ICPSR

You can find datasets through multiple methods. ICPSR allows browsing in topics, series, thematic data collections, and data-related publications, as well as datasets with supplemental materials, and most recently released data. 

The basic keyword search allows use of wildcard characters (* and ?), although tests indicate the * is not reliably zero-to-many characters. Use quotes for exact phrase searches.

Results will be grouped in five tabs with the number of results in parentheses. 

• Studies - data publications/studies which match the keywords
• Variables - individual variables with the keyword(s). Variables are more likely to be related to single terms or phrases rather than complex searches. Use words that are likely to appear in a variable name.
• Series - these are often longitudinal or ongoing/frequently occurring surveys.
• Data-related Publications - data related publications which match the keywords.  The search results in this tab are pulled from the ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature, a frequently-updated database of thousands of citations for publications that analyze data held at ICPSR.
• ICPSR Website - general website search. Use this search to find results that include web pages, news, announcements, staff information, events, and more.

Summaries are by default hidden. Turn them on to read the dataset or project abstract.
 

Much of the ICPSR datasets are downloadable by current Fresno State researchers, students, and faculty.  There are two search filters to assist finding data: Restriction Type and Data Availability.  Data Availability indicates if the data are publicly available, or only available to ICPSR members.  Restriction Type indicates if there are files in the data collection which have special restrictions, and are not openly available.  It is possible for part of a data collection to have public-use and openly available data files, (which do not require ICPSR membership), while other parts of the same data collection will have restrictions and require a special  application for access.

For most datasets, ICPSR makes files available in ASCII, SPSS, SAS, and Stata file formats or provides the setup files for the statistical software packages. In some cases only the ASCII format is available.  

Steps for downloading non-restricted data:

• Login to your ICPSR account
• Click your desired data format.
• Select the dataset(s) in the study that you want to download.
• Read the Terms of Use prior to hitting "Agree" button
• The download, into .zip file, should begin immediately.

Tips

• Use the Browse Documentation tab to decide if the study fits your information needs.
• By downloading data from ICPSR, you are agreeing to follow the terms of use and to not to share the data with persons not authorized by ICPSR.