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ICPSR Depositing Data

How to search for and use data found in ICPSR, a data archive for social and political science research.

Before Depositing Data

Many funding agencies and journals require raw data to be publicly archived in a data repository. Therefore, data sharing is an essential step to both securing funding and publishing research findings. See the Research Data Management LibGuide for more information on data sharing. ICPSR is a trusted and valid option for sharing social science data. There are a number of things to consider prior to depositing data in ICPSR:

  1. ​​Evaluate if ICPSR is a good fit for your data during the planning phase of the research. 
  2. Determine which ICPSR repository is the best fit for your research. Click on the "Start Deposit" button to take a short quiz to determine which repository is right for you.
    • OpenICPSR - data are publicly available, no curation fee
    • ICPSR - options for restricted access, there may be a curation fee
  3. Calculate any costs associated with submitting your data to ICPSR (such as curation fees) and request those costs in the grant proposal budget.
  4. Register your proposed study with ICPSR and include ICPSR in the data management and sharing plan. ICPSR has prepared a Template NIH DMS Plan from ICPSR (docx) to designate ICPSR as the repository for your data.
  5. Review the data submission requirements to ensure that you will managing and document the data properly during the collection and analysis phase of the project.

Preparing Data for Deposition

Deposits should include all data and documentation necessary to independently read and interpret the data. To help you assemble a complete data package, ICPSR has prepared a checklist for depositors. For a comprehensive guide to preparing data for archiving see the Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving (6th Edition). Below is a summary of what data files to include per the ICPSR data deposition page:

Data File(s)

  • ICPSR encourages depositors to submit data files for archiving as SAS, SPSS, or Stata files if they are quantitative data. ASCII files are also acceptable if setup files accompany them. Datasets in other formats are accepted as well.
  • Each variable in the data collection should have a set of exhaustive, mutually-exclusive codes. Variable labels and value labels should clearly describe the information or question recorded in that variable. Missing data codes should be defined in the data file.
  • For qualitative data, review the Guide for Sharing Qualitative Data at ICPSR.

Documentation file(s)

  • Documentation files are integral to reuse of a data collection and should thoroughly explain the data collection.
  • Examples include codebooks, copies of data collection instruments, user guides, README files, summary statistics, project summaries, and bibliographies of publications using the data. 

Study-level description

  • ICPSR users are able to discover, understand, and analyze data because every new or revised ICPSR study includes descriptive information
  • Description includes study title, principal investigators, detailed information about the study design, sample, and methodology.
  • Review the ICPSR Metadata Documentation Portal to learn more about the study-level metadata to include with your data deposit.