Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

The University of Iowa maintains membership in the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), which is operated by the University of Michigan. This membership enables members of the University community to obtain a vast array of data for secondary data analysis regarding economic, education, health, international, legal, legislative, political, and other areas of social research.

Data sources available include (but are not limited to):

  • The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and related National Longitudinal Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • The National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)
  • Census Data
  • General Social Surveys (GSS)
  • The UK Data Archive (also known to some users as the ESRC). A service of The University of Essex, this archive is similar to the ICPSR with a European focus.

Whom to contact

Mike Oie is our Official Representative for the ICPSR at the University of Iowa. He may be contacted by e-mail (mike-oie@uiowa.edu) or by phone at 319-467-4629.

How to get data

Browse the ICPSR website to determine what data are of interest to you. Data are organized into topic areas, or you can search using keywords. While we would be happy to help you at this stage, browsing the holdings is generally the most efficient way to find the data you seek. Look at the codebooks to see if the data really are suitable for your purposes. Codebooks are always available to the public, and most are available for download. Many of the datasets are also available for download along with command files for reading the data into popular statistics packages. The ICPSR has a help page here which can answer questions about the data in general, analysis, and how to download datasets. 

If you would like any assistance with the process, or if you have found an interesting dataset that is restricted to registered users, contact Mike Oie at mike-oie@uiowa.edu or 319-467-4629.

For more information about ICPSR’s Teaching and Learning Resources, click here.

The Iowa Social Science Research Center (ISRC) is located on the University of Iowa campus.
Email: mike-oie@uiowa.edu
Phone: 319-467-4629