October, 2011 Volume 21, Issue 3 Newsletter Welcome Data Sources Archives	Data Sources
	Institution for Social and Policy Studies The Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) was established in 1968 by the Yale Corporation as an interdisciplinary center at the university to facilitate research in the social sciences and public policy arenas. The ISPS Data Archive is a digital repository for research produced by scholars affiliated with ISPS, with special focus on experimental design and methods. It launched in September 2010 and continues to grow. Each study in the ISPS Data Archive includes data, metadata, statistical code, codebooks, research materials, and description files. In 2001, ISPS announced the Experimental Initiative, designed to encourage field experimentation in the social sciences at Yale. The term ‘field experiment’ refers to fully randomized research designs in which observations found in a naturalistic setting - voters, patients, welfare recipients, community organizations, government entities, and the like - are assigned to treatment and control conditions. Recent examples of this kind of research at ISPS include randomized studies of voter mobilization, peer counseling of homeless people, campaign activities in Africa, and the persuasiveness of televised campaign advertisements. Many researchers affiliated with ISPS incorporate field or other experiments (i.e., survey, natural, lab) in their research design. These studies produce original, often “small” data with high value for a growing community of researchers, educators, policy makers, and students. Metadata documentation is created at the study level, the file level, and the variable level, and is Dublin Core- and DDI-compliant. The files are organized by published article, and as such they are linked to the Project and Publication content for the same study via the ISPS website. The ISPS Data Archive is guided by four inter-related principles: Replication - the ISPS Data Archive provides the raw data, metadata, and the statistical code that produced the original results, all of which are necessary for replication of experimental results. This includes converting files to readable formats and open-source programs (e.g., text, ASCII, R). Integration - datasets are directly linked to publications and projects, offering users a single-point of access to research materials from the ISPS website. Open access - the ISPS Data Archive strives to provide free and public access to research materials in line with open access principles, and content is distributed under a Creative Commons license. Stewardship - the goal of the ISPS Data Archive is to preserve and provide ongoing persistent access to research materials. See more information about the ISPS Data Archive at http://isps.research.yale.edu/login/isps-data-archive/ Limor Peer, PhD Associate Director for Research Yale University July 2011