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K-State Today

October 5, 2022

Access research datasets with ICPSR data archive

Submitted by Cailin Riley

K-State Libraries pays for a membership to the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, or ICPSR, data archive. Through K-State's membership, faculty, staff and students have free access to more than 30,000 datasets that would otherwise only be available for purchase. For instructors teaching undergraduates, ICPSR provides data-driven learning materials and exercise modules. 

These datasets are part of more than 10,000 studies deposited into ICPSR from their 791-member institutions. The data archive houses datasets from the social and behavioral sciences, including specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism and other fields. ICPSR also partners with federal statistical agencies and foundations to create thematic collections. 

Datasets are available in two categories: on-demand and restricted. On-demand datasets can be fully downloaded at any time. Restricted datasets have at least one file that cannot be downloaded without requesting permission. Data is available in formats that can be used with common statistical packages such as SAS, SPSS and STATA. 

You can watch the two-minute video from ICPSR to learn more. 

For further assistance using ICPSR, please contact Kendra Spahr at kspahr@k-state.edu or Robert McCowen at mccowen@k-state.edu