Social Science Variables Database

Search tips:

  • Enter words or strings that are likely to appear in a variable name, label, question, and value labels:
    Presidential election will return variables dealing with all presidential elections
    Presidential election Obama will return only variables dealing with the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections
  • Use quotes to search for specific phrases: "life satisfaction" "minority rights" "community programs"
  • The minus sign may be used to remove certain types of results:“Presidential debate” -“Bill Clinton” will eliminate the debates from 1992 and 1996 in which Clinton participated.
  • A Boolean “and” is implied in the search.
  • The search automatically does stemming (more info); there’s no need to type in an asterisk. It’s also case-insensitive.

The SSVD allows for the identification and comparison of variables (e.g. questions, fields, items) across studies. Searches return variables for which the search term is present in the variable name or label, question text (when present), and value labels. Each entry contains a link back to the study from which the variable is drawn. 

Not all of the studies in ICPSR’s catalog include variable-level documentation, and, in some cases, words are abbreviated such that they won’t show up as a match to the search term. For a more comprehensive search, use the main data search, which indexes all of the documentation available for our studies, including variable descriptions. 

Comparing Variables

Select checkboxes, and then select “Compare” from the Actions button. This will take you to a screen where you can compare the details of the variables you chose.

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The SSVD builds on a pilot project funded by the National Science Foundation. It demonstrates the benefits of using structured variable-level documentation in XML, tagged according to the Data Documentation Initiative standard.