Secondary data sources

Haec omnia in datis sunt

Contents

Perhaps inspired by COVID-19 - I decided to list some resources for (student) projects relying on secondary data analysis.

Hopefully, these are of use, please contact me if there are sources which I can add. This is very much work in progress, so do bear with me while this is further developed. There are also even more resources at the end of the page from other webpages which have also pooled these sorts of data.

Secondary data sources.

Image data

Note that for some of these datasets, there will be restrictions in terms of access. If you are a student, you might need a letter from supervisor or analysis plan, before being able to access some of these data. Make sure that you read the terms of use and cite the data source. Many of these will also have technical manuals and codebooks, do familiarise yourself with those! It is important to consider how you will be handling weighing of samples, missing data, non-response and comparability across datasets.

These are in a semi-random order, with no real preference, let alone logic.

General Social Sciences

  • Data Archive UK - over 7,000 dataset from the social sciences. For some of these you’ll need to request permission.
  • DANS - Data Archiving and Networked Services. Over 250,000(!) datasets hosted in the Netherlands
  • GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences - A range of demographic datasets and attitude surveys.
  • WHO Data - Data from the WHO (Global Health Observatory (GHO) data).
  • World Bank Data - Data catalog from the World Bank.
  • DHS data - Demographic and Health surveys from a range of countries.
  • ICPSR - Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
  • IPUMS - Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (University of Minnesota) - Census and demographic data from across the world.
  • ARDA - Archive for Data on Religion .
  • RAND - Well-being data - the RAND corporation has conducted a series of studies on well-being.
  • European Value Surveys - European value surveys cover a broad range of attitudes across countries.
  • Data.gov - open data from the U.S. government.
  • Scot.gov - Statistics available from the Scottish Government.

Psychometrics, methods, psychology

  • Open Psychometrics - Data collected online for common psychological questionnaires.
  • OpenNeuro - Data on EEG, MEG, fMRI and other neuropsychological techniques.
  • PsychDATA - psychological data by topic from the Leibniz institute for Psychology.

Education

Psychology of lifespan

  • 1958 National Child Development Study - “The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is a continuing longitudinal study that seeks to follow the lives of all those living in Great Britain who were born in one particular week in 1958. Conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), the aim of the study is to improve understanding of the factors affecting human development over the whole lifespan. It collects information on physical and educational development, economic circumstances, employment, family life, health behaviour, wellbeing, social participation and attitudes.” - Available via UK Data service.
  • 1970 Birth Cohort Study - “The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) follows the lives of more than 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970. Over the course of cohort members’ lives, the BCS70 has has broadened from a strictly medical focus at birth to collect information on health, physical, educational and social development, and economic circumstances among other factors. The BCS70 is conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS).” - Available via UK Data service
  • Millennium Cohort Study - “The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), which began in 2000, is conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS). It aims to chart the conditions of social, economic and health advantages and disadvantages facing children born at the start of the 21st century The study has been tracking the ‘Millennium children’ through their early childhood years and plans to follow them into adulthood.” Available via UK Data service.

Crime and justice

More data can be found here.

Anthropology

  • Human Relations Area Files - HRAF - Cross-cultural data (might require subscription)
  • D-Place - D-PLACE contains cultural, linguistic, environmental and geographic information for >1400 human cultural groups (aggregated from different databases).

Consumer data

Data science

Guidance on how to work with secondary data sources.

You might want to check out this resource before embarking on secondary data analysis.

Here are some resources to check out:

  • Jones, C. (2010). Archival Data: Advantages and Disadvantages for Research in Psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(11), 1008–1017. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00317.x
  • Mongan, D. (2013). Secondary data analysis. In E. A. Curtis & J. Drennan (Red.), Quantitative Health Research: Issues And Methods: Issues and Methods (pp. 372–385). Open University Press.
  • Trzesniewski, K. H., Donnellan, M., & Lucas, R. E. (2011). Secondary data analysis: An introduction for psychologists. American Psychological Association.
  • Vartanian, T. P. (2010). Secondary data analysis. Oxford University Press.

Our library (and presumably your University’s library) can usually also provide specialist advice on how to find data for your project.

Lists with other database resources.

Lists with some other resources: