The Blackwell Companion to Sociology (112 page)

http://www.bls.census.gov/cps/

Data and Program Library Service (DPLS)

Founded at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1966, the DPLS is a member of the ICPSR and provides free data access to over 5,000 data sets to students, staff, and faculty of the university. Outsiders may obtain access to non-ICPSR archival data (locally produced data) by purchasing data files or arranging access via anonymous FTP on a cost-recovery basis. Data holdings include: census data; IMF data; World Bank data; longitudinal surveys; macroeconomic indicators; election studies; population studies; data pertaining to aging, urban studies, conflict, socialization, poverty, and labor force participation; public opinion polls; educational and health data; and government statistics. Data can be obtained in either SPSS or SAS files.

http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/

Demographic and Health Surveys Data Archive (DHS)

The Demographic and Health Program is a 14±year project to help developing countries to conduct and analyze population and health surveys. The Data Archive holds data from 47 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East. These data include surveys of women, men, households, and data regarding the availability of services.

Data are available in raw and recoded forms, which allow cross-national comparisons.

Data can be accessed through direct FTP or the mail. Mailed data cost US$200 per data set ($50 for those in developing countries).

http://www.measuredhs.com/

The Dialog Corporation

The Dialog Corporation is the world's largest online information company, which

maintains a database 50 times as large as the World Wide Web. The database includes a collection of data from the social sciences. Data may be purchased by researchers.

http://www.dialog.com/

Disability and Managed Care Data Archive

This data archive includes national survey databases that may be useful for research on managed care and the disabled. The archive includes the National Health Inventory Survey-Disability Supplement (NHIS), the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, the National Long-Term Care Surveys 1982±1994 (NLTCS), the Survey of Income and

Program Participation (SIPP), the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the

Research Archive on Disability in the United States, and Americans with Disabilities.

The site also provides links to other web sites of interest and a summary table of the variables in each data set that might interest managed care researchers.

http://managedcare.hhs.gov/research/data/index.html

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Economic Research Service (ERS), US Department of Agriculture

The ERS serves as the primary source of federal economic information on agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural America. This site provides researchers with recent agricultural reports, links to publications, and access to state fact sheets and maps. Also available are ERS data products, which address topics ranging from farm sector economics and banking and farm credit to international agriculture and land, water and conservation. Data products can be downloaded off the web free of charge or can be

purchased in CD-ROM form.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/

Fedstats (Federal Statistics)

Maintained by the Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, Fedstats provides easy access to US government statistics free of charge. Statistics provided online are supplied by more than 70 agencies affiliated with the US government.

http://www.fedstats.gov/

The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), Feminist Gateway

The Feminist Gateway provides access to information regarding issues of women's

health, history and education, involvement in sports, politics, science, and work, women's organizations, violence against women, reproductive rights, lesbian issues, feminist arts, literature, and entertainment, and global feminism. Further, this site contains links to other more general women's Internet sites.

http://www.feminist.org/gateway/1_gatway.html

The Gallup Organization

The Gallup Organization has been a leading source of public opinion data since

1935. The Gallup Poll covers new social and business-related issues each week. Up-to-date press releases on opinion data can be obtained via the Internet at this web page, but data files cannot be accessed.

http://www.gallup.com/

General Social Survey (GSS)

Conducted by NORC since 1972, the GSS is an ongoing nationally representative

personal interview survey of US households (includes black oversamples). The

GSS measures trends in American attitudes, experiences, practices, and concerns. It is also a good source for data on religiosity. The GSS study takes part in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), which administers identical questionnaires in 25 countries. This site also provides access to the General Social Survey Data

and Information Retrieval System (GSSDIRS), which allows for easier analysis of GSS

data.

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/gss

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General Social Survey Resources, Queens College

This site allows researchers to download the General Social Survey free of charge and provides access to extraction software. Online versions of the GSS bibliography, index to questions, and codebooks are also available.

http://www.soc.qc.edu/QC_Software/GSS.html

GeoLytics, Demographics

GeoLytics provides CD-ROM products that integrate US Census, other government, and private data with sophisticated statistical and mapping tools. Four CDs are currently available: CensusCD Blocks, CensusCD 1980, StreetCD, and CensusCD+Maps. These

products are expensive, ranging from US$200 to 1,000. However, GeoLytics provides 50

percent discounts for academic, government, and non-profit organizations.

http://www.geolytics.com/

Government Information Sharing Project

This web site, maintained at Oregon State University, allows easy access to statistical data and information provided by the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the MESA Group. The data include USA Counties, 1996; the 1990 Census of Population and Housing; Population Estimates by Age, Sex and Race, 1990±97; the Equal Employment Opportunity File, 1990; School

District Data Book Profiles, 1989±90; the Regional Economic Information System,

1969±96; the 1992 Economic Census; the Census of Agriculture, 1982, 1987, and 1992; US Imports/Exports History 1993±97; Consolidated Federal Funds Report, 1987±96; and the Earnings by Occupation and Education, 1990. The site also provides links to other government web sites, the Oregon Population Survey, and Oregon Statistics.

http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/

Health and Retirement Study (HRS)

The HRS is a national panel study intended to provide data for those having to make policy decisions affecting retirement, health insurance, savings, and economic well-being.

