Subject and Course Guides: Public Policy Research: Policy Related Data

Congressional Research Service

CRS Reports from Congress
These documents were prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
Every CRS Report
We’re publishing reports by Congress’s think tank, the Congressional Research Service, which provides valuable insight and non-partisan analysis of issues of public debate. These reports are already available to the well-connected — we’re making them available to everyone for free.
Open Congressional Research Service
Congressional Research Service is a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events.

UIC Data Sources

UIC provides access to several excellent sources for finding data, some of these are related to specific studies, some are regular research processes.

ICPSR : Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research
Archives of social science data for research and instruction.
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), established in 1962, maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use.
SimplyAnalytics
A web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application with 100,000+ data variables, including demographic data from the US Census dating back to 1980, the American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), and D&B's Points-of-Interest business directory providing access to over 5 million US business profiles. Additionally, users have access to the MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset, which includes data on over 8,000 brands, 450 categories and detailed lifestyle data, the PRIZM Premier marketing segmentation system, and the Community Lifestages dataset. The CDC PLACES health data delivered by SimplyAnalytics provides 27 diverse health measures, including Health Outcomes, Prevention, Health Risk Behaviors, and Health Status. Data is largely available down to the block group level, and custom locations can be created.

To save your searches, you need to sign up for an account using your UIC email address.

Access restricted to 5 concurrent users.
PolicyMap
PolicyMap is an data and mapping tool for accessing data about communities across the U.S. to make better-informed decisions without any prior experience.
Social Explorer
Social Explorer provides access to current and historical census data and demographic information. Create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change.

Note: Social Explorer has developed a new libguide. To see the new libguide, you can go this link here
Key content in Social Explorer includes: over 40 billion data elements, 200,000 variables; 18,000 interactive maps; the entire US Census from 1790 to the present as it is available; annual updates from the American Community Survey; InfoGroup data on religious congregations; Religious Congregations and Membership Study; and Carbon Emissions Data. Users can create custom maps, download data, and export, save, and print maps and reports.
Statista
Find statistics, consumer survey results and industry studies from over 22500 sources on over 60000 topics on the internet's leading statistics database.
If you have problems accessing Statista, clear your browser's cache and cookies, then restart your browser.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
Provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, Roper iPoll is the largest collection of public opinion poll data with results from 1935 to the present. Roper iPoll contains nearly 800,000 questions and over 23,000 datasets from both U.S. and international polling firms. Surveys cover any number of topics including, social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, science, the environment, and much more. When available, results charts, demographic crosstabs and full datasets are provided for immediate download.
The Roper Center is the world's largest archives of public opinion information. UIC users have access to the full datasets required to conduct bivariate and multivariate analyses on archived surveys using RoperExpress. The databank itself, iPOLL, is a comprehensive database of 500,000 questions and answers asked in the US since 1935.
Data Axle Reference Solutions
Formerly known as ReferenceUSA, this database offers instant, real-time access to in-depth information on millions of U.S businesses and consumers. Find jobs and business opportunities, locate companies nationwide, research business executives, view historical market trends, track down contact information, and discover news articles for research.
iPOLL
Datasets of opinion polls conducted in the U.S. from 1935 to the present. See also Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
iPOLL is a comprehensive database of 500,000 questions and answers asked in opinion polls in the US since 1935. For US data, iPOLL permits you to locate questions (and the answers of the full sample) and then to link to the data files and run secondary analysis. Support for these services is available from the Roper Center.

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Public Policy Research

Congressional Research Service

UIC Data Sources

Richard J. Daley Library

Library of the Health Sciences, Chicago

Library of the Health Sciences, Peoria

Crawford Library of the Health Sciences, Rockford

UIC Law Library