Where is your research in the political or social sciences taking you? Do you simply need to determine the average age at which men versus women begin smoking? Or do you need more in-depth data about differences in political attitudes based on age, gender, education, race, or ethnicity? These are just a sample of the multitude of questions that can be answered by studies within the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) data holdings.
UNLV is a member of the ICPSR, an international consortium of more than 800 academic and research institutions providing the largest repository of social science data in the world. As a member organization, UNLV Libraries provides faculty, staff, and students with access to the ICPSR data archive, which contains more than 250,000 research files.
ICPSR contains research data from many fields covering a wide range of topics including sociology, political science, economics, demography, education, child care, health care, crime, minority populations, aging, terrorism, substance abuse, mental health, public policy, international relations, and others. These datasets can be used in studies as research sources, secondary research, instructional activities, and more.
Access to the ICPSR data is free, however you must create an independent account using your UNLV email address. The database can be found through the University Libraries website. For a complete list of databases available to UNLV, visit our A-Z Database guide.
For questions or to set up an ICPSR consultation or demonstration, contact Susie Skarl, Urban Affairs Librarian, or Brittani Sterling, Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Sciences.
