How does ICPSR compare with the Roper Center as a source for data?
• Content. The majority of studies in ICPSR fall within the fields of sociology, political science, economics, criminal justice, business, demography, psychology and education. It also has datasets of interest to health researchers and epidemiologists. Data in ICPSR can have been gathered by any means (surveys, government forms, financial reports and historic newspapers, etc.) The Roper Center archive on the other hand, holds only data collected through public opinion surveys. Data in both archives is observational only; data gathered through experiments is not represented in either archive. • Ease of searchability. The Roper Center catalog has a somewhat primitive search interface. Fortunately, some of the codebooks in Roper Center’s archive may be searched by keyword through through the more sophisticated iPOLL, which is linked from our library’s database list. ICPSR’s advanced search interface is powerful and the Subject Thesaurus is also very useful. These can be supplemented with
