Public Opinion
- American National Election Studies (ANES)Long-running series of survey data on voting, public opinion, and political participation. 1960 - 2020.
- General Social Survey (GSS)This survey of U.S. households has been performed nearly annually since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The survey is unique in that it is collected for general secondary use by researchers and is intended for use by the social science community. The link above is to the GSS at ICSPR where you can find very user-friendly online documentation.
- Cooperative Congressional Election Study, 2005+National stratified sample survey at the congressional district level. Topics include registration and voting, political knowledge, ideology, and policy preferences related to key issues on which Congress has taken roll call votes in the preceding two legislative sessions.
- Roper Center for Public Opinion Research This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
One of the world's leading social science archives, with a focus on public opinion. Thousands of datasets, including international surveys, plus access to question-level searching of U.S. surveys through their iPoll tool. - iPoll Databank This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
U.S. public opinion poll data, organized at the question level from the Roper Center, 1942 - current.
NOTE: You will need to register with your Carleton email address to begin fully using this database.
- Gallup -- Reports by TopicSearchable list of reports based on survey by Gallup.
- Pew Research - US PoliticsPortal for all Pew information -- including polls, reports, and news stories -- about US Politics and Policy.
- AfrobarometerSeries of national public attitude surveys on democracy, markets and society conducted in 12+ African nations.
- Arab BarometerDeveloped with scholars in 2005 in consultation with the Global Barometer work.
- Asian BarometerPan-Asian household surveys on attitudes toward regimes, democracy, and economic reform.
- EurobarometerPublic opinion surveys of European citizens since 1973.
- European Social SurveyBiennial survey across 30 nations measuring media use, social and public trust, political and social values, and more. Since 2002.
- LAPOP: Latin American Public Opinion Project This link opens in a new window
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Gathers public opinion surveys of individuals in Latin American countries about their political views, specifically related to democracy. - Latinobarómetro This link opens in a new window
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An annual public opinion survey of 18 countries in Latin America. Covers 1995 - present.
- Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey ResearchSurveys Palestinian public opinion.
- World Values Survey
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Surveys individuals in countries around the world on attitudes, values, trust, and demographics.
U.S. Politics
- Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Covers 1878 - present. - data.census.gov This link opens in a new window
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Statistical population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the United States Census.
- USA.gov StatisticsFind data (produced by numerous government agencies) about the U.S., such as demographic and economic data, population, and maps.
- Wesleyan Media ProjectThe successor to the Wisconsin Advertising Project, this project tracks and analyzes advertising in federal and state elections since 2010.
- Google TrendsSee trends in google searches and download the dataset.
- Correlates of State PolicyOver 700 state-level variables for the U.S., particularly focused on policies and programs.
- CQ Voting and Elections Collection This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of data and analyses of US elections, including data on presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections, political parties, campaigns, and demographic information. Covers presidential election results from 1789 and forward. Note: You can also search across all of the CQ Press reference resources here.
Cross-National Data
- WDI: World Development Indicators This link opens in a new window
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Statistical data for development indicators and time series data for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Covers 1960 - present.
Note: For data documentation, see the print reference book: World Development Indicators, at call number Ref HC 59.15 .W656.
- QoG Standard DataEnormous dataset with 1000+ cross-national variables ranging from governance to the economy from a large variety of sources.
- IMF Datasets This link opens in a new window
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(Data query tool)
Access to all of the datasets from the IMF, such as Balance of Payments Statistics, Direction of Trade Statistics, Monetary and Financial Statistics and more. - OECD Statistics Portal This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Starting point for links to OECD statistics and data. We don't subscribe to all OECD data but can obtain publications via interlibrary loan if needed. - CNTS Data Archive (Cross-National Time Series) This link opens in a new window
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Statistical data, including time series data, for over 200 countries. Variables include government expenditure, trade, infrastructure and media, domestic conflict event data, elections, legislative process, numerous political measures and international status indicators. Covers 1815 - current.
- CQ Political Handbook of the World This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Provides brief country and political system information from standard sources such as Freedom House, Pippa Norris’ “democracy type” adapted from Freedom House rankings, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Also includes maps. Note: You can also search across all of the CQ Press reference resources here.
International-State Level Data
- Correlates of WarData on alliances, militarization, disputes, and other indicators of conflict since 1816.
- USAID DataReports and Data from USAID
- Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)Participating studies include common questions in their post-election surveys.
- CIA World Factbook This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
- Global Terrorism DatabaseFrom the Department of Homeland Security and the University of Maryland, searchable database of over 100,000 terrorism incidents between 1970 and 2011.
- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) DatabasesProvides datasets that center on multilateral peace operations; military expenditures; arms transfers and arms embargoes; and national reports on arms exports.
Additional Sources & Guides
These are some of the most frequently used sources by students searching for comparative political quantitative evidence.
- ProQuest Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
A vast index of statistics produced by federal agencies, states, and intergovernmental organizations. A great place to start if you're not sure who has collected data relevant to your research. - Statista This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A vast statistics portal integrating data and facts onto a single platform, categorized into market sectors.
- Dataverse This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Search across the data collections of over 200 institutions, researchers, research centers and collections. Click the 'i' for more information and watch the format listed to determine whether the data are "raw" or not. - ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window
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(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 after creating a personal "MyData" account with their Carleton email address. - CQ Political Handbook of the World This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Provides brief country and political system information from standard sources such as Freedom House, Pippa Norris’ “democracy type” adapted from Freedom House rankings, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Also includes maps. Note: You can also search across all of the CQ Press reference resources here.
Data Reference Worksheet
When searching for data it can feel like there is no method and you are just wandering around the web. When we meet to discuss finding data, it can help to know that we are following a general framework laid out in this worksheet.
- Data Reference Worksheet (Google Doc Version)Save a copy of this to your Google Drive to keep notes on your data search process.
- Data Reference Worksheet - POSC 230Save a copy of this to your Google Drive to keep notes on your data search process.
Noting Data Sources
At the very first stages of your literature review, start taking notes on potential data sources. Make a habit of jotting down the data used in each study you read to make it faster when you come back later in your search for data. Also, this practice can help you see and articulate how your contribution is unique. You might want to keep these notes in a table like the following for easy reference.
| Author(s) and Year of Publication | Claim | Data | Dependent Variable/Estimation Technique | Significant Findings |
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See an example of this practice in action:
- Example: Comparing Data SourcesFrom a published paper in economics where the author summarizes previous work in a table like this one.
- Data Reference Worksheet (PDF version)A worksheet for brainstorming places to look for data, containing a grid for organizing literature on the second page.
Comparing Variables Across Datasets
In your search for data you may need to compare similar questions from several surveys. Below is a grid to help you keep track of this process.
- Compare Variables (Google Doc)Make a copy of this document so you can use it to start your own variable comparison grid.
