InfoGuides: Find Data for Analysis: Find Data Sets

Search Data Archives

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

You will need to create an account to download data. ICPSR is a leading social science data archive which maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts specialized collections of data in education, disability research, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, health, and other fields. ICPSR provides access to an extensive collection of downloadable data that can be used with SPSS, SAS, & Stata or analyzed online using SDA. George Mason University is an ICPSR member which means students, staff and faculty have full access to its resources.

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)

Microdata for social, health, and economic research. Provides a consistent interface to extract data from the American Community Survey, Census of Population and Housing, Current Population Survey, American Time Use Survey, higher ed, health surveys, and historical US GIS coverages. International data includes IPUMS International population censuses and Global Health Surveys. Can select variables and customize dataset before downloading.

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

Access data from a leader in the field of public opinion research. Search Roper's iPoll for survey questions and datasets from survey organizations such as Gallup, Harris, Pew Research, ABC, CBS, and more. Access Roper Center tutorials, help guides, and educational resources.

Sociometrics This link opens in a new window
Provides access to health and social science data from more than 600 datasets and over 275,000 variables covering a variety of target populations, e.g., children, adolescents, elderly.

Dataset Search Tools

These resources search within and across many different archives and repositories. Each may have a different way of finding and downloading data. Once you get to a repository or dataset of interest, there should be instructions about how to use it.

Data.gov This link opens in a new window
Home of the U.S. Government's open data, providing access to over 85,000 datasets. Major topic areas include Agriculture, Consumer, Education, Energy, Finance, Geospatial, Global Development, Health, Jobs & Skills, Public Safety, Science & Research, Weather and more. Some resources allow for online analysis and visualization.

Google Dataset Search
Dataset Search enables users to find datasets stored across the Web through a simple keyword search. The tool surfaces information about datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web, making these datasets universally accessible and useful.

Data Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Supports data discovery through collection of datasets across subjects and regions, gathered from selected repositories throughout the world. Standardization facilitates citation analysis and tracking emerging resources. Covers the social sciences, physical sciences, life sciences, and arts and humanities, 1900-present. Part of Web of Science.
Tutorial for the Data Citation Index database.
DataCite Commons This link opens in a new window
Use DataCite Commons to search across millions of international research data records. DataCite Commons is an integrated search interface where it is possible to search, filter, and extract or download data. DataCite Commons describes works, people, organizations and repositories and their connections.
Tutorial for the DataCite database.
DataCite Common's international coverage includes data resources for which a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) has been assigned. Note that DataCite indexes a large amount of open access content, but some individual data resources may be restricted.

Harvard Dataverse
Harvard Dataverse provides access to a rich array of datasets to support your research. It offers advanced searching and text mining in over 2,000 dataverses, 75,000 datasets, and 350,000+ files, representing institutions, groups, and individuals at Harvard and beyond.

re3data.org This link opens in a new window
Global registry of research data repositories representing different academic disciplines. re3data.org indexes more than 1,500 research data repositories, making it the largest and most comprehensive registry of data repositories available on the web.

How to use	See our Infoguide: Finding & Using ICPSR Data or ICPSR's YouTube Channel.
Data Format	[Zipped] SPSS, SAS, & Stata or analyzed online using SDA.
Registration	You will need to create an account to download data. George Mason University is an ICPSR member which means students, staff and faculty have full access to its resources.
How to Cite:	How to cite the datasets

How to use	IPUMS Tutorials
Data Format	[Zipped] SPSS, SAS, & Stata, text with Setup files, or analyzed online. See also the R package ipumsr.
Registration	You will need to create an account to download data and agree to the terms of use.
How to Cite:	How to cite the datasets

How to use	iPOLL Databank Tutorials
Data Format	[Zipped] SPSS, Stata, SAS, Excel
Registration	You will need to create an account to download data. George Mason University is a Roper Center member which means students, staff and faculty have full access to its resources.
How to cite:	How to cite