Institute for Research in Social Science Public Opinion Questionaire Database

Dataset Abstract/Summary

The Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill maintains a variety of national and statewide public opinion poll data which is available through their Data Holdings Catalog. Included is the exclusive national depository for all survey data collected since 1965 by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. The Harris Polls, together with the 7 additional public opinion surveys that make up the collection, are all organized into IRSS's Public Opinion Questionaire Database which allows any researcher connected to the Internet to view questions and frequency distributions of state and national polls, as well as to perform a complete keyword search of the entire Index.

Archival Access Information

To access the Institute for Research in Social Science Public Opinion Questionaire Database via the Internet, click here.

Data Sources

The IRSS Public Opinion Questionaire Database is composed of data from 8 separate sources. The Louis Harris Data Center, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Polls/Southern Polls , the Carolina Polls, the National Network of State Polls, the General Social Survey, the Southern Focus Poll, the USA Today Polls, and the Latin America and Spanish Polls.

Additional Datasets may be located through CIESIN's Gateway.

Obtaining Data Files

The Public Opinion Questionaire Database is an easy-to-use menu-driven program which also provides access to the IRSS Data Holdings Catalog. Users of the Questionaire Database can obtain copies of the information they retrieve by sending their retrieval results to themselves as electronic mail. Complete wording of all poll questions and marginals for each item are available at no cost to all researchers through the IRSS Public Opinion Questionaire Database. IRSS also distributes data files for the surveys included in the Item Index and provid es analyses involving specific variables at a nominal cost to researchers worldwide.

The charge for most data files is $100 for the first file and $50 for each additional file ordered at the same time. Data can be provided on IBM SL tapes, or diskettes. For most studies, a printout of the questionnaire and the unweighted response frequencies is available for $25. Estimates for analyses of data are based on programming and computer costs and will be provided upon request.

Contacts and References

If you find data you might like to acquire, would like more detailed instructions e-mailed to you or have problems or questions, call or write David Sheaves (919-966-3348, David_Sheaves@unc.edu, or FAX at 919-962-IRSS).