Selected Resources for Political Science:
Emory's Electronic Data Center
General Social Science Data Resources
American Politics Data Resources
Comparative Politics/International Relations Data Resources
CD-ROM/Non-Web Databases
Emory's Electronic Data Center (217 Woodruff Library)
http://einstein.library.emory.edu - The Data Center home page
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/links.shtml - The Data Freeway, a thematically-organized collection of links to on-line data sources
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/help_index.shtml - Help Pages for databases and data management
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/citation_guide.html - Guide for citation of electronic data sources
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/contact.shtml - Data Center contact information and hours
GENERAL SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA RESOURCES
ICPSR (Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
The ICPSR is the largest collection of Social Science Data in the world. Topics included in the archive
include: economics, government, health care, crime, education, etc. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory. The Data Center
also maintains an archive of ready-to-use ICPSR datasets which are accessible via the search engine on the Data
Center home page.
Fedstats
http://www.fedstats.gov/
Fedstats is a good starting place for data on the United States and contains
links statistical resources produced by the U.S. government.
Lexis-Nexis Statistical
Lexis-Nexis Statistical, which is available via Databases at Emory, allows patrons to
search for statistics from the U.S. government and other sources and download them directly into Microsoft
Excel.
AMERICAN POLITICS DATA RESOURCES
Courts, Criminal Justice, and Judicial Politics:
Bureau of Justice Statistics
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
The BJS provides a wealth of crime and criminal justice data compiled by the U.S. government and links to
available data on other government websites.
S. Sidney Ulmer Project
http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/PoliticalScience/PoliticalScience/FacultyResources/Resources/Ulmer/Pages/default.aspx
The S. Sidney Ulmer Project has brought together multiple datasets that are of interest to students of judidical
politics. Harold J. Spaeth's datasets on the Supreme Court may be of particular interest. Note that the data are being
relocated to this site hosted by the Judicial Research Insitute
at the University of South Carolina.
Demographics, Population, and Social Indicators:
American Fact Finder
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
The American Fact Finder is an excellent starting point for data from the 1990 and 2000 versions of the U.S.
Census.
"Bowling Alone: Data"
http://www.bowlingalone.com/data.htm
This site hosts data used by Professor Robert Putnam in his Bowling Alone study of "social capital" in the United
States. The data cover topics such as civic engagement, trust in others and in social institutions, etc. Additional
relevant data for the study of social capital are available via the
Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America and
via the Roper Center.
State of the Cities Data System (SOCDS)
http://socds.huduser.org/index.html
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has produced SOCDS to provide quick access to tabular data
for social, demographic, and economic variables at different geographic levels. HUD has also compiled and
organized a collection of datasets
produced by or in association with its Office of Policy Development and Research.
State Politics and Policy Quarterly Data Sources
http://www.ku.edu/pri/SPPQ/research.shtml
This site has time-series data for the American states on basic economic, political, and social information.
Depending on the variable, the data coverage is from 1975 to 2001. The data are also available at a mirror
site here.
Economics:
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
http://www.bea.gov/
The BEA is an excellent source for economic data at both the national and subnational (state/local) level.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
http://www.bls.gov
The BLS contains much data on employment, wages, and prices, at both the national and sub-national levels. Be
warned that the website is not always easy to navigate.
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED II)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
FRED II includes time-series data for variables such as GDP, interest rates, exchange rates, consumer prices, and
banking. Most of the data are from the 1950's onwards, though some series extend back prior to WWII.
Elections and Voting Behavior:
American National Election Studies (NES)
http://www.electionstudies.org/
The National Election Studies series is one of the premier sources for data on voting behavior and poltical
attitudes in the post-WWII United States. Upon registering (which is free), users can download data and SAS/SPSS/Stata
program files and documentation for any of the various NES studies. The
SDA Archive at UC-Berkeley also allows
users to access recent versions of the NES and extract particular variables from them for those who have
specific questions in which they are interested.
CQ Voting and Elections Collection
http://library.cqpress.com/elections/
The CQ Voting and Elections Collection brings together a great deal of data on election results in the
United States at both the federal and state levels. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory.
National Election Pool (NEP) 2004 Exit Polls
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/nep2004.shtml
National Election Pool exit polls are available through the
ICPSR, the
Roper Center, and Emory's Electronic Data
Center. The link above provides access to the (even more controversial) election results provided by the NEP for the
2004 election.
Voter News Service (VNS) 2000 Exit Polls
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/vns2000.shtml
Voter News Service exit polls are available through the
ICPSR, the
Roper Center, and Emory's Electronic Data
Center. The link above provides access to the (highly controversial) election results provided by the VNS for the
2000 election.
Public Opinion and Survey Data:
General Social Survey (GSS)
http://www.norc.org/projects/General+Social+Survey.htm
The GSS measures public opinion in the United States on a wide variety of topics of interest to social scientists. The survey,
which began in the early 1970's, provides a (nearly) annual perspective on American attitudes toward government, life, race,
religion, and other social issues. The link here is to the GSS homepage within the National Opinion Research Center.
Sites where researchers can extract and download
specific variables of interest are listed here. The
SDA Archive at Berkeley also holds GSS data from 1972 to 2006.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
http://people-press.org/
The Pew Research Center is a major center for the study of public opinion and regularly conducts polls (both
at home and abroad) about various social and political topics and contemporary issues. They make many of their
studies available for download here.
Many of the more recent datafiles are in SPSS format. Users are required to register before downloading a
dataset, but registration is free. Users should also check out the resources available via the
Pew Research Center homepage.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/
The Roper Center is one of the country's premier centers for polling data. The
iPOLL interface may be of particular
use because it allows users to search through surveys at the question level. This resource is also available
via Databases at Emory.
COMPARATIVE POLITICS/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DATA RESOURCES
Comparative Political Economy/International Political Economy:
International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Financial Statistics
http://www.imfstatistics.org/imf/imfbrowser.aspx?branch=ROOT
The IFS is a standard source of statistics on various aspects of international
and domestic finance. Please note that this site is restricted to the
Emory community. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory. There is also a CD-ROM
version of the IFS available in the Data Center.
Penn World Tables
PWT is a good starting point for basic world economic data
during the period 1950-2004. The most recent version of the PWT is available
at http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/.
An older version with coverage from 1950-1992 (and some variables not
yet available in the newest version) can be found at http://datacentre.chass.utoronto.ca/pwt/.
SourceOECD (Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development)
http://new.sourceoecd.org/
SourceOECD is an online
service that provides full-text access to OECD studies, periodicals, and
statistics. Included are annuals, outlooks, policy reviews, conference
proceedings, analytical reports, guidelines, working papers, all periodicals,
and 27 statistical databases. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory.
United Nations Commodity Statistics Trade Database (Comtrade)
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade/
The UN's Comtrade database is a good source for commodity-specific bilateral trade data. Users can create their
own extracts of data for both value and quantity of trade using different industrial classification codes and
download those extracts for later use. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory.
World Development Indicators (World Bank)
http://devdata.worldbank.org/dataonline/
The World Development Indicators Website provides
convenient access to nearly 600 indicators on over 200 countries. Data is
generally available from 1960 forward. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory.
Elections, Governments, Institutions, and Voting Behavior:
Adam Carr's Election Archive
http://psephos.adam-carr.net/
Excellent link for electoral results around the world, with a special section on Australia. Results are for the most recent
elections and are typically broken down into regions or the equivalent electoral constituency.
Comparative Political Data Sets (CPDS)
http://www.ipw.unibe.ch/content/team/klaus_armingeon/comparative_political_data_sets/index_ger.html
The CPDS were produced by scholars at the University of Berne. They focus on
OECD countries and on post-communist countries and contain much data on the structure of political institutions, as well as data
on demographics, electoral results, and ideological compositions of governments. There are also variables for
female participation in parliament. Please note the preferred citation format.
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems
http://www.cses.org
This site contains data and documentation for a cross-national collection of election studies. The CSES
combines microdata on respondents with data at different levels of geography (i.e. data on respondents' electoral
districts and on the political institutions of their countries) and focuses on themes such as how macro-level
variables such as electoral systems affect political attitudes.
Database of Political Institutions
http://go.worldbank.org/2EAGGLRZ40
This database was put together in part by Phillip Keefer at the World Bank and provides data on the political institutions
and structures of different countries in the world from 1975 to 2006. Additional documentation are also available
here. Please note the authors' preferred format for citing
their data.
Political Risk Services (PRS) Group Data
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/Risk-Data.html
The Data Center's holdings include data resources from the
PRS Group and other sources that measure
"risk" in the form of political (in)stability and institutional quality (e.g. levels of corruption).
International and Internal Conflict:
Correlates of War (COW) Project
http://www.correlatesofwar.org/
The Correlates of War Project is hosted at Penn State University and distributes
a variety of datasets relevant for the study of inter- and
intra-state conflict.
Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/
The MAR Project is affiliated with the Integrated Network for Societal
Conflict Research and the Center for International Development and
Conflict Research at the University of Maryland. The project tracks the status of nearly 300 "politically-active communal
groups" and the MAR data are used extensively by scholars
of ethnic conflict.
Paul Hensel's International Relations Data Site
http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/data.html
This site is run by a professor at FSU and is a good source for data on
international conflicts, economic relations, and organization.
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)
http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/UCDP/
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program is run by scholars at Uppsala University in Sweden. Their
catalog is a
very comprehensive list of datasets and other resources pertaining to international and internal conflict. The
UCDP houses a database of its own
here. In addition, the UCDP and the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo have collaborated to
produce the Armed Conflict 1946-2004 dataset available here.
Public Opinion and Survey Data:
Afrobarometers
http://www.afrobarometer.org/
The Afrobarometers are a series of surveys conducted across a dozen Sub-Saharan African countries with the
intent of gathering data on social and political attitudes towards subjects such as political participation,
national identity, civil society, and other such topics. The series is modelled in part after the Eurobarometer
series (see below). The Data Center has many Afrobarometer data files available
here.
Eurobarometers
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg10/epo/eb.html
Homepage for the Eurobarometer series of European public opinion polls. Many Eurobarometers are also available
from the ICPSR. The
Data Center also has an extensive
collection of Eurobarometers, including studies conducted in Central and Eastern European countries.
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
http://www.issp.org/homepage.htm
The ISSP is an ongoing effort devoted to cross-national research on social attitudes. In addition to asking
general questions about attitudes towards various social issues, the ISSP series also includes special topic modules
focusing on matters such as national idenitity, the role of government, and gender roles. The Data Center has
many ISSP data files available
here.
Latinobarómetro Data
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/Latinobarometro-Data.shtml
The Latinobarómetro is an annual survey conducted amongst 18 countries in Latin America. The survey, which has been
conducted since 1995, asks respondents about topics such as globalization, democratic governance and political institutions,
"social capital," the environment, and gender issues. The Data Center has microdata files for this survey from 1995 through
2005.
World Values Surveys Series
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/
The World Values Survey is "a worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change. It is conducted by a
network of social scientist at leading universities all around world. The survey is performed on nationally
representative samples in almost 80 societies on all six inhabited continents." It is an excellent source for
cross-national survey data and is a widely-referenced resource. The Data Center has all four "waves" of the World
Values Survey available here.
CD-ROM/NON-WEB DATABASES
Banks Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive
The Banks CNTS Data Archive contains time-series data from 1815-2005 on
a wide range of political, economic, and social
indicators. An older version of the archive is available
here.
Eurostat Statistics DVD
The Eurostat Statistics DVD is a very comprehensive source for economic and social data for EU members at both
the national and sub-national/regional level. Some of its databases also include data for countries in Central
and Eastern Europe. In addition to the DVD in the Data Center, there is also an
on-line interface. More recent
data from this database are also now available directly from the
Eurostat website. The Eurostat interface does not cover as many
years as does the DVD, but it will allow users to download data into spreadsheet formats. Please note that none of the
interfaces is entirely user-friendly.
EUGene (Expected Utility Data Generation and Management Program)
EUGene is an excellent tool for students of international conflict. It allows users to create customized
subsets of data from many datasets commonly used in international relations.
Neighborhood Change Data Base
The Neighborhood Change Data Base contains data from the 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 censuses and allows users
to convert data from pre-2000 censuses into 2000 census tracts to show demographic and economic changes over
time in given areas.
Voteview for Windows
Voteview is software designed by Keith Poole and Harold Rosenthal for use in analyzing Congressional roll-call
votes from 1789 to 2000.
World Trade Analyzer
The WTA contains data on bilateral trade flows from 1980 to 1999 in specific products down to the 4-digit SITC
code. The WTA is available on the machines in the Electronic Data Center as well as in the Goizueta business
library. A more recent version of the WTA covers the years 1987-2004 and includes data on post-communist
countries in Eastern Europe. Both versions are available in the Data Center.
A complete list of the Data Center's non-web databases is available here. The databases are accessible via the Data Center's public workstations.
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