As a member of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), we join with about 700 academic institutions and research organizations in the acquisition, preservation, and distribution of social science data. ICPSR provides training in the use of research data and offers access to a data archive of more than 500,000 digital files. Search “ICPSR” in the Trexler Library catalog.
You can download a dataset, import it into a statistical program available at Muhlenberg, and analyze the data for your own research purposes. Disciplines represented include political science, sociology, demography, economics, history, gerontology, criminal justice, public health, foreign policy, terrorism, health and medical care, early education, education, racial and ethnic minorities, psychology, law, substance abuse and mental health, and more. These data can be used for secondary research, instructional activities, or to write articles, papers or theses.
All Muhlenberg College staff, students, and faculty have access to the extensive ICPSR data holdings from any campus computer. Access is direct and quick by going to the ICPSR Web site at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu . When downloading data, first-time users will be asked to create an ICPSR MyData account; thereafter, you will need your email address and password to download data. To search for data or access an online tutorial, start here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/access/index.jsp . For assistance with locating, accessing and analyzing ICPSR data, contact Jennifer Jarson, Social Sciences Reference Librarian.
Most recently, ICPSR announced its 2011 Research Paper Competitions. This year, ICPSR and the Research Center for Minority Data (RCMD) are holding three competitions – two for undergraduates and one for master’s students. Competitions awards are $1,000 for first place and $750 for second place. The deadline for submission is January 31, 2011. For more information, including submission guidelines, please visit the competition Web site <http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/prize/index.jsp> .
