Large Scale Data Projects: General
Data Designed for Geographic Mapping
Data Facilities in Sociology
Either through the Harvard/MIT Data Center, a variety of web-access data sites or data we have stored online locally, department members have a access to wide range of datasets. The table below outlines the some of the more frequently used options. Categorizations in the table below are rough and overlapping.
PLACES, REAL AND VIRTUAL
IQSS -- Dataverse
The Institute for Quantitative Social Science is the new incarnation of the Harvard MIT Data Center but with a whole new look and mission. Its data archiving wing is called Dataverse and is focused on pulling in data from many sources and encouraging the addition of more with facilities for providing documentation on the added datasets .
Numerical Services of HCL
The Harvard College Library has a Social Sciences Data Librarian who tries to pull together the varied services available. This person may be a helpful resource in acquiring data not available through ICPSR. Check website for further detail or contact Heather McMullen directly.
This data reference group has also teamed with the Harvard MIT Data Center staff to provide mail in question center for data searches and handling. Send your question to dataquest@help.hmdc.harvard.edu and it will be seen by a a team of fifteen people, a cross-section from Numerical Data Srevices, Government Documents/Microforms, HMDC technical staff and administrators and the MIT Data Services Librarian. The mail is tracked and you may receive follow up notes and opinions/help from more than one staff member.
Government Documents Unit of Lamont Library
This branch of the library is building a collection of CD-roms and equipment for using them onsite to pull extracts which you transfer to ISR for further work. There isn't an easy online catalog although you can find specific items in Hollis so it's worth a preliminary search. However another good tack is to go there and ask for help or hard copy lists. Check also an informal note on recent use of the Census 2000 Long Form CD.
NESSTAR
This large scale development bears watching by persons interested in international data. Based in Europe, but with ties to ICPSR, the group is developing access to data in a variety of archives, including Essex. The facility will allow for some on the spot calculations and for downloading extracts with a lot of linked documentation.
Social Science Electronic Data Library
The Sociometrics Social Science Electronic Data Library is a premium health and social science resource that consists of six topically focused data archives. With over 300 data sets from 200 different studies comprising six topically-focused collections, it is a unique source of high quality health and social science data and documentation for researchers, educators, students, and policy analysts. The Electronic Data Library is available on a set of CD-ROMs and includes an online membership with free access to datasets for downloading by members. NB Harvard University is a member!
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LARGE SCALE DATA PROJECTS: GENERAL
GSS
The General Social Survey is a bread and butter dataset for methods classes and individual student projects. The GSS website provides excellent access to detail on the survey and its variables. Along history of working with this data has led to the development of local facilities as well. Many of these may be superceded by those provided on the web, but for quick access to a particular year's variables and for access to the most recent release, the local dataset may be your pick.
Resources on Immigration
This data guide was compiled by Irene Bloemraad as part of a project headed by Mary Waters and funded by the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University. It brings together various data sources containing information on immigrants in the United States, with a special focus on political attitudes and behavior. [Accurate as of March 2002.]
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CENSUS BASED DATA
The general site, www.census.gov provides information about all Census datasets—to get an orientation, use the subject index offered near the top of the page. Look into the "access tools" area of the site for some good extraction possibilities from Summary Tape Files and try out the FactFinder section.
CPS
Monthly CPS surveys with varying emphases provide more current information than the decennial Census. Datasets. Data files and codebooks may be acquired through the Data Center. A cd-rom version provides a uniformly named cross year datasets and is available through the Government Documents Unit of Lamont Library. NB Word has it that IPUMS is now providing some access to March CPS files. Take a look for relatively easy access—1962-2005.
IPUMS
Access to the Public Use MicroSamples—i.e. the diennial Census, is via several routes—IPUMS—or Integrated Public Use Micro Sample provides historic sweep with data from 1850 to 2000 with an extracting "front end". Recently March CPS files have been added to the IPUMS site.
NB One time access to extracts via ftp was discontinued in fall of 2006 when ipums website was revised.
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DATA ON EDUCATION
HSB
The High School and Beyond survey has generally been superceded by the NELS, except where long term followup of educational attainment is of interest. Soc_help has hard copy code books and can help with data acquisition. Also check for this through the Harvard Data Center.
NELS
National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 is a source of data on education—it comes in public and restricted versions—soc_help has the public CD and a local research team is working with the restricted version. Check a few startup tips on using the data CD.
DAS
The Data Analysis System (DAS) is a Windows software tool that allows access to Department of Education survey data. for making crosstabulations or correlation matrices—microdata is not distributed; rather this a setup for running tables from centrally stored data. Database include surveys such as High School and Beyond, Baccalaurreate and Beyond, National Household Education Survey of 1995 Adult Education and others.
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LONGITUDINAL DATA
NLS
National Longitudinal Study was one of the first major studies to release data on CD-rom with a documentation-based extracting interface. There are youth and adult samples followed over time. Sociology owns a number of these CD's and can acquire updates as needed. Also work history files available.
PSID
Panel Survey of Income Dynamics covers families and individuals across the span 1968 thru the present. In September 2006, Psid announced release of a new and improved PSID-CDS Data Center. New capabilities include a Cross-Year Variable Index allowing searching across all 48,000 variables
and 34 waves of PSID data and 2 waves of Child Development Supplement data. Searches may be conducted by Topical Domain, by Year, by File, and by Archived Data Carts. During these searches, codebook information may be simultaneously accessed, and data downloaded into a data cart with a click of the mouse.
In addition, a new software tool has been developed to facilitate the creation of data extracts for generational research. These extracts make it easier to link PSID and/or CDS data on a target individual to the PSID and/or CDS data on their parents, grandparents, and siblings across all waves. This tool is called the Family Identification and Mapping System (FIMS) and may be accessed here:
http://simba.isr.umich.edu/U/Warning.aspx?redir=/FIMS
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CROSS NATIONAL DATA
LIS
The Luxembourg Income Study provides a set of cross-national micro samples from the 80's and 90's. A standard set of income and demographic variables is drawn from the best data obtainable from the country -- not all variables are present in all datasets. One does not acquire the data, but rather registers with LIS, promises to respect individual confidentiality, and submits SPSS or STATA jobs via e-mail. Although member nations pay a fee, there is no charge for use of the data by individual academic researchers within member nations.
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DATA DESIGNED FOR GEOGRAPHIC MAPPING
GEOLYTICS
Geolytics is a commercial venture packing great amounts of data onto single CD's for geographic mapping and other analysis. Government Documents section at Lamont has a large collection. Some CD's are also available in the map room at Pusey Library.
CGA
Center for Geographic Analysis is located in the Knafel Building of CGIS and has consulting hours on the concourse level each Monday from 1:30-4 PM. In addition, the laboratory machines have access to base data used in geo-coding of US addresses.
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Sociology does not maintain a data archive except in cases where data is being worked with extensively by department members.