Cooperation between the Zentralarchiv and the ICPSR

Since 1975, a cooperation agreement has existed between the Zentralarchiv and the ICPSR - Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research - in Ann Arbor Michigan (USA). The cooperation between the two partner archives extends to the major activities of the distribution of data and training. The Zentralarchiv entered into this agreement with the aim of providing improved service to the empirical social research in Germany. Of particular importance in this regard are:

• distribution of survey data from the United States - Data holdings of the ICPSR

• further training in the methods of statistical data analysis - Summer Program of the ICPSR

Survey data from the USA

Through the GESIS-ZA, researchers in German university institutes and scientific institutions have access to all datasets which are distributed by the ICPSR. These are in total more than 1000 datasets from the main topic areas politics and sociology, but also from many other areas of empirical social research. Among these are social psychology, communication sciences, economics as well as historical social research. The data range thematically from social structural analysis in France in the 19th century to the newest American election studies.

Parts of the data holdings from the ICPSR archive - in particular the older studies - are available only in the OSIRIS format, which is not commonly available in Germany. Data of this type can be prepared by the GESIS-ZA in a suitable format for the researcher ordering the data.
The further dissemination of the data is subject to the GESIS-ZA scale of charges. For printed codebooks the costs specified by the ICPSR are .
Holdings of the ICPSR are referenced in the Guide to Resources and Services.

Further training in methods of statistical data analysis

The ICPSR organises an annual "Summer Training Program". This advanced training programme facilitates the dissemination of elementary and advanced methodological and technical knowledge for the analysis of social science data. Two four-week courses - in July and August respectively - offer political scientists, sociologists, historians and other social scientists intensive, inter-disciplinary sessions, which are directly related to practical empirical research. The Summer Program, alongside the ESSEX Summer School, is among the most renowned world training programmes. The topics of the courses range from multiple regression analysis through to general structural equation modelling. Alongside courses with specific topics (log linear analysis, time series analysis) are also courses designed to be overviews or survey courses (multivariate statistical methods or scaling and dimensional analysis.

In the framework of institutional cooperation, up to fourteen post graduates from Germany can be registered for the Summer Program. Reduced tuition fees are available for these participants.

The GESIS-ZA provides information and advice concerning choice of courses, registration, travel arrangements and so on.