Resource Guide for Program in International Relations Honor Thesis Research: Statistics and data

This resources in this guide are to aid students in their research and data collection for their senior thesis.

Introduction

If you are using statistics or data for your research, you should definitely check out the workshops, online guides, or even make a consulting appointment with the Software Service for Data Science (SSDS) group at Green Library. Below are some key statistical resources that will be useful to get you started and help identify data sources.

If you are working with qualitative or mixed methods research, please reach out to Alesia Montgomery, our Librarian for Qualitative Research.

Statistical Abstracts and Databases

ProQuest statistical abstracts of the world
The Statistical Abstracts of the World is a collection of the statistical abstracts of approximately 40 countries, both individually searchable and cross searchable. These statistical abstracts are generally issued by the national statistical offices of foreign governments and contain country-level data not easily found elsewhere. Global and regional statistical compendia issued by international organizations and research firms are also included.
ProQuest statistical abstract of the United States
ProQuest statistical insight
Provides statistical data from U.S. government publications from 1973, state and private sources from 1980, and international organizations from 1983.
Statista
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.

SIPRI Databases
SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, maintains and makes the following databases freely available: SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database, Military Expenditure Database, Arms Transfers Database, Arms Embargoes Database,and the National Reports Database.
IMF Data
Alphabetic list of macroeconomic and financial datasets available from the International Monetary Fund.
World Bank Open Data
Access to datasets and microdata collected and published by the World Bank.

Data Archives and Repositories

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research ICPSR direct
Introduces the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), part of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Notes that ICPSR is a membership-based, not-for-profit organization serving member colleges and universities by providing access to a large archive of machine-readable social science data, training facilities in basic and advanced techniques of quantitative social analysis, and resources that facilitate the use of advanced computer technology by social scientists. Provides a comprehensive list of ICPSR resources and services, information on membership and governance, links to national data archives affiliated with ICPSR, and contact information.

CESSDA Data Catalogue
The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives or CESSDA brings together social science data archives across Europe, with the aim of promoting the results of social science research and supporting national and international research and cooperation.
Harvard Dataverse
An open data repository where researchers from any discipline, both inside and outside of the Harvard community archive their research data.
National Data Archives
A list of European National Data archives from the University of Cambridge's Marshall Library
List of Domain Specific Data Repositories
Publicly accessible data repositories where scholars and researchers deposit their data for re-use.
Qualitative Data Repository
QDR stores digital data generated and analyzed through qualitative and multi-method research. Registration is required to access and use data.