Student Resources | Southern Connecticut State University

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), established in 1962, is an integral part of the infrastructure of social science research. ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. To ensure that data resources are available to future generations of scholars, ICPSR preserves data, migrating them to new storage media as changes in technology warrant. In addition, ICPSR provides user support to assist researchers in identifying relevant data for analysis and in conducting their research projects.
The General Social Survey
U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Census Data Compendium

UNESCO: http://en.unesco.org/

Social and Human Sciences Online Periodicals (full text). Free access to specialized articles from around 700 periodicals in social and human sciences.

NORC: http://www.norc.org/

A national organization for research at the University of Chicago, with offices on the University's campus, in Chicago's downtown Loop, and in Washington DC, as well as a nationwide field staff. NORC's clients include government agencies, educational institutions, foundations, other nonprofit organizations, and private corporations. Although its national studies are its best known, NORC's projects--which include complex survey and other data collection strategies as well as sophisticated empirical analyses--range across local, regional, and international perspectives as well. NORC's project work is done in an interdisciplinary framework, with strong staff cooperation across substantive areas.

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID): http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), begun in 1968, is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. individuals (men, women, and
children) and the family units in which they reside. It emphasizes the dynamic aspects of economic and demographic behavior, but its content is broad, including sociological and psychological measures. As a consequence of low attrition rates and the success in following young adults as they form their own families and recontact efforts (of those declining an interview in prior years), the sample size has grown from 4,800 families in 1968 to more than 7,000 families in 2001. At the conclusion of 2003 data collection, the PSID will have collected information about more than 65,000 individuals spanning as much as 36 years of their lives. The study is conducted at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan and has been made possible through the generous Sponsorship of government agencies, foundations, and other organizations over the years. The study contains data on the following: Income sources and amounts; Poverty status; Public assistance in the form of food or housing; other financial matters (e.g., taxes, inter-household transfers); Family structure and demographic measures (e.g., marital events; birth and adoptions; children forming households); Labor market work (e.g., employment status, work/unemployment/vacation/sick time; occupation, industry; work experience); Housework time; Housing (e.g., own/rent, house value/rent payment, size); Geographic mobility (e.g., when and why moved; where Head grew up; all states Head has lived in); Socio-economic background (e.g., education, ethnicity, religion, military service; parents' education, occupation, poverty status); Health (e.g., general health status; disability; 30-day emotional distress)

Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS): http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/

The ECLS program has been designed to include two overlapping cohorts: a Birth Cohort and a Kindergarten Cohort. The birth cohort follows a sample of children from birth through kindergarten entry. The kindergarten cohort follows a sample of children from kindergarten through the eighth grade. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) Program provides national data on children's status at birth and at various points thereafter; children's transitions to nonparental care, early education programs, and school; and children's experiences and growth through the eighth grade. ECLS also provides data to test hypotheses about the contributions of a wide range of family, school, community and individual variables on children's development, early learning, and performance in school.

Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/

The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) is a long-term study of a random sample of 10,317 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. The WLS provides an opportunity to study the life course, intergenerational transfers and relationships, family functioning, physical and mental health and well-being, and morbidity and mortality from late adolescence through middle age. WLS data also cover social background, youthful aspirations, schooling, military service, labor market experiences, family characteristics and events, social participation, psychological characteristics, and retirement.

National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/

The mission of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) is to facilitate research in criminal justice and criminology, through the preservation, enhancement, and sharing of computerized data resources; through the production of original research based on archived data; and through specialized training workshops in quantitative analysis of crime and justice data.

Assocation of Religious Data Archives: http://www.TheARDA.com

The ARDA allows you to interactively explore the highest quality data on American and international religion using online features for generating national profiles, maps, church membership overviews, denominational heritage trees, tables, charts, and other summary reports. Over 350 data files are available for online preview and most can be downloaded for additional research.

State of Connecticut: http://www.ct.gov/ecd/cwp/view.asp?a=1106&Q=250610&ecdNav =|

Department of Justice: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

The Pew Research Center: http://www.pewresearch.org

A nonpartisan "fact tank" providing information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It is made up of seven projects. PewResearch.org is a portal to material produced by seven projects. It also has an archive of past reports. You can find a list of all of its projects which include:

Qualitative Research Options

Although many qualitative sociologists compile their own surveys, interviews, historical documenets, etc., there are qualitative data sites that one may wish to peruse if one is unable to engage in primary research data collection:

Henry A. Murray Research Archive at the Harvard-MIT Data Center (formerly Radcliffe): http://murray.harvard.edu
Henry A. Murray Research Archive collects social science data for use in the study of human development in the context of social change. The Archive provides access to both quantitative data and qualitative data (case histories, open-ended interviews, and audio- and video-tapes).

Oral History Association: www.oralhistory.org
"The Oral History Association, established in 1966, seeks to bring together all persons interested in oral history as a way of collecting human memories." This association has a great list of oral history data collection sources. Click on their "Centers & Collections" tab.

Oral History Society: http://www.ohs.org.uk/

Rutgers University Oral History Archives of World War II: http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu

Internship

Sociology Internship Information

For information on how to pursue an internship in Sociology, click here