Data Services Associations and Publications
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR, established in 1962, is an integral part of the infrastructure of social science research. ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. To ensure that data resources are available to future generations of scholars, ICPSR preserves data, migrating them to new storage media as changes in technology warrant. In addition, ICPSR provides user support to assist researchers in identifying relevant data for analysis and in conducting their research projects.
A unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, ICPSR is a membership-based organization, with over 400 member colleges and universities around the world. The University of Tennessee is a charter member of the consortium. UT's Official Representative, Eleanor Read, is available to help researchers and instructors identify and obtain appropriate studies for their research and teaching.
The ICPSR Bulletin is a semi-annual (formerly quarterly) publication featuring an article of interest to the social science community and announcements. Beginning in 1996, all issues are online, as is an index to the featured articles. For older issues, please contact the Data Services Librarian.
International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST)
IASSIST is an organization dedicated to the issues and concerns of data librarians, data archivists, data producers, and data users around the world. This unique professional association assists members in their support of social science research.
IASSIST helps bridge the interests and concerns of social researchers and scientists who are producers and users of micro and macro-level social data; information specialists who preserve social data, manage facilities, and provide services that promote the secondary use of social data; and computing specialists who advance technical methods to manipulate and analyze social data.
IASSIST's organizational goals include:
- Professional development of staff in social data information centers
- Advancement and development of social data information centers
- Assessment of and planning for the impact of new technology
- Promotion of the archiving of social data and the advancement of data standards
- Promotion of global linkages between social data centers
- Development of linkages between social data centers and users and producers of data including the academic, public, and private sectors
- Evaluation of the role and contribution of IASSIST and the recruitment of new members
IASSIST's primary publication, IASSIST Quarterly, reports on activities related to the production, acquisition, preservation, processing, distribution, and use of machine-readable data carried out by its members and others in the international social sciences community.
Association of Public Data Users (ADPU)
APDU is a national network that links users, producers, and disseminators of government statistical data. Its members share a vital concern about the collection, dissemination, preservation, and interpretation of public data. It is committed to helping users identify public data that meet their needs and apply those data in cost-effective and appropriate ways, establishing effective two-way communication between data producers and users, and bringing the perspectives and concerns of public data users to bear on important issues of government information and statistical policy. The University of Tennessee is an institutional member of APDU.
Page last updated January 2, 2009.
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