Dynamics of Collective Action, United States, 1960-1995 (ICPSR 39728)
Version Date: Jun 16, 2026 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Susan Olzak, Stanford University;
John D. McCarthy, Pennsylvania State University;
Sarah A. Soule, Stanford University;
Doug McAdam, Stanford University
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39728.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The Dynamics of Collective Action initiative provides access to event data regarding protest activities in the United States, spanning 1960 to 1995. It includes information on all collective actions reported in the New York Times. The dataset was coded from daily newspaper accounts and contains information on the initiating groups, number of participants, activities of protesters, location, dates, claims of protesters, and targets of collective action.
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
Neighborhood
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
- For additional information on this study, please visit the Stanford University Collective Action website.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of this study is to establish metadata on media reports about American collective action by The New York Times across 35 years.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Protest events reported and published by The New York Times.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Public sources from The New York Times
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Variables in the data include article titles, who appeared at the demonstrations, what kind of demonstrations or collective action was achieved, what reasons collective action was done, whether were police involved, and whether violence was reported at a demonstration.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2026-06-16
Version History View help for Version History
2026-06-16 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?