Data & Statistics - SC 4383 - Sociological Research - Blume Library at St. Mary's University

Data Sets

Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)
Formerly the American Religion Data Archive, ARDA strives to democratize access to the best data on religion. Includes American and international collections and features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers.
Census Data: Data.Census.Gov
Portal to Census data from 2000 to the present. It replaces American FactFinder.
Correlates of War
This project seeks to collect, disseminate, and foster the "use of accurate and reliable quantitative data in international relations." The project commits to "standard scientific principles of replication, data reliability, documentation, review, and the transparency of data collection procedures." The project promotes "free public release of data sets to the research community," the release of data in a timely manner after data collection is completed, and provides "version numbers for data set and replication tracking, to provide appropriate dataset documentation, and to attempt to update, document, and distribute follow-on versions of datasets where possible."
Data.gov
Provides public access to datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. View datasets by agency, or search by keyword or category.
General Social Survey (GSS) Data Explorer
The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative survey of adults in the United States conducted since 1972. The GSS collects data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends in opinions, attitudes and behaviors. The GSS has adapted questions from earlier surveys, thereby allowing researchers to conduct comparisons for up to 80 years.

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The GSS contains a standard core of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Among the topics covered are civil liberties, crime and violence, intergroup tolerance, morality, national spending priorities, psychological well-being, social mobility, and stress and traumatic events.

Altogether, the GSS is the single best source for sociological and attitudinal trend data covering the United States. It allows researchers to examine the structure and functioning of society in general, as well as the role played by relevant subgroups and to compare the United States to other nations.

The GSS aims to make high-quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, policy-makers, and others, with minimal cost and waiting.

The GSS has carried out an extensive range of methodological research designed both to advance survey methods in general and to insure that the GSS data are of the highest possible quality. In pursuit of this goal, more than 130 papers have been published in the GSS Methodological Reports series.
Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Data Sets
Access original data sets, including the American Housing Survey, HUD median family income limits, as well as microdata from research initiatives on topics such as housing discrimination, the HUD-insured multifamily housing stock, and the public housing population.
Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR)
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. Supports and sponsors educational activities and research.
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
The ISSP is a cross-national collaboration programme conducting annual surveys on diverse topics relevant to social sciences.
Established in 1984 by its founding members Australia, Germany, Great Britain and the US, the ISSP has since included members covering various cultures around the globe. Its institutional members, each of them representing one nation, consist of academic organizations, universities, or survey agencies. Since its foundation, over one million respondents have participated in the surveys of the ISSP. All collected data and documentation is available free of charge.
Nation Master
A large central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. Includes a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, and OECD. A commercial site with an easy user interface that gets researchers quickly to informative data.
UNdata: Advanced Search
Advanced search to the UNdata portal that allow users to search by keyword, select statistical areas, sources, and years.
World Bank Data
The World Bank provides free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe, together with other datasets cited in the data catalog.

Statistics Sites

Statistical Abstract of the United States
The authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Census Bureau. 1879-2010.
Government Databases
Freely available databases that include journal articles, statistics, and datasets.
IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) Voter Turnout
The most comprehensive global collection of political participation statistics available. The figures for national presidential and parliamentary elections since 1945 are presented country by country, using both the number of registered voters and voting age population as indicators. Also available are the most recent indicators of literacy and human development, as well as other data and material.
Open Secrets
Developed by the Center for Responsive Politics, the site tracks the influence of money on US politics, and how that money affects policy and citizens' lives.
Follow the Money - National Institute on Money in State Politics
Web site and database provided by a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that reveals the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states.

Ongoing Research Projects

The Sentencing Project
A national organization working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, and alternatives to incarceration. Founded in 1986 to to provide defense lawyers with sentencing advocacy training and to reduce the reliance on incarceration.
The American Presidency Project
The project was established in 1999 as a collaboration between John Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The archives contain 90,144 documents, including the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States.
Pew Research Center
A nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information and data on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Important projects include:
* The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
* Pew Internet & American Life Project
* Pew Hispanic Center
* Pew Global Attitudes Project
* Social & Demographic Trends

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SC 4383 - Sociological Research

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