ICPSR Bibliography FAQs

• Discover Data – Search for published and unpublished works on specific topics to find relevant research.
• Easily Access Data – Each citation directly links to the corresponding dataset(s) in ICPSR’s collection.
• Avoid Duplication – Review existing research to avoid repeating analyses that have already been done.
• Cross-disciplinary Insights – Explore how researchers have used data in a variety of disciplines.
• Methodological Learning – Learn about different research methods or analytic techniques for which the data are especially well-suited.
• Demonstrate Impact – Show how your data are making a difference. Highlight the number of citations and topical coverage of the publications associated with your study.
• Use in Publications – Locate reports and statistics useful for articles, grants, or other publications.
• Educational Resource – Utilize the Bibliography in teaching settings, guiding students in research and data exploration.
• Examine Intellectual Output – The Bibliography allows investigators to study how their data resources have been used, conduct citations analyses, and investigate the life cycle of data.

The Bibliography facilitates data discovery and literature searches by social scientists and other researchers, students, librarians, journalists, policymakers, and funding agencies.

Search:

The Bibliography can be searched using the search box on this page or on the ICPSR home page. You are searching the elements of the citations, e.g., the abstract, title, author(s), journal, etc. Your search results appear in the results tab called Data-related Publications

Sort & Filter:

Search results can be sorted and filtered by publication date, publication type, journal title, author, and study.

Export:

Citations can be exported in three formats: RIS, EndNote, and CSV.

Add citations:

New citations can be added to the Bibliography by sending them to us via this form, or by emailing them to icpsrbibliography@umich.edu.

Users can filter results by twelve reference types, including books, articles, reports, and more. For a more detailed description of the types of publications collected in the ICPSR Bibliography, see the document, Bibliography Reference Types & Short Explanation of Search Methodology.

For a short explanation of the methodology we currently use to find publications that analyze data, see Bibliography Reference Types & Short Explanation of Search Methodology.

The ICPSR Bibliography includes citations of works that analyze, critique, or discuss ICPSR-archived data, its collection process, or methodology. Publications that are related to a study but merely mention the study data instead of analyzing it are not generally included in the ICPSR Bibliography. For a full description of how we determine if a publication should be included in the ICPSR Bibliography, read the Collection Criteria.

Originally developed with support from the National Science Foundation (SES-9977984) in 2000, the Bibliography is now funded by the ICPSR membership and its topical archive sponsors. For more information, read about the originating methodology or learn about why the Bibliography was created in the interview with the former associate director, Mary Vardigan.

Keep the following in mind when using the ICPSR Bibliography:

• Not all publications in this collection use the most recent version of the data. Oftentimes the version is not provided in a publication, or else the version changed after the publication was added.
• Citations are based on data in ICPSR’s holdings, but the researcher may have obtained them from another source. Please note, if the data were obtained elsewhere, the terms governing their use may differ from ICPSR’s terms of use upon downloading data from a study, which states that: ”You agree to reference the recommended bibliographic citation in any publication that employs resources provided by ICPSR. Authors of publications based on ICPSR data are required to send citations of their published works to ICPSR for inclusion in a database of related publications (icpsrbibliography@umich.edu).

If you formally cite research data, like you would cite an article, book, or other resource, we can find your publication and add it to the ICPSR Bibliography, linking it to the data you used. This gives credit to the data creator, and allows your readers to find the data underlying your conclusions.

As with any other source,  in the relevant part of your publication (e.g., in the Data or Methods sections), include a shortened in-line citation referencing the study used in the author’s analysis.

Example:

Methods Section:

In this paper, we reused data from the Maternal Lifestyle Study (Lester et al., 2016).

Then, in the References section, include the full citation, which can be found on each ICPSR study home page. Be sure to include the provided URL that contains the study’s registered DOI.

Example:

References Section:

Lester, B., Bada, H., Bauer, C., Shankaran, S., Whitaker, T., LaGasse, L. & Hammond, J. (2016). Maternal Lifestyle Study in Four Sites in the United States, 1993-2011. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-03-31. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34312.v9.

For more information about citing ICPSR studies, see the Citing Data page.

We welcome any publications you think should be in the Bibliography, as long as ICPSR data were used in the analysis that took place in the publication. Send the citation to icpsrbibliography@umich.edu.

Be sure to include the titles of the studies used in the publication, along with the study number or study DOI. Please also provide a link to the full text, or attach it to the email.

There may be instances in which you submit a publication for inclusion in the Bibliography, but it did not analyze study data. Instead, the publication may have mentioned a study in passing. Or, the publications may have informed the principal investigators while they designed the study. Such publications are not data-related for the purposes of the Bibliography and would not have been added to our database.

Contact us at icpsrbibliography@umich.edu.