The study, including data from 7,600 households, has had three waves of data collection.

Data from Waves I and II are available on the web site.

http://www.umich.edu/~hrswww/

High School and Beyond (HS&B)

The HS&B study, which was conducted between 1980 and 1992, explored the activities of seniors and sophomores as they progressed through high school, post-secondary education, and into the workplace. A total of 58,270 high school students (28,240

seniors and 30,030 sophomores) and 1,015 secondary schools participated. Many

items overlap with the NCES 1972 high school senior cohort study. Data are available from the ICPSR in both SPSS and SAS formats, and can also be obtained through the National Center for Education Statistics (see below).

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/IAED/hsb.html

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Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES)

The HHANES, conducted from July 1982 to December 1984, is a nationwide probability sample of approximately 16,000 persons of Hispanic heritage who were between the ages of 6 months and 74 years. This study provides information on the health history, status, and behaviors of Hispanic Americans. Data from this study are only available on tape, and can be ordered online, through the mail, by telephone or by fax for US$265 per tape.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/products/catalogs/sitemap.htm

Institute for Research in Social Science (IRSS) Data Archive, UNC-CH

One of the oldest and largest archives of machine-readable data in the USA, the IRSS

holds more than 2,800 studies and surveys. The IRSS is the exclusive national repository of the Louis Harris Public Opinion Polls, a local repository for World Fertility Surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and the repository for North Carolina

state surveys. The archive acquires data from the Roper Center, the ICPSR, and the North Carolina State Data Center, and holds public opinion data from the Louis Harris Poll, the National Network of State Polls, the Carolina Poll, the Southern Focus Poll, and a small collection of polls from Latin America and Spain. The archive also contains census, economic, political, and educational datasets. Data can be accessed via FTP over the Internet, and are available in ASCII, SAS, and SPSS formats.

http://www.irss.unc.edu/data_archive/

Institute for Social Research (ISR), University of Michigan

The ISR is the longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. It comprises four centers: the Survey Research Center, the Research Center for Group Dynamics, the Center for Political Studies, and the Population Studies Center.

Some of the ISR's major studies include the PSID, AHEAD/HRS, and the National

Election Studies. The data from many of the larger studies conducted by the centers within the ISR are available to researchers through the ICPSR.

http://www.isr.umich.edu/isrsites.html

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

Located within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, the ICPSR

is a membership-based organization serving colleges and universities in the United States and many foreign countries. For those not at a member institution, direct purchase of data can be arranged. The ICPSR provides access to the world's largest archive of social science data, training facilities for the study of quantitative technology, and resources for researchers. The archive includes data in the following areas: census data, community and urban studies, conflict and aggression studies, economic behavior, attitudes, education, elites and leadership, geography and environment, government, health care facilities, international systems, legal systems, legislative bodies, mass political behavior, organizational behavior, social indicators, and social institutions. Further, the ICPSR

maintains the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA).

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/index.html

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Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)

The IPUMS is possibly the richest source of information regarding long-term social and economic change in America. It includes 25 high precision samples of the American population drawn from 13 federal censuses (1850±1990). Data for these samples include information on fertility, nuptiality, immigration, labor force participation, education, household composition, etc. Researchers can access the data online in SAS, SPSS, STATA, or BMDP formats.

http://www.ipums.umn.edu/

Longitudinal Retirement History Study, 1969±1979 (LRHS)

The LRHS, conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services, is a

nationally representative survey of individuals who were between the ages of 58 and 63 years in 1969. The initial sample of 11,162 people was followed up in five additional waves taking place in 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1979. Data are available in raw form, in SPSS format, or in SAS format.

http://www.socio.com/srch/summary/dasra/age03±14.htm

Longitudinal Study of Aging 1984±1990 (LSOA) and 1994±1996

(LSOA-II)

Part of the National Health Interview Survey Series, the LSOA studies explore the causes and correlates of changes in health and functioning among older adults. The LSOA studies are based upon a large nationally representative sample of the US non-institutionalized population that were 70 years and older in 1984. These data can be purchased on CD-ROM from either the Government Printing Office (GPO) or the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for US$16±30. The LSOA-II is also stored at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) archives.

http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/studies/homepage.htm

Mexican Migration Project

Collected between 1982 and 1996, the Mexican Migration Project is a comprehensive data set on Mexican migration to the United States. This study, a joint project of the University of Guadalajara and the University of Pennsylvania, employs the ethno-survey approach, combining the techniques of ethnographic fieldwork and representative

survey sampling methods in order to gather both qualitative and quantitative data regarding migration patterns. Researchers can download the data in SPSS format from this site through FTP. Codebooks are available online as well.

http://lexis.pop.upenn.edu/mexmig

Michigan Prevention Research Center (MPRC)

The MPRC focuses upon prevention research dealing with problems of employment,

economic stress, and well-being throughout the lifecourse. Center projects and studies which can be accessed via the Internet include JOBS, the Welfare to Work Program, and the Monitoring the Future Study.

http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/seh/mprc/index.html

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The Monitoring the Future Study (MTF)

Conducted by the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center since 1975, the MTF