived at ICPSR
. . .that can generate study bibliographies
associating each study with the literature about it
. . . Included in the integrated search
on the ICPSR Web site

19. Demonstrating the Impact of Research

20. The Social Science Variables Database at ICPSR
Enables ICPSR users to:
• Search & Compare Variables across
datasets
• Assists in:
– Data discovery
– Comparison/harmonization projects
– Data harvesting & data analysis
– Question mining for designing new research
– Research methods & substantive courses
instruction

21. Analyze & Compare Variables

22. Interested in Online Datasets?
“View SDA Studies”

23. SDA Output

24. ICPSR in Education

25. ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative
Methods
• Instruction on the tools and practices needed to analyze data
• For those with math phobia and those with advanced analysis
skills
• 3-5 day workshops and 4-8 week courses
• Primarily held in Ann Arbor, MI,
on the campus of The University
of Michigan, but some courses
on other campuses also
• http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog/

26. Bringing Data Into the Classroom
• Easy to use features of ICPSR’s Website in classes
– Social Science Variables Database
– Bibliography of Data-Related Literature
– SDA
• Additionally, in partnership with teaching faculty, ICPSR has
developed:
– Short Exercises – the DDLGs
– Online teaching modules
– Online tutorials
– Student research opportunities

27. Bringing Data Into the Classroom

28. Online Modules

29. Research Opportunities for Students
– Research paper
competitions -- a
research journal
experience & cash
prizes!
– Paid student internships
focusing on
investigating social
sciences research

30. Data Services

31. ICPSR Data Hosting Services
From Full-Service Archives To Al a Carte Data
Management
• Data (website) hosting
• Preservation
• Data Sharing & Impact
• Data Outreach &
Engagement
• Data security & tracking

32. The Statement Heard Round the
Research World:
• The National Science Foundation has released a new
requirement for proposal submissions regarding the
management of data generated using NSF support. Starting in
January, 2011, all proposals must include a data management
plan (DMP).
• The plan should be short, no more than two pages, and will be
submitted as a supplementary document. The plan will need to
address two main topics:
– What data are generated by your research?
– What is your plan for managing the data?

33. ICPSR’s DMP Web Site

34. Guidelines for Download

35. Data Services in Development

36. Secure Data Services - Restricted-use Data
• Potential increase in demand for data
management services as a result of
grant/contract requirements
• Increase in demand for processing, analysis, and
distribution of sensitive data
• Resulted in improvements focused on secure
computing and data sharing environments at
ICPSR

37. Three Angles of Security
• Secure Ingest
• Secure Online Application & Tracking
• Secure Computing in the Cloud

38. The Visual

39. For More Info:
• Explore the website - www.icpsr.umich.edu
• Sign up for our email announcements -
www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/membership/lists/index.jsp
• “Like” ICPSR on Facebook/follow ICPSR on Twitter
• Attend or view our webinars (open to the public!)
• Find our presentations on www.slideshare.net –
user: icpsr
• Contact user support – netmail@icpsr.umich.edu