Social Science Data Bases

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Social ScienceData Bases

• CSU Fresno
• October 30, 2009

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Sponsored by

http//www.ssric.org
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Workshop Agenda

• Overview of the SSRIC
• Data Archives
• ICPSR
• Field
• Roper
• Other Workshops

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SSRIChttp//www.ssric.org
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The Council

• Oldest CSU affinity group (since 1972)
• Representatives from CSU campuses meet three
  times per year
• Negotiates with data providers for access to data
• Promotes use of data analysis in research and
  teaching

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The Council

• Annual student research conference
• at Sacramento in 2009
• at Pomona in 2010
• Sponsors travel to ICPSR summer workshops in Ann
  Arbor, Michigan
• http//www.ssric.org/participate/icpsr_summer
• Works with Field Research
• Question credits
• Faculty fellow

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Social Science Databases

• The California State University subscribes to
  social science databases to support
• teaching
• research
• administration
• Available to campuses by annual subscription

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Social Science Databases

• Assistance from the SSRIC
• Note SSRIC members are not staff data
  consultants or technical assistance providers,
  but we will do what we can to help students,
  faculty and staff to access data
• Campus representatives http//www.ssric.org/reps

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Social Science Databases

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and
  Social Research (ICPSR)
• Field Poll
• Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

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Accessing the data bases

• On-campus access to data bases is IP
  authenticated
• Off-campus access
• Field not available
• Roper uses library as proxy server -- works
  just like other library data bases
• ICPSR
• first time, uses library proxy server
• after that, you can access from anywhere but you
  must reauthenticate every 6 months

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ICPSR

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and
  Social Research

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ICPSR

• Primary social science data archive for the U.S.
• Founded in 1962 CSU joined in 1972
• Over 600 member institutions worldwide
• Services
• Vast data archive accessible via the web (ICPSR
  Direct)
• Summer program
• Instructional resources

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http//icpsr.org
Find data
Teaching
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Using ICPSR Direct

• Locate the study
• Select the data for download
• Download the data
• Import the data for statistical analysis

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Find and Analyze Data
Find data
Analyze data online
Topical archives
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Searching for Data

• Type in key words
• (e.g., gun control)
• Click search

Search terms are not case sensitive if all lower
case
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Search Results
Sort by time period (newest)
Click on link
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Downloading the data
View study description
Download all files
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Agree to the Terms of Use
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Saving the Files
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Select Folder Where you Want to Save it
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Unzip the File

• The file has been saved as a zip file
• Unzip it by double clicking on the file name
  (xxxxx.zip)
• Extract all the files

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Whats in the File?

• Look in the layers of subfolders until you find
  the DS0001 folder
• It will include the
• Codebook (pdf file)
• Questionnaire (pdf file)
• SPSS file (in this case, its a .sav file)
• Other files

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Open the File in SPSS
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Other Types of Files you Might Encounter

• SPSS portable (.por) files
• Will work on all platforms
• Tell SPSS to look for a .por file
• Raw data (ASCII) file with SPSS syntax (.sps)
  file
• Youll have to create your own .sav file
• See next slide
• Raw data file with only a codebook
• Youll have to create your own syntax file
• SPSS Intro workshop discusses how to do this

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Whats a Syntax File?

• A syntax file is a set of commands to convert a
  raw ASCII data file into an SPSS system file
• ASCII SPSS syntax file SPSS system file
• For More Information http//www.ssric.org/data/ic
  psr_directsyntax

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Other ICPSR Resources

• SSRIC ICPSR Guide
• ICPSR Data Use Tutorial
• Social Science Variables Database

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The Field Poll
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The Field (California) Poll

• Established in 1947
• Independent, non-partisan survey of California
  public opinion
• Wide range of political and social topics
• Multiple polls each year

Mervin Field
http//www.field.com
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Accessing Field Data

• Set up your browser
• Find polls and data sets
• Download data sets

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Setting up your browser

• Requires setting passive FTP access
• Can set up browser for folder view or FTP
  directory view
• See the instructions for details
• http//www.ssric.org/data/field_polls
• You will only need to do this once for your
  browser and user account

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Finding Polls

• Find the poll number
• News Releases (www.field.com)
• American Public Opinion Index
• Check with your library for printed and/or
  microfiche versions
• The CALPOLL window
• Accessible via UCData
• You will be using the poll number to select the
  data set for download.

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Searching Polls with UCDATA

• Uses SDA
• Does not include last couple of years
• Gives you the frequency distributions of the
  variables you select

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UC Datahttp//ucdata.berkeley.edu
Click on Field Polls
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Field Polls on UCDATA
Click on search
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Searching
I selected 2000s
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Keywords
Enter gun control
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Search Results
Click View
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Results from SDA
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Downloading the Data
Click Download
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Choosing the File
Double click cal0003 since you want to download
that folder
Note that this is directory view
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Saving the Files
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Select the Folder
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Open the Data in SPSS
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Other Field Resources

• SSRIC Field Poll Guide
• Field News Releases and California Opinion
  Indexes

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The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
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http//www.ropercenter.uconn.edu
Access to iPOLL
Access to Roper Express Data
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Searching for Data Sets
Click Quick Links
Then click search for datasets
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Searching for Data Sets

• Specify
• Keywords
• Date range
• Country

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Searching for Data Sets
Enter keywords (gun control)
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Search Results
Study available on Roper Express
Clicking here brings up study description
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Study Description
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Downloading the Files
Study documentation
Download SPSS Portable (.por) file
Frequencies
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What if nothing is available?

• Some documentation and/or data sets are not
  available on-line. If you are interested in one
  of these, email the survey number and the title
  to
• Ed Nelson at ednelson_at_csufresno.edu

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Saving the File
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Where to Save it
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Opening the .por filein SPSS
Note that I have told SPSS to look for a .por file
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SPSS File
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iPOLL

• Data base of over 500,000 questions
• Includes frequency distributions allowing
  students to do trend analysis online
• You will not need a user name or password from
  on-campus, since the CSU will be IP
  authenticated. You will be prompted for your
  email address

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Login to iPOLL
Your email address is your login
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Searching iPOLL

• Search for keyword
• Click on Boolean or Wildcard for help
• Lets search for relig (note is the wildcard)
• Select the topic of religion
• Use date from 1/1/2000 to todays date

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Search
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Results
Click for question wording and frequencies
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Reviewing iPOLL Results
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Polls and Polling Resources
Polling resources
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Polling 101
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Other Roper Resources

• SSRIC Roper Guide

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Other Workshops
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Workshops on SPSS

• SPSS introductory workshop
• Creating SPSS data file
• Transforming data
• Descriptive statistics
• SPSS intermediate workshop
• Crosstabulations
• Using means
• Correlation and regression
• Charts

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Workshop on Online Statistical Analysis

• SDA (Survey Documentation and Analysis)
• Requires no site license
• Extremely easy to learn
• Excellent for classes where you want to introduce
  students to statistical analysis
• Tools available frequencies, crosstabulations,
  correlation and regression

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Workshop on Data in the Classroom

• Statistical literacy issues and examples
• Causality
• Experimental and survey design
• Unintentional consequences
• Sampling and statistical inference
• Change over time
• Where do we get the data?

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Feedback?

• Please fill out an evaluation form.
• Thanks!