Politics Librarian
Broad data repositories
Some of the data sources listed in this guide are freely available, but many are resources purchased/subscribed to by Princeton University Library. These are useful starting points, but are by no means all that the Library provides access to. Contact me if you need help.
The Librarians at Carleton University have a great guide on a systematic process for locating and evaluating research data. It encapsulates the questions a research librarian will help you think through in approaching your topic.
In addition to the data sources listed to the left, be sure to look at the following data repositories:
- ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research)ICPSR is the world's largest archive of digital social science data. You can search their data holdings by keyword, browse by thematic categories, and search by individual variables. In addition to their data archive, they have numerous helpful modules for teaching quantitative reasoning using their collections.
- Data and Statistical ServicesDSS maintains a catalog of microdata sources organized by topic and region.
- Harvard Dataverse NetworkA rapidly growing collection of social science research data, used by many authors and journals to host their replication data. Also includes pointers to holdings in ICPSR.
- Qualitative Data RepositoryProject hosted at Syracuse University that curates and hosts data from qualitative social science projects. In addition, the site provides detailed guidance, written specifically for social science researchers collecting qualitative data, on key topics such as data management, research involving human participants, and teaching with qualitative data.