ICPSR: Home

Marietta College is a member of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), an international consortium of about 700 academic institutions and research organizations.  MC students, faculty, and staff have access to ICPSR's data archive, which includes more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. ICPSR also conducts educational activities and sponsors research in the social sciences.

The ICPSR Official Representative for Marietta College, whose role is to assist faculty, staff, and students with using ICPSR resources, is Dr. Mark Schaefer, Professor of Political Science.

If you have already created an account, you can:

Log in to ICPSR

ICPSR provides several video presentations and a list of Frequently Asked Questions to help you get started.

Starting with Find Data, search by keyword or browse by topic. Before you download datasets, you must read and agree to the terms of use.

• Some datasets are freely accessible, and can be simply downloaded in an available format, which may include plain text, SAS, SPSS, and Stata. Not all files are available in all formats.
• Some datasets require access through the institutional membership. Users accessing ICPSR from the Marietta College campus will be automatically recognized. Once authenticated, create a MyData account or sign in with a Google or Facebook account.  Once you create an account on campus, the system automatically validates you for 6 months so you can access ICPSR from anywhere (including off campus). Each time you sign in from campus, that validation is extended for a further six months. If for any reason you have trouble logging in or are off campus for longer (say if a professor is on sabbatical), the log-in page will direct you to contact help@icpsr.umich.edu. ICPSR will check in with an institutional representative to verify you, and then manually validate you.
• Certain datasets are restricted in order to protect respondent confidentiality. This information is detailed in the "Access" section for the dataset. Typically, ICPSR requires a research application and proof of local IRB approval for the project. At Marietta College, this is done by the Human Subjects Committee

All datasets are accompanied by codebooks and other supporting documentation. Review these carefully to ensure proper interpretation of the data.

The campus Official Representative is available to assist you in accessing and downloading this content.

Some ICPSR datasets can now be viewed instantly using SDA: Survey Documentation and Analysis.

Whether you are using SAS, SPSS, MiniTab, Stata, R, or another system to analyze data, there are resources available to help you get started.

• Search the MC Library Catalog for the software name to locate and access ebooks and print books related to the software package.
• Try the MC Library's subscription to Safari Books Online to see if there is an ebook related to the software package.
• You can also search the OhioLINK Library Catalog to request a book from another library.
• Search the internet with the software name and a keyword related to the problem you are encountering.
• You can also find tutorials and videos on the internet to help address specific issues.

Like all resources, datasets should be cited whenever they are used in a publication, paper, presentation, or assignment. Here are some guides to citing data:

This LibGuide is based on an ICPSR LibGuide developed at the University of Akron by Ian McCullough. Thanks to Ian for permission to make use of his work in this guide.