WSU Connection

Wayne State University (WSU) is an official member of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. The Center for Urban Studies serves as WSU's point of contact, and Kurt Metzger serves as the university's official representative.

Introduction to ICPSR

Established in 1962, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a membership-based organization providing access to the world's largest archive of computer-based research and instructional data for the social sciences. ICPSR further serves social scientists around the world by offering training facilities in basic and advanced techniques of quantitative social analysis and other resources that facilitate secondary analysis. ICPSR provides facilities and services for an international community of scholars that no one college or university could offer independently.

The data holdings cover a broad range of disciplines, including political science, sociology, demography, economics, history, education, gerontology, criminal justice, public health, foreign policy, and law. ICPSR encourages social scientists in all fields to contribute to and utilize ICPSR's data resources.

ICPSR includes among its members more than 325 colleges and universities in North America and several hundred additional institutions served by national members in Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Latin America. Headquarters and central staff of ICPSR are located in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

ICPSR member institutions pay annual dues that entitle faculty, staff, and students to acquire the full range of services provided by ICPSR. Individuals at nonmember schools can also order data for an access fee. A council, composed of leading scholars from many areas of social inquiry, is elected by the membership to oversee the administration and organizational policies of ICPSR.

Benefits of ICPSR Membership

Wayne State's membership in ICPSR allows WSU faculty and staff access to its vast data archive and to the full range of ICPSR resources and services, including the renowned Summer Training Program in Quantitative Methods. Additional benefits are:

"One-stop shopping" and convenience.ICPSR provides efficient search tools to locate data, an ordering facility that permits expeditious access to data, and timely announcements of new data releases and updates to existing collections.

Data integrity. Users can rely on ICPSR to distribute the most recent versions of data and to resolve problems.

Preservation of data. ICPSR considers the preservation of data in perpetuity to be a fundamental part of its mission, thus ensuring that valuable data resources are secured for coming generations of social scientists. Off-site storage of data guarantees that a copy of a data collection will always be available.

Consulting and technical expertise. ICPSR has over 30 years of experience in archiving, processing, and supporting data use.

Evaluation of data and checks for accuracy. All ICPSR data and documentation undergo evaluation and review as they are acquired.

Data enhancements. ICPSR augments many of its data acquisitions with computer-readable documentation and SAS and SPSS data definition statements to facilitate analysis; some collections are intensively processed to make them easier to use. Detailed descriptions of the data holdings are provided as well. Custom subsetting and analysis facilities are available online for some collections.

Networking of institutions. ICPSR's model of official representatives (Kurt Metzger, CUS) who are actively engaged in assisting users promotes exchange of information among campuses.

Partnership among scholars. Through membership, scholars cooperate in the creation and deposit of data for redistribution within the research community for secondary analysis. This aspect of "realizing" the scientific method through replication, verification, and extension of findings makes ICPSR an integral part of the infrastructure of social science research.

How to Access ICPSR

Wayne State University (WSU) is an official member of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. The Center for Urban Studies serves as WSU's point of contact, and Kurt Metzger serves as the university's official representative.

This membership allows faculty and staff at Wayne State access to ICPSR's vast data archive and to the full range of ICPSR resources and services, including the renowned Summer Training Program in Quantitative Methods.

ICPSR File Access

The best method of gathering information on both the holdings of the ICPRS Archive, as well as the course schedule of the Summer Training Program in Quantitative Methods, is to go directly to the ICPSR website (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu). There you will find a complete listing of file holdings. In many cases, file codebooks are available in Portable Document Format (PDF) for direct download and/or printing. The data files may be downloaded from any on-campus computer.

Summer Training Program in Quantitative Methods

As a member institution, Wayne State receives materials on the summer program well in advance. In addition to course catalogues, the Center for Urban Studies receives application packets and scholarship request forms. While we are not able to cover the entire cost of the programs, WSU is eligible for stipends to cover part of the costs.

Continue to visit our website, as we will be posting information on the summer program as soon as it becomes available.