Data Services

Staff can assist affiliated faculty and student researchers with: 

• Locating public data
• Data collection 
• Data management
• Data documentation
• Data visualization
• Data dissemination

Locating Public Data

IPSR staff have extensive experience with federal and state data sources. We can help you find and use data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and many other sources.

Tools

• Qualtrics is an online survey platform 
• Tabula is a free tool to liberate data from PDFs

Data Management

We have expertise with complex data management tasks such as data integration, data transformation, data aggregation and reading complex or unstructured data.

Data Management Plan Templates 

• DMPTool
• University of Virginia Data Management

Online Learning Modules 

• Basic Principles of Naming Files – Part 1
• Basic Principles of Naming Files – Part 2 
• Basic Principles of Naming Files – Part 3
• Basic Principles of Organizing Directories – Part 1 
• Basic Principles of Organizing Directories – Part 2
• Basic Principles of Organizing Directories – Part 3

Data Documentation

We offer consultation on best data documentation practices. IPSR staff have working knowledge of social science metadata standards. We can help researchers capture and structure data documentation during the research process.

Tools

• Colectica is a robust tool to design, document, and public data in open data standards. 
• Colectica for Excel is a free plugin to document variable and code lists during data creation or reuse. 

Data Visualization 

Do you need maps or graphs for your research publication? IPSR can make your graphs look professional. IPSR staff can also use GIS to spatially represent your data.

Tools 

• RAWGraphs is a free, web-based visualization package 
• Tableau is desktop data visualization software
• The Data Visualization Catalog
• The Data Viz Project
• The R Graph Gallery
• Selecting the Right Data Visualization
• From Data to Viz

We also have guidance and templates available for proposal development as part of our project support. 

Data Dissemination

IPSR can assist with depositing research publications and data in KU ScholarWorks. Staff can also advise on other resources for archiving research data.

Social Science Data Repositories

• KU ScholarWorks is offered at no cost to faculty, staff, and students, and offers guided self-curation. 
• ICPSR at the University of Michigan accepts data through an application process. There's no cost to KU-affiliated researchers. Curation is available.
• openICPSR is offered at no cost, with curation.
• The Qualitative Data Repository at Syracuse University offers resources on qualitative data and accepts data deposits, with a fee to cover curation expenses.

You can find more information about data sharing requirements for different federal agencies through SPARC*.