Student and faculty research often requires analyzing the raw data, as opposed to using prepackaged aggregated data produced by survey agencies. Access to and use of microdata (i.e., data files containing the individual responses of survey participants) has become much easier, with the advent of new web-based services, accessible via the Libraries’ e-resources database:

<odesi>, a service of Scholars Portal, is a web-based data exploration, extraction and analysis tool that greatly improves access to statistical data for researchers and students. It provides the ability to search for survey questions across hundreds of datasets, from Statistics Canada public-use microdata files (i.e., PUMFs) to a variety of public opinion polls from Gallup, CORA, Ipsos-Reid and others. Basic tabulation and analysis performed online is supported, and downloading of most datasets into statistical software for further analysis is allowed. Expansion of <odesi>’s survey data to include other national and international data sources is underway. To quote their website, “<odesi> is of benefit to both the experienced and beginning researcher. It introduces undergraduates to data literacy and data discovery at an early stage in their careers; it provides the experienced researcher the ability to search immediately across hundreds of datasets and collections, allowing for faster and more meaningful data reviews, and instant access to data for further study.”

SDA, while actually the name of the interface, is here used to refer to a service of the University of Toronto to provide access to many of the same datasets (i.e., mostly Statistics Canada PUMFs) using a different interface. It also has the capability of searching down to the question level. The SDA service also provides access to international datasets elsewhere that use a similar interface.

ICPSR (Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research) also allows you to analyze a subset of their datasets using the SDA interface. ICPSR has a wealth of datasets, mostly from the US, but also from a variety of other countries. To quote their website, “ICPSR offers more than 500,000 digital files containing social science research data. Disciplines represented include political science, sociology, demography, economics, history, gerontology, criminal justice, public health, foreign policy, terrorism, health and medical care, early education, education, racial and ethnic minorities, psychology, law, substance abuse and mental health, and more.” Datasets that are not available via the SDA interface can be downloaded by the user and analyzed using statistical software such as SAS or SPSS.

The use of these data is subject to various licensing agreements, the essence of which requires that they only be used by York University staff, students or faculty, and only for academic teaching or research purposes. Details of the licenses can be found at each website.

A few links are provided in this article, but links to these and other sources of microdata can be found on the Library microdata website.

--Walter Giesbrecht, Data Services Librarian