Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

This page explains how to find and acquire Roper Center datasets. If you're already familiar the process, then you can skip this section and jump directly to the Roper Center search page.

1. Quick review, for beginners...

The first step is to get clear about the variables you'd ideally want to find in a dataset. It might be helpful to make a list. For example, if you are studying the public's confidence in various news media sources and you want to analyze results by geographic area, by level of education, by income, and by voter participation, then your list of ideal survey questions (variables) might look like this:

• confidence in television network news
• confidence in the local newspaper
• confidence in popular news magazines
• confidence in alternative press sources
• respondent's residence
• respondent's educational attainment
• respondent's household income
• respondent's voter participation in the most recent election

It is also important to consider the characteristics of the statistical sample used in a study, particularly if you plan to conduct your analysis at small geographic levels. Roper's catalog provides characteristics of the samples used in each survey.

2. Searching by variable

Once you have your research needs listed in terms of variables, you can begin to search for surveys. We have two databases which feature keyword searching on questions within surveys. They are LexisNexis Academic and iPOLL. Both databases display full text of survey questions and the statistical breakdown of responses. Finding survey questions this way is easy. The challenge lies in getting the compete dataset from which any given survey question was taken. For that, you may need to use the Roper Center web catalog or contact the Data Services Librarian for assistance.

Here is a suggested search strategy for using LexisNexis Academic:

1. Go to our library database list and select LexisNexis Academic
2. Click on "Reference" in the left-hand navigation bar
3. Click on "Polls and Surveys"
4. Conduct your keyword search and identify survey questions of interest. Make note of the survey organization and the field dates
5. Use the survey organization name and field dates to search the Roper Center web catalog. Note: Not all of the survey questions you'll find through LexisNexis were taken from studies available in Roper's web catalog. Some were taken from press releases, news reports, and other sources.
6. If you find the full survey from which the question was taken, check the codebook for the presence of other variables that you'll need.

Strategy for searching iPOLL is similar. You will find some overlap in content between LexisNexis Academic and iPOLL. The difference is that iPOLL often offers a direct bridge from survey question into the Roper Center dataset database for selected survey questions. The bridge is the "Catalog Abstract" link at the bottom of each question on the hit list. Not every survey question in iPOLL has the "Catalog Abstract" link.

3. Browsing

Some people prefer to look over a list of selected, popular datasets. We have such a list arranged by category.

4. How to get Roper data.

Many Roper datasets are available for immediate download. If you find one in the archive which is not immediately downloadable, contact the Data Services Librarian (Marie Concannon), who will ask the Roper Center to expedite processing of the particular dataset.