Help with Finding and Accessing Data

Searching and Finding the Data You Need

Explore data on the SAMHDA site in the following ways:

• Recently Released SAMHSA Studies on the home page.

  The studies listed in the Recently Released SAMHSA Studies section are the newest studies in the SAMHDA archive. Selecting the "more..." link will take you to the full text of the released announcement.

• Frequently Accessed Studies on the home page.

  The Frequently Accessed Studies section on the home page provides access to the study home pages for the studies accessed most often on the SAMHDA Web site.

  From a study home page, you may choose to:

  • read a summary of the study
  • view the study description
  • browse documentation files (codebooks, questionnaires)
  • list all variables in the study
  • perform a variable level search within the study
  • view related literature
  • view related literature for the entire series (if part of a series)
  • download documentation files
  • download select data files
  • analyze data online - SDA, R-DAS, Quick Tables (when available)

  Options for "Quick Download" of data and documentation files are also available on the left side of each study home page.

• Browse & Download Data

  This page provides a list of all holdings in the SAMHDA archive. Click on a colored bar to expand the menu for a series or study. The menu provides access to the study or series home page, and links to view study documentation, download data, analyze data online, and access Quick Tables (when available).

• Search

  • The Data search option, available in the header of all pages on the SAMHDA site, searches for keywords or phrases within studies' metadata. The results page returns a list of studies that contain your search word(s) somewhere in the study metadata, study variables, full text of all associated PDF documentation, associated citations, and dataset names. From the results page you can go directly to the study home page. On the left side of the screen there are several options for filtering your results by subject, geography, data format, time period and recency. For more information on using filters, consult the FAQ on faceted searching.
  • The Search Variables option searches the variable name, question text, value labels, and variable labels for every variable in all SAMHDA studies. The results page lists the variables, sorted by relevance. Results can be sorted by variable label, time period, study title, and series title. Results can also be filtered by series, study, and time period.

  Once you select a variable from the list of matching results, you will be able to view key information about the variable including: name, label, question text, frequencies, and summary statistics.

For additional information on finding data, we encourage you to consult the FAQ section on How to Find Data.

Accessing Data

Data in the SAMHDA archive are available at no cost. All users of data in the SAMHDA archive must abide by the Terms of Use and properly cite the data files. SAMHDA holdings include the following types of data:

• Public-use Data
  Users do not need to obtain permission to access, download, analyze online, or publish findings based on SAMHDA public-use data . Users are required to properly cite SAMHDA data and to submit citations of their published works for inclusion in the SAMHDA bibliography.

• Restricted-use Data
  Restricted-use data is available for online analysis only. To access restricted-use data, users are required to login using a MyData, Google, or Facebook account.

• Confidential Data
  The Data Portal provides remote access to confidential data via a virtual desktop from a secure, approved location. Completion of an application process and project approval are required for Data Portal access. For more information on access to confidential data with the Data Portal, we encourage you to consult the FAQ section on Help with the Data Portal.