Social Science Electronic Data Library
The Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL), produced by Sociometrics Corporation, is a health, social, and behavioral science data resource that has data files from more than 250 different studies in eight topically-focused collections:
- Adolescent Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention
- Aging
- AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases
- American Families
- Child Well-Being and Poverty
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Disability in the U.S.
- Maternal Drug Abuse
In addition, the Contextual Data Archive provides data which describes population, social, and economic characteristics at various levels of geography.
Accessing SSEDL Files
SSEDL is on the UT Libraries' Databases web page under Datasets (or type SSEDL into the search box). Access from a computer not in the utk.edu domain is granted by entering your NetID and password. Your UT campus affiliation must be Knoxville. Other UT campuses do not have access to this SSEDL subscription.
All of the study files (e.g., raw data, SPSS statements, user guide) are bundled into a single download file that must be unzipped on your computer to get to the individual files. Be aware that this file may be very large and could potentially take an hour or more to download.
If you already know which study you would like to use, you may select the appropriate archive, locate the desired study in the list, then click on the PC or UNIX link to download the appropriate compressed file. If you have not yet identified a study, you may use the search feature to search the archives for keywords in the study summaries (brief abstracts) or variable summaries (variable names and labels, values, and value labels). You may also browse the variable list for any given study.
Please make responsible use of this data.
Contact for Assistance
If you encounter problems with any feature, dataset, documentation, or syntax file, are denied access, or have comments on any other aspect of SSEDL, please contact:
Data Services Librarian
(865) 974-0011
dataserv@utk.edu
Return to the Data Sources page