Data available through Carleton
- Gould Library Data Sets and Statistical DatabasesA list of the data sources the library has purchased or subscribes to.
Of our datasets, here are a few key places to get started
Note that not every dataset available through these archives will be available to you immediately. Data about vulnerable populations or sensitive topics may require special application and IRB approval.
- World Bank Microdata Library
This link opens in a new window
Household survey data from countries around the world.
- ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
A repository of social science datasets for secondary research. Members of the Carleton community may search the catalog, read data documentation and download datasets.
NOTE: Sign up with your Carleton email address and check the box that allows access for our local admins. - ICPSR Variables Database This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citation information)
Search across approximately 1300 studies within the ICPSR archive at the variable level.
- IPUMS census data
- This link opens in a new window
Individual and household data, including variables for place of birth, annual earnings, labor force status, weeks worked, month of birth, and housing variables.
- Roper Center Dataset Search This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Find public opinion survey datasets available for download and analysis. If you would rather search by individual question, see iPoll instead. Covers 1942 - current.
NOTE: You will need to register with your Carleton email address to begin fully using this database. - UK Data Archive This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
A premier data collection of datasets from the United Kingdom and beyond. Carleton does not have access to much of this data, but it is a great place to search for international data sources. Consult with a librarian about access.
Other Data Sources
- Data Cite: Metadata Search
- This link opens in a new window
Search by keyword across a growing collection of replication datasets. - UC Irvine: Machine Learning Repository
- This link opens in a new window
Data sets provided and hosted as a service to the machine learning community. - WorldWideScience.org
- This link opens in a new window
A portal that allows you to search the science databases of over 70 national governments. Not all results will be in English, and not all will have the full text available. The search will take a while for all results to appear - be patient! - Harvard Dataverse
- This link opens in a new window
An open repository hosted at Harvard in which authors can deposit their replication datasets. Includes datasets from important journals and research projects, such as American Journal of Political Science and survey organizations like Gallup. - GitHub
- This link opens in a new window
Not only is this a code repository, but it's also a place where more and more people are posting their data. Note that you'll want to evaluate what you find very carefully as there's no editorial oversight on what gets posted. - FigShare
- This link opens in a new window
A place where anyone can post research data and publications. There is no editorial or curatorial process to ensure quality, so evaluate what you find carefully. - Dryad Digital Repository
- This link opens in a new window
Nearly 10,000 publicly available scientific datasets. - re3data.org
- This link opens in a new window
A global registry of research data repositories that one can browse or search and filter. - Kaggle
- This link opens in a new window
Kaggle is a website for users to upload datasets, and write scripts (called kernels) to analyze the data. Kaggle also has competitions to create kernels to do specific tasks some even have monetary prizes.
BE AWARE: The site does not evaluate the data that users upload.
Datasets Scattered on the Web
Many scholar's websites, journal websites, and scholarly association websites also post openly accessible datasets. If you're looking for these, think of scholars, journals, or associations that publish on the topic you're interested in, and then look to see if they have posted datasets related to their publications. Talk to a librarian for help!
Journal Websites
Many more journals require that data associated with articles be shared in trusted repositories. To find data associated with an article, open up an article and look near the end or beginning for a statement on data availability.
Here are a couple of examples:
Scholarly Association Websites
Scholar's Academic Websites
Usually you'll identify scholars by looking for publications on your topic. Then look to see if they host their data on their websites. Search for the researcher's name and then put site:.edu at the end of your Google search. Look for areas of their page called "data," "datasets," or "replication data."
Here's an excellent example:
- Pippa Norris DataVariety of useful shared datasets covering regime types, elections, civil liberties, and much more.
