POLS 2901/SOC 291: Research Methods

Established in 1962, ICPSR is the world's largest archive of digital social science data. We acquire, preserve, and distribute original research data and provide training in its analysis.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world by conducting public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is one of the world's leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from surveys of public opinion. The data held by the Roper Center range from the 1930s to the present.

Contains most of the public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks of the President's from 1789 to the present, except for the years 1914-1928.

Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public.

An internet mapping tool that allows users to view demographic and environmental data for a selected geographic area.

SC.gov is the official government Web portal for the State of South Carolina.

A leading publication for Congressional news and information.

To find Supreme Court cases, select "Supreme Court" under legal resources, then select "Search" in the tool bar.

The Internet Center for Corruption Research provides you with the TI-Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative assessment of countries' integrity performance, alongside with related academic research on corruption.

The GSS is a long running survey of social, cultural and political indicators and is widely regarded as the single best source of data [collected from 1972-2018] on societal trends.

Each year the Human Development Report (HDR) presents a wealth of statistical information on different aspects of human development. All these data are available for download here in several different ways.

The overall mission of the ISPS Data Archive is to promote the preservation of data in the social sciences, with an emphasis on data from randomized controlled trials.

Allows the user to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world by conducting public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.

The Social Progress Index, designed by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, uses noneconomic measures to gauge the well-being of a country's inhabitants. It consists of 52 indicators, divided into three major categories: basic human needs (shelter, sanitation), foundations of well-being (life-expectancy, school enrollment), and opportunity (tolerance, political rights).

Presents voter and election data collected from each state’s official election authority’s reporting. That data is typically collected from state and county election offices. The interactive dashboards include state-by-state analyses covering vote share and turnout for a wealth of demographic data and can be broken down by multiple sub-groups, including age, race, gender, voter score, party rollup, and urbanicity.

UTIP is a small research group concerned with measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patterns of industrial change around the world.

Main Level, Reference: R 320.973 St25V
Chapters are devoted to key subject areas such as elections and political parties, public opinion and voting, the media, the three branches of U.S. government, and foreign, military, social and economic policy. Volumes cover the years 1999-2016.

The Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

The American National Election Studies (ANES) produces high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation.

Ballotpedia is an online encyclopedia about American politics and elections with the goal to connect people to politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics at the local, state, and federal level.

NCSL’s Ballot Measures database includes all statewide ballot measures for more than a century. The database is searchable by topic area, with options such as abortion, bond measures, criminal justice, education, elections, health, labor and employment, natural resources, tax and revenues, transportation and more. The database is updated as new ballot measures qualify to be on the ballot. On election night, each entry is updated with “pass” or “fail.”

This is a non-partisan and non-profit organization that provides comprehensive information regarding campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis of campaign finance data.

CSES is a collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world.

The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections. Great place to find election results and campaign finance data.

Contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952.

Free and open access to data about development in countries around the globe.

Processes and publishes comparable statistical information about EU countries.

Provides statistics on global conflict.

This inter-governmental organization provides global institution and political party data.

Environmental Data Resources

Global economic and financial data.

Statistics on developed countries, including data on demography and population, labour, education and training, health, environment, and social protection and wellbeing.

From the World Bank, macro data on economic, social, educational, financial, labor, poverty, environmental, health and other social science indicators for more 150 countries.

The WVS is a worldwide network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life. The WVS has carried out representative national surveys in 97 societies containing almost 90 percent of the world’s population.