Data and Statistics for Social Sciences: Data Archives & Services

ICPSR holds the world's largest collection of computer-readable social science data. In order to use this service you will need to create a MyData account and be connected to the Oxford network.

Logging in with your MyData account and agreeing to the ICPSR Responsible Use Statement authorizes you to download data files from that point on. On subsequent visits to the site, when you begin to download a dataset, you will be asked to enter your e-mail address and MyData password.

OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics. It is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data with online access provided for all publications and statistics released since 1998.

The iLibrary covers 17 key themes including development, economics, governance, trade and social issues, migration and health. As of March 2013 content includes 5 billion data points across 42 databases; 44,630 tables and graphs; 8,330 ebook titles; 30,280 chapters; and 1,920 key tables.

Please note, IEA statistics are not included in our subscription.

The UK Data Archive is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and is the curator of one of the worlds largest collections of social science and humanities digital data. Extensive information is provided on managing, archiving and analysing data but collections access is via its sister organisation the UK Data Service.

It holds several thousand datasets from national and international projects including key national and international census data collections, NGO databases and individual project data. Types of deposit includes quantitative and qualitative data. It also offers substantial advice to those creating social science research data or looking for a place of deposit. This covers creating and managing data, the research data lifecycle, confidentiality as well as ethical and legal issues.

For assistance in depositing datasets from research projects please contact John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian

john.southall@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or refer to the Bodleian Data Library for further guidance.

The UK Data Service provides access to high-quality social and economic data deposited into the UK Data Archive.

Here you will find a single point of access to a wide range of secondary data including large-scale government surveys, international macrodata, NGO databases, business microdata, qualitative studies and census data. Access varies but initial authentication - as an academic researcher - is provided by your single sign on. Actual ability to access data varies between collections, some which may be downloaded or analysed in your browser window (open access), ordered and downloaded after registration (safeguarded access) or supplied following further approval and checks (controlled access). The UK Data Service also operates the ESRC Secure Data Lab as part of offering access to controlled microdata.

For assistance in acquiring datasets for research projects please contact John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian Librarian

john.southall@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or refer to the Bodleian Data Library for further guidance.

NOTE: Please familiarise yourself with the three tier data access policy (open, safeguarded and controlled) and the conditions of use before searching for data or registering for a user account. https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/data-access-policy

BASE is the multi-disciplinary search engine to scholarly internet resources at Bielefeld University, provided and developed by the Bielefeld University Library.

BASE complements the current metasearch system for catalogues and databases of the Bielefeld Digital Library by disclosing multiple scholarly full text archives, digital repositories and preprint servers on the World Wide Web.

BASE characteristics include:

* Intellectual selection of resources

* Indexes only qualified academic online resources from all academic disciplines

* Transparency on the data resources included in BASE through an inventory

* Searches metadata and full text (depending on the data source)

* Discloses internet resources of the "deep web", that are not indexed by commercial search engines (such as 500,000 digitised pages of historical journals and review organs of the German Enlightenment)

* Displays search results as bibliographic data and full text hits

* Various options to sort result sets

* Search refinement for authors, keywords, document type, language etc.)

Google Scholar searches academic publishers, professional societies and pre-print archives.