ICPSR

Overview

Established in 1962, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) maintains and provides access to an extensive archive of social science data for research and instruction. It is the world’s largest digital social science data archive, comprising over 6,200 collections and 500,000 discrete files.  It acquires and ingests approximately 300-400 collections per year and manages some of the largest and widely-used social science data sets available.

ICPSR is a consortium of more than 700 academic institutions and research organizations. 

Type of Organization
Consortium
Provider Role(s)
Aggregator
Platform provider
Alternative Names
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Parent Organization
University of Michigan
Year established
1962
Still in Operation
Yes
Main Address

Institute for Social Research Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
United States

Subject Areas
Social Sciences
Resource Types
Big data
Dataset
Open Access
Public opinion data
Statistics
Mission Statement

From https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/membership/about.html (November 2014): "ICPSR advances and expands social and behavioral research, acting as a global leader in data stewardship and providing rich data resources and responsive educational opportunities for present and future generations."

 

 

History

February 2016: ICPSR announces two-way data linking agreement with Elesevier ScienceDirect journals. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/elsevier-and-the-inter-universi…;

Financial Information

ICPSR is supported by annual fees paid by its institutional members, by grants from federal and private sources, and by fee-for-service activities and programs for a number of clients and constituencies.  

 

For fiscal year 2012-2013 ICPSR reported an income of $18,826,424; 740 member institutions; and a staff of 115.  For fiscal year 1997-1998 it reported revenues of $5,758,023; 369 members, and 91 staff.  

Governance: Board / Owners / Parent organization

ICPSR is a center within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor.  It is governed by the ICPSR Council, a twelve-person body elected by the institutional members of ICPSR.

Technical Information
To ensure that data resources within the ICPSR Data Archive are available to future generations of scholars, ICPSR preserves data, migrating the collections 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 ICPSR manages two separate copies of the Data Archive: one for service use (distribution) and one that solely supports the preservation mission.   Statistics from late 2005 provide a brief view of size and complexity of data managed by the ICPSR at that point in time:
 
Distribution archive:
Size in Tb: .182 Tb (compressed)
Number of files: 490,538
Number of studies: 5,791
 
Preservation Archive:
Size in Tb: 2.2 Tb
Number of files: 1,189,000 (±0.01 %)
 
Legal Information

ICPSR operates under the umbrella of the University of Michigan. 
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