Datasets

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is an international consortium of 800+ academic and research institutions that hosts sets of archival data from 350,000+ social and behavioral science research files. Please read this page for an overview of ICPSR and the data it provides, then explore the provided links to help you successfully access and use the PAU Library's ICPSR subscription service.

ICPSR data sets span the fields of sociology, political science, history, economics, gerontology, substance abuse and mental health, criminal justice, child care, health and medical care, education, and demography. The PAU Library subscribes to this valuable collection of specialized data sets on behalf of our current students, faculty, and staff.

Use the links to the left to familiarize yourself with ICPSR use requirements; orient yourself to the ICPSR search portal; review FAQs about access, analysis, and download procedures; and review the ICPSR website for complete information about the organization and its operations. To get started, you may want to view the very short video "ICPSR: What is ICPSR?" by scrolling down to the bottom of this page. Additional ICPSR videos are available on YouTube.

Membership in ICPSR is provided by subscription through the PAU Library. Use the ICPSR Search link in the side navigation to download data. You'll need to sign in by clicking on the login button, selecting Sign in with Google, and selecting your PAU email address. Once logged in, you can download all unrestricted data and do analysis on their website. Restricted data can be downloaded by faculty only.

You are welcome to reach out to the librarian team at librarian@paloaltou.edu if you encounter any access issues or need any other assistance with this service.

To learn more about ICPSR and how to use it, check out the video below or any of the other awesome videos available on the ICPSR 101 YouTube Channel!