Selected Resources for POLS 490S (Public Opinion in Advanced Industrial Democracies)
Spring 2006
Emory's Electronic Data Center
General Social Science Data Resources
U.S. and International Polling/Survey Data
Non-Survey/Contextual Data
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.
U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL POLLING/SURVEY DATA
U.S. Polling/Survey Data:
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.
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)
http://www.thearda.com/
The ARDA contains many datasets pertaining to religion, including both surveys on religious attitudes and data
on denominations and denomination membership.
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.
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.
Odum Institute Data Archive
http://152.2.32.107/odum/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=7
The Odum Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill has a large catalog of holdings for polling, including surveys from
Louis Harris & Associates. Their
Public Opinion Poll Question
Database allows users to search through the texts
of questions for more refined queries.
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.
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.
International Polling/Survey Data:
British General Election Survey Series (BES)
http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-SERIES/00008.xml
To quote the ICPSR, "[the] British General Election Survey has three general aims: (1) to collect data with a
view to describing and explaining the outcome of general elections, (2) to analyze long-term changes in political
attitudes and behavior from the early 1960s to the present, and (3) to organize and make available these data in
a form suitable for a wide range of research." The ICPSR's BES holdings cover elections during the years 1970
through 1997. The
British Social Attitudes Survey Series may also be of use for studying public opinion and social attitudes
in Britain.
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.
Eurobarometer Homepage
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 has an extensive
collection of Eurobarometers, including studies conducted in Central and Eastern European countries. The Central Archive for Empirical Social Research
also has a search engine for locating Eurobarometers that might be applicable for your research; this engine is
located at
http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/search/index.htm.
European Social Survey (ESS)
http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/
To quote the website, the ESS is "designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing
institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations." The data are
available for both
on-line analysis and direct download into SAS/SPSS/Stata.
German Election Studies Series
http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-SERIES/00118.xml
To quote the ICPSR's description, the German Election Studies "furnish information on attitudes and electoral
behavior of the German electorate, including their views on other political, social, economic, and personal
issues." The ICPSR's holdings of the German Politbarometer Series may also be of interest for studying social attitudes and
public opinion in Germany.
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
http://www.issp.org/
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.
Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSS) Series
http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-SERIES/00209.xml
To quote the ICPSR, the JGSS "were designed to solicit political, sociological, and economic information from
people living in Japan. They provide data for analyses of Japanese society, attitudes, and behaviors, which
makes possible international comparisons." The ICPSR has JGSS files from 2000 through 2003.
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.
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.
NON-SURVEY/CONTEXTUAL DATA
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.
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.
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.
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. There is also a CD
version of the WDI available in the Data Center.
CD-ROM/NON-WEB DATABASES
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.
OECD Health 2008
The OECD Health 2008 database contains an extensive amount of data on health indicators, health-related lifestyle
matters, and health policy for developed countries.
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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