Links


Data - US

  • Ask Census.gov - This Census site takes commonly-asked questions for data and directs you to the census and to many other government surveys and departments.
  • Community Analysis - List of links helpful in the use of Geographic Information System software.
  • Data Ferret - DataFerrett allows you to select variables from many government surveys; recode those variables; export them as an SAS, SPSS, Excel/Access file; and create a graph. Many government surveys are included, among them the Current Population Survey, several Decennial Censuses, the American Community Survey, economic and health surveys.
  • DataPass has a shared catalog which allows you to search the major American data archives — Harvard, Odum, NARA, Roper, ICPSR, and Murray — all from one place.
  • Financial Data - (Formerly provided by AMSPEC). This list of data available to the SDSU community is published by SDSU's Finance Department.
  • General Social Survey - The General Social Survey (GSS) has been conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) on a nearly annual basis from its origin in 1972.
  • Minnesota Population Center houses many kinds of data and they make it easy to compare data for several years because they harmonize the data:
  • National Election Study - The National Election Studies (NES) contain data from 1948 through to the present. They track the ebb and flow of public opinion, electoral behavior, and choice in American politics over time. Of particular note:
    • Guide: The Guide provides a quick overview with some handy tables and graphs. Note: It covers a small but significant portion of the questions in the NES. A good place to start.
    • Data Center: Download files from this page.
    • Other Election Studies from the U.S., other countries, and macro data collections specific to the study of elections.
  • Pew Research Center - Pew Research Center conducts surveys on economics, politics, social issues, the media as well as foreign policy and global attitudes. A search for data is best done through Roper's iPoll. Several Pew Projects have their own websites:
  • Public Opinion Poll Question Database - The Institute for Research in Social Science (IRSS) allows you to search their on-line database of public opinion poll questions (Louis Harris, Carolina, Southern and State polls) for the years since 1960 and then either display or download the list of questions. Worthy of special note is the "Virginia Slims American Women's Opinion Polls, 1970-1972."
  • Roper Center's Guide to Other Data Archives - This guide is a list of recommendations to other data archives.
  • San Diego Geographic Information Source (SanGIS) - SanGIS is the regional geographic information source for City and County geographic information, aerial photography, satelite photos, and a host of other geographic data.
  • Search for Social Sciences Data on the Net - A searchable and browsable list of sources of numeric social science data including actual data, data archives, data libraries, vendors of data, and social science gateways. This comprehensive and well-respected site is maintained by the University of California at San Diego.
  • Social Science Research and Instructional Council (SSRIC) - With representatives from each of the CSU campuses, the Council is dedicated to assisting students and faculty in their learning of, teaching of, and research in the social sciences. The website provides an online statistics textbook for several versions of SPSS, GSS files, teaching modules and information about their annual student research conference.
  • Social Sciences Virtual Library - A part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library. It has links to journals, websites and data archives.
  • Stanford University's Social Science Data and Software - This site keeps an up-to-date list of links to data websites and archives by subject area.

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Data - International

  • American Religion Data Archive has international as well as national surveys which provide data on religious adherents, religious freedoms, demographics, and other social measures. It is a good starting point and directive to other data sources especially for developing countries.
  • IASSIST lists new and noteworthy sites found by data professionals.
  • Indices - Rankings of countries by different characteristics:
  • ICPSR's Data Fair - Recorded sessions give a guided orientation to AmericasBarometer Surveys and The Latinobarometer as well as to data from the World Bank and the United Nations.
  • International Data Resource Center (IDRC) - The IDRC acts as a clearinghouse for international data housed at the ICPSR. Researchers can browse holdings using the Subject Terms, Series Name, Geography, or traditional search engines.
  • Latinobarómetro - This is an annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million inhabitants. Their Data Bank offers free downloads of data from 1995 to 2006. More recent surveys are available for a price. However online analysis is also available at no cost for the rounds 1995 to 2009.
  • IPUMS-International offers harmonized (easy-to-compare) data for the years 1960 forward covering 159 censuses from around the world.
  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - The OECD Factbook is organised around 12 themes such as population and migration, macroeconomic trends, and globalization. Each indicator includes a table showing the latest available data for the 30 OECD countries. When available, it also shows data from countries with which the OECD has close co-operation such as Brazil, Russian Federation, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa.
    • Statistics on the web : Both ready-made tables of statistics and the ability to make real-time queries.
    • OECD Factbook 2010 for iPhone: Free. Presents 100 economic indicators in a format specially designed for your iPhone. Gives handy access to a comprehensive statistical picture of the world’s major economies from a most reliable source.
  • Pew Global Attitudes - The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion surveys encompassing a broad array of subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. More than 150,000 interviews in 54 countries have been conducted as part of the project's work.
  • Roper Center's International Data - The Roper Center has much international data searchable by country in its general collection but also keeps some data in the two separate archives listed below.
  • Stanford University's Social Science Data and Software - This site keeps an up-to-date list of links to data websites and data archives by subject area.
  • Transatlantic Trends - Transatlantic Trends is an annual public opinion survey examining American and European attitudes toward the transatlantic relationship as well as many topics of international importance.
  • United Nations Scholars' Workstation Home Page - The United Nations Scholars' Workstation, developed by the Yale University Library and the Social Science Statistical Laboratory, is a collection of texts, finding aids, data sets, maps, and pointers to print and electronic information. Subject coverage includes disarmament, economic and social development, environment, human rights, international relations, international trade, peacekeeping, population and demography.
  • World Bank - Users may browse by country, topic, indicator or listing in the data catalog for over 2000 indicators from 1960-present. The dataBank contains the databases: World Development Indicators & Global Development Finance, Gender Statistics, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics, Africa Development Indicators, Global Economic Monitor (GEM), and Millenium Development Goals. If you do not need time-series data, there is also a second site for single facts and and simple visualizations.
  • World Values - The World Values Survey Association was founded in order to help social scientists and policy makers better understand the worldviews and changes that are taking place in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. Every five years, members carry out representative national surveys that are combined to give a global picture.

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Statistical Software

  • Campus Site License - SDSU has a site license for SAS and SPSS. Copies of the software are available to faculty, staff and TAs. Also the campus bookstore sells a student version.
  • Leasing - SAS or SPSS, a full version, may be leased for 6 months or a year.

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Statistics

  • HyperStat Online - HyperStat Online is an introductory-level hypertext statistics book.
  • Roper Center - This page gives good, clear directions for importing ASCII data into SPSS. Better yet - it highlights areas where users are prone to make errors with graphics as well as text. At the end it recommends websites with information on using SPSS.
  • StatSoft Electronic Statistics Textbook - StatSoft Electronic Statistics Textbook can be searched by keywords or phrases for the terms and general concepts of statistics. It begins with an overview of pivotal concepts and then continues with a more in-depth exploration.
  • Simple Interactive Statistical Analysis (SISA) - SISA is a collection of procedures to do simple statistical calculations using only your browser. In other words, it is a basic statistical package available free on the net. It covers all the usual statistical procedures as well as some of the more unusual but useful ones.
  • SPSS for Windows 13.0: A Basic Tutorial - An online version of a textbook for SPSS software, version 13. Texts for earlier versions are also available.
  • StatLib Index - StatLib is a system for distributing statistical software, data sets, and information by electronic mail, FTP, Gopher, and WWW. StatLib started out as an e-mail service and some of the organization still reflects that heritage.

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Tools for Writing Papers

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Miscellaneous

Information on prevention of and healing from Repetitive Strain Injuries such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and on using a computer in a healthy way:

